Symposium: The Benjamin Jowett TranslationOne of the most famous works of literature in the Western world, Plato's Symposium is also one of the most entertaining. The scene is a dinner party in Athens in 416 B.C. at which the guests - including the comic poet Aristophanes and Plato's mentor, Socrates - playfully discuss the nature of eros, or love. By turns earthly and sublime, the dialogue culminates with Socrates's famous account of the "ladder of love", an extended analysis of the many forms of eros. The evening ends with a speech by the drunken Alcibiades, the most popular and powerful Athenian of the day, who insists on praising Socrates rather than love, offering up a brilliant character sketch of the enigmatic philosopher. This Modern Library edition is the authoritative translation by Benjamin Jowett, substantially revised by Dr. Hayden Pelliccia, associate professor of classics at Cornell University. This revised translation takes into account advances in scholarship since Jowett's day and modernizes the Victorian English where it is coy or archaic. The result is a translation neither too colloquial nor too literal, one that is faithful to both Jowett's superb prose and Plato's matchless original. |
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Common terms and phrases
Achilles Agathon Alcestis Alcibiades amazed Aphrodite APOLLODORUS Aristodemus Aristophanes Athenian Athens beautiful beget begin beloved birth body boys called companions conversation crown desire Diotima disgraceful dishonorable divine drink earth Eryximachus Euripides everlasting evil father feast friends give Glaucon goddess gods Gorgias gratify Greek happy harmony hear heavenly Hesiod hiccoughs Hipparchus Homer homosexuality honor ignorance Iliad imagine immortal Jowett Lacedaemon lack male mankind manner Marsyas matters mean Melanippe mortal mother nature never noble numbers offspring once Parmenides Patroclus Pausanias pederasty person Phaedrus philosopher Plato poets possess Potidaea praise Love praise of Love proverb pursuit replied sacrifices satyr sexual Silenus slave Socrates someone sort soul speak speakers speech spoken Symposium tale talk tell temperance tender things thought tiful tion told translation true truth turn ugly virtue Wherefore wisdom wisdom's lovers wise wonder words young youth Zeus