Session 35 Notes

Symposium, Alcibiades’ speech

1. A competition between Socrates and Agathon
   1. Recalling Agathon’s and Socrates’ speeches
   2. Alcibiades as judge
      “The whole assembly praised his discourse, and Aristophanes was on the point of making some remarks on the allusion made by Socrates to him in a part of his discourse, when suddenly they heard a loud knocking at the door of the vestibule, and a clamour as of revellers, attended by a flute-player. — “Go, boys,” said Agathon, “and see who is there: if they are any of our friends, call them in; if not, say that we have already done drinking.” — A minute afterwards, they heard the voice of Alcibiades in the vestibule excessively drunk and roaring out: — “Where is Agathon? Lead me to Agathon!” — The flute-player, and some of his companions, then led him in, and placed him against the door-post, crowned with a thick crown of ivy and violets, and having a quantity of fillets on his head. — “My friends,” he cried out, “hail! I am excessively drunk already, but I'll drink with you, if you will. If not, we will go away after having crowned Agathon, for which purpose I came. I assure you that I could not come yesterday, but I am now here with these fillets round my temples, that from my own head I may crown his head who, with your leave, is the most beautiful and wisest of men. Are you laughing at me because I am drunk? Aye, I know what I say is true, whether you laugh or not. But tell me at once, whether I shall come in, or no. Will you drink with me?” ( The Symposium of Plato: The Shelley Translation, tr. Percy Bysshe Shelley, ed. David O’Connor, South Bend, IN: St. Augustine’s Press, 2002: 212c-213a)
   3. 
      “When he sat down, he embraced Agathon and crowned him; and Agathon desired the slaves to untie his sandals, that he might make a third, and recline on the same couch. “By all means,” said Alcibiades, “but what third companion have we here?” And at the same time turning round and seeing Socrates, he leaped up and cried out — “O Hercules! what have we here? You, Socrates, lying in ambush for me wherever I go! and meeting me just as you always do, when I least expected to see you! And, now, what are you come here for? Why have you chosen to recline exactly in this place, and not near Aristophanes, or any one else who is, or wishes to be ridiculous, but have contrived to lie down beside the most beautiful person of the whole party?” (Symposium 213b-213c)
   4. Engraving by Pietro Testa
2. Eros and Aspiration
   1. Alcibiades’ knowledge of Socrates: something divine inside him
   2. Alcibiades experiences shame
   3. Love opens ourselves to our own limitations