# The Symposium

Canonical: https://www.bookquiver.com/platone/the-symposium/9780140449273

JSON version (same data): https://www.bookquiver.com/platone/the-symposium/9780140449273.json

![The Symposium](https://quivercdn.com/covers/penguin-classics/plato/the-symposium_978-01-4044-927-3.jpg?v=2026-04-23%2006%3A12%3A10)

- Book: [The Symposium](https://www.bookquiver.com/platone/the-symposium) ([The Symposium.md](https://www.bookquiver.com/platone/the-symposium.md))
- Authors: [Platone](https://www.bookquiver.com/platone)
- Publisher: penguin_classics
- ISBN: 978-01-4044-927-3
- Pages: 144
- Published: 2003-02-27
- Language: en_GB
- Binding: Softcover

## Description

In the course of a lively drinking party, a group of Athenian intellectuals exchange views on eros, or desire. From their conversation emerge a series of subtle reflections on gender roles, sex in society and the sublimation of basic human instincts. The discussion culminates in a radical challenge to conventional views by Plato's mentor, Socrates, who advocates transcendence through spiritual love. The Symposium is a deft interweaving of different viewpoints and ideas about the nature of love - as a response to beauty, a cosmic force, a motive for social action and as a means of ethical education.