![]() ![]() ![]() The last speakers are Agathon and Socrates. I don’t know whether it is to this story that we owe the popular idea of a soulmate, or whether Plato was drawing on already existing ideas, but it’s certainly a vivid story (and interesting that the unions explicitly include male-male and female-female, as well as male-female). A number of fanciful speeches are given, the most interesting of which is that by Aristophanes, which suggests that ancient humans had two heads, eight limbs, and two sets of genitals Zeus cut these ancient humans in half, but with luck we sometimes find our other half and become whole again. Those present agree to have a competition in which each will give a speech praising the god Eros (love). It features Socrates attending a symposium (banquet with feasting and drinking) to honour the poet Agathon. ![]() The Symposium is the longer of the two works here. The Symposium (occasionally translated as ‘The Banquet’) This inexpensive collection includes two of his middle period dialogues concerning themes of love and beauty. Anyone who knows anything about Philosophy will surely have heard of Plato. ![]()
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