The Symposium (Penguin Classics)

I like it

The media could not be loaded. Wild read. Didn’t expect to enjoy it this much—Plato really knew how to stir up a dinner party

its NOT a good story. plato goes on and on about how heterosexuality is not as good as male homosexuality and ONLY men on men can experience love as its meant to be, (thus insinuating that lesbians are probably the worst off), and further it seems that PEDO love is not only acceptable, but the right way to bring young men up. there were some interesting approaches to the topic of love, the style of discussion was engaging, and the character socrates brings an thought provoking views, but its hard to look past pedo love and the near mocking of heterosexuality as if its for simpletons.that being said, the book was in great condition, and the published version and delivery were excellent. one star was knocked because plato is lauded for bringing philosophical genius to our culture, but i didnt like the book at all, and despite finishing the short read, got nothing intellectual out of it other than an understanding of ancient greek pompous...but not anyone's fault but plato's.

The dialogue is compelling and interesting with plenty of contrasting opinions. Love may make the world go round but it has a strange down side, would you not agree?

5 out of 5 stars!If you like ancient philosophy, then you will love this book. As most of his Socratic dialogues go; Plato, through the lens of Socrates and his interlocutors, examines the nature of love and beauty. It was unlike anything I’ve ever read from Plato before. I found the levels of perspective to be extremely interesting—if you keep that in mind while going through this, it makes for a very interesting read.The idea of “a ladder”, seems to present itself if more than one way.

It talks about where the sexes are from. In a creation emblem kind of way. It does not talk about the navel (belly button) in any way shape or form. Which is what Demi Moore talked about in the Butcher's Wife. And I was told it was Plato.

A great little book. It's a great translation and there's a lot of supplemental material here to help the reader understand the text a bit more, which is always helpful. Although as another reviewer noted, it can be hard to tell just who is speaking at any given moment. But that seems to be a common trend with all translations of Plato. All in all it's a great edition to own and great material to read.

I can hardly offer a crit of Plato: that would be hubris. The Symposium's words are perfectly clear and therefor this seems to be a good translation. I liked the illustrations but was surprised that more ancient pictures were not used, e.g from Pompeii's murals, as depictions of (a) the different forms of love and (b) the style of classical feasting. Also I thought the introductory section didn't add much value as it seemed to be more of a rehash of Plato's own words without much explanation or giving contemporary context to the concepts of love, nor of how long these concepts have been in philosophical fashion and their influence on philosophers down the ages. And it seems to me to be clear that the love between mentor and mentored boy is not intended to include erotic love, but that no great fuss is made if it occurs, which is more than can be said for many of the intervening generations' and our own approach.