Symposium

Here Plato recounted a drinking party held to celebrate the poet Agathon's victory in a tragic competition. Instead of drinking heavily, the guests take turns giving speeches in praise of Eros, the god of love. Aristophanes tells a comic myth of humans split in half and searching for their other halves. Socrates relays the teaching of the priestess Diotima, who describes an ascent from love of one body to love of beauty itself.

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Steve Jobs: “I started to listen to music a whole lot, and I started to read more outside of just science and technology — Shakespeare, Plato. I loved King Lear.”