Plato, the symposium essays

Plato, the symposium essays Plato, the Symposium was written about a gathering in 416cBC . It begins with two gentlemen walking on a road, and one of them wants to hear the speeches delivered at Agathons party. However, the story of the two men ends at the beginning of the story, it is never mentioned again. The party begins with the gentlemen sitting down to eat. Once the meal is over, the gentlemen agree not to drink heavily that night. As each speech ends, another one begins. When they were finished, they all agree on who had the best speech. I will begin by using the class lecture to defend, or to develop the reading of Plato, The Symposium. I will discuss the way Athenians were addressed, the unimportant role of slaves in Athens through Phaedrus speech on honor and the rules of love between men, and also Alcibiades speech concerning Socrates. In the Symposium, two men were addressed by their demes. In the opening lines, Apollodrus is referred to as a Phalaria man. Aristodenus was announced as Aristodemus, of the deme Cydatheneam. This supports the lecture that Athenians were moving away from their kinship. In 416cBC at the time if this gathering, Athens had been divided into demes by Solon decades before. The people were ruling the government of Athens. As this government expanded, family rivalries developed. In an attempt to end the family rivalries, Solan uses a grid of the city to establish which deme a citizen was a member of. By discouraging kinship and moving away from the family identity, it became where you lived. This was a step closer to being identified to the land. In the Symposium, slaves are referred to very little. It is at the beginning of the meal when the slaves are spoken of, and at the end of the meal when the flute player was sent away. She is not mentioned again until she helps Alciviades inside after he arrives intoxicated. This supports the topic that Greek aristocrats, such as the philoso...