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Title: The Symposium (Penguin Classics)
ISBN: 0140449272
Author:
Plato
Publicate Date: 2003-04-29
Publish: 2003-04-29
List Price: $9.00
Average Customer Rating: 4.5
Format: Paperback
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Amazon Lowest New Price: $4.42
Amazon Lowest Used Price: $0.38
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1: Fascinating ancient treatise on the nature of Love
I've read quite a few pieces of ancient Roman & Greek literature and each time I come away greatly surprised at how these 2000 to 3000-year old cultures were so similar to ours in many ways. Well, Plato's somewhat short dialogue "The Symposium" both re-affirms and counters these past impressions.
"The Symposium" investigates the nature of romantic Love. What is it? From where does it arise? What is the aim of Love? What does it accomplish?
On the one hand, this dialogue asks questions that people today still can't really answer. Modern readers should be able to relate very well to these aspects of the dialogue. It should be noted that most of the viewpoints and opinions presented through several speeches in the dialogue make some sort of sense, but only when Love is thought of as a sentient being that can influence a person's thoughts and actions. Most of us today have been schooled in science and don't perceive Love as a separate entity but rather as a mental condition springing from somewhere in the brain. But overall, the speeches are easy to relate to in the sense of scrutinizing the fundamental nature of Love.
However, where "The Symposium" evinces stark differences with modern culture is with respect to homo-eroticism. So many references are made to homosexuality (including one embarassingly revealing anecdote by Alcibiades about his lover Socrates) that if we consider Plato's work to be representative of the time, then we have to believe that many, if not most, highly educated men in ancient Athens were essentially homosexuals whose relations with their wives were limited to providing for them and fathering children by them. The most convincing support for this is in Aristophanes' and Alcibiades' speeches.
The Penguin edition consists of a superb translation by Christopher Gill. The finale to Agathon's eulogy on Love immediately struck me as remarkable and incredibly well worded, so much so that I had to read it again to admire the use of language. And then imagine my astonishment when a couple paragraphs later Socrates says about Agathon's speech: "The rest was not quite so amazing, but who could fail to be struck by the beauty of language and phrasing at the end?" Clearly, Gill nailed the translation of that passage, and I believe in general too.
A must read for fans of classics! It's short too, well under 100 pages.
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2: Great Book, Less than Great Edition
"The Symposium" is one of those books that everyone should read. In it, Plato explores, through a series of speeches, the nature and origins of love and passion. However, the Penguin edition fails to clearly distinguish when one speech begins and one ends. It will be confusing for students studying this work to reference a certain speech; however, the "paragraph markers" in the text are helpful. Also, the text incorporates "end notes," but for lay readers of Greek Literature, footnotes may be more useful.
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3: The Conversation
We all like to chat about romance around a dinner table but what is romance and love all about? Well, Symposium is one of the most serious discussions about this issue datable to the 5th century BCE. At that time, Greeks at dinner parties used to sprawl themselves on couches with food and wine and a little music, be ministered by slaves and while eating or after have a spirited conversation/discussion. Well this "soire" takes place with Socrates, and its details are related second hand by the author Plato.
As translations go, this particular issue is one of the best on the market and the author had discussed it's details with a Kabbalist teacher of mine Glynn Davies. A translation is dependent to a greater or lesser extent on the author's appreciation and interpretation of the sorts of contents involved - and this translation is pretty current. There is a good introduction about the characters, especially Alcibiades and Xenophon who were real people from the time.
I think this book is a wonderful evocation of deep thinking from the Greek world starting with sensual love and then going on to describe a sort of spiritual love that subverts our expectations of what we would understand by Love personified as a deity. Socrates is in the beginning seen to enter into a meditational reverie which probably indicates that some such sages did meditate as in Indian traditions in order to obtain wisdom. Later, Socrates recounts the wisdom transmitted by an Oracle called Diotima (almost as if to say, "this is not what I think (though it is actually) but it was conveyed to me as follows by this trustworthy source".
Some of your friends should appreciate the wisdom of this book. Above all, it is The Symposium, the important conversation among friends at dinner talking about something of the sublime in a way that echoes but also seriously deepens the level of our own more mundane discussions on romance and true love that crop up regularly if you're at that sort of age.
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4: It's all in love
If there are few things that almost all species seems to discuss, it's love. that desire, the longing to connect with another human being in this chaotic world. although there have been many plights about the desire for love, lack of love, or the quest to get love, it all seems to tie back to one of the most popular (and i will guess earliest?) works on love published, Plato's symposium.
The plot, like all Greek works, is pretty simple. A couple of men get together, get drunk, and talk about praising Eeros, the god of erotic love. Some of the speeches (I can't really remember them) are in praise of a god, and other speak of how to respect Eros properly, whom to love, and how poeple came to love others. Some were dry, some were entertaining, but all were informative and made me think of love in a new light.
There's not much action in this play, but I think that is a trait of all Greek plays. Plato is more concerned about the philosophy and dialouge than the action behind it. Symposium i think inspired many of the dramas and romantic comedie currently out there. I just wish films about love were as smart and as intelligent as this one.
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5: Ups and downs
I was assigned this book for a college class. I read it a couple times, and overall I think it was a good read.This story details a night of speeches and eulogies on the ways of love. Some of the speeches are entertaining, and others are rather dry. Towards the end, I got the feeling that no one really knew anything about love. Gill's translation is up to par with the subject he writes of, and the language flows nicely. I guess the reason I gave it four stars is because there is not much excitement here. If you are the intellectual type who gets excited about dry recollections of speeches, then you will enjoy this and contemplate what has been said. But if you prefer something more interesting, then try something a little more modern and enjoy that.
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