Symposium Characters PDF

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Character summary of the Symposium...

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Philosophy of the Person

Characters of the Symposium Apollodorus (the speaker of the dialogue): the dialogue is “framed” in that the whole story, including all of the speeches, are actually spoken by Apollodorus, who tells the story to a friend of his, who at the start accuses him of always criticizing everyone except Socrates. An unnamed Friend (the one who hears the story, which Apollodorus heard from Aristodemus, a disciple of Socrates) Agathon, the host of the party, is a tragic poet. One of his plays has just won a great award. He gives a speech in which Love is described as possessing every perfection. His name means ‘Good man.’ He is the beloved (eromenos) of Pausanias, which is somewhat unusual given Agathon’s age. Phaedrus is a young, very good-looking aristocratic man. His name means ‘shiny.’ He gives a speech about Love as inspiring courage and great deeds in lovers. He is the beloved of Eryximachus. He appears in several Platonic dialogues and seems to have been a real associate of Socrates. He was later indicted along with several others for profaning the Eleusinian mysteries (religious rites connected to the cult of Demeter and Persephone) and escaped from Athens. Pausanias is the lover (erastes) of Agathon. They are unusual in that Agathon is older than a beloved normally is, and in that their relationship is longer lasting than was customary. Pausanias gives a speech proposing that love affairs should be regulated by law. He is also the first person in the dialogue to introduce a distinction between good and bad kinds of love. He seems to be a historical figure, but little is known of him. Eryximachus is a physician. He gives a speech that treats Love as a physical or quasiphysical phenomenon, subject to the medical art. He is the lover of Phaedrus, and was also apparently indicted in connection with the profanation of the Eleusinian mysteries. Aristophanes is a comic playwright. He is mentioned in the Apology for his play The Clouds, which mocks Socrates. Here, apparently on better terms with Socrates, he tells a myth about the origins of Love in a primordial conflict with the gods. He comes to the party alone. Socrates Diotima is a female character to whom Socrates attributes the ideas he talks about in his speech. He says that she was a priestess. There is no evidence that she was a historical person, and there has been considerable controversy about whether or not we are to think that Socrates is inventing her, and if so why he would do that.

Alcibiades comes late to the party and gives a speech about Socrates rather than about Love. He is a brilliant and very powerful man in Athens. He is known for his good looks, his rhetorical brilliance, and his magnificent and dissolute living. By the time the Symposium is written (and thus in the minds of the original audience of the dialogue), Alcibiades is a notorious and highly controversial figure: he was accused of being the ringleader in the case of the Eleusinian mysteries and of desecrating religious statues, although these accusations may have been unfair. In any case, he defected to Sparta, which Athens was fighting in the Peloponnesian War. Thus, the audience knows a lot about Alcibiades that the characters in the dialogue do not. For example, they know that the association between Alcibiades and Socrates played a significant role in the later accusation that Socrates corrupted the youth, an accusation which saw him executed. It is likely, therefore, that Plato wishes to make some sort of statement about the nature of their relationship....