The Symposium By Greek Symposium

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The Symposium is a book written by Greek Philosopher Plato, dated in c.385-380 b.c. Plato was a student of Socrates as well as a writer and scholar. Amongst many other things like mathematician and scientist Plato helped pave the way to western philosophy.
Composed for all who are curious of love and want to further their understandings of love. The symposium tells a story about what love truly is, and how love exactly works, along with the nature, purpose, and idea of love. The book is constructed by a sequence of speeches given by a variety of men who all play an important role at the symposium.
The symposium/drinking party is an elite male social gathering where men drank, ate together, discussed an array of topics ranging from love, sex, philosophy, and enjoyed each other in a vivacious environment. The symposium was the equidistant of traditional values, as well as an event that administered freedom in a regulated and controlled atmosphere, where the men could escape from the everyday life of a Greek man. This particular symposium was a special event to take place. This was the evening Agathon hosted the drinking party, due to his first victory at the theater contest of Dionysian (416 b.c) and the discussion of love was to take place.
The first speech given at the symposium was given by Phaedrus, a young man and a admirer of Socrates. In Phaedrus’s speech he discusses that gods and human think highly of love, as great and awesome for multiple reasons. He says love is a god much older than all the other gods and teaches us shame and pride depending on our everyday actions. He also suggests that the god of love is capable of guaranteeing our happiness in our life and next life.
Pausanias is second to speak, he is a l...

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...e Athenian men. The symposium not only embraces the philosophical standpoint of love, but with the variety of perspectives on love, it has been the stepping-stone to what we think of love today.
Overall, it is not clear exactly what exactly is going on in the discussion of the symposium. Are the men discussing human love, love as a word, or love as a whole? Regardless of why the symposium was written, and why the discussion of love took place, it paints a beautiful picture of the inside of symposiums. We are able to grasp a sense of the vibrant sexual attraction, and how all men look upon Socrates as the wisest of all. In the symposium Plato values an asexual existence and rejects the romance of sexual love. His belief is that the true virtue is the wisdom and passion for beauty and that the search for wisdom is the highest quality of all life pursuits.

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