In reading Horace's Satires and Epistles and Plato The Symposium, a very ironic discovery can be made. ... He does not put himself on a heavenly level, like Diotima in Plato's Symposium, but guarantees his readers that although he has knowledge of how to live a satisfying life and can administer advice on it; he too struggles against his damning nature. Plato's Symposium is a collection of speeches, made by a group of social degenerates about love. The first few speeches were fairly vague and uninteresting. ... Previously Socrates had been questioning Agathon about his spee...

• Word Count: 1606
• Approx Pages: 6
• Grade Level: High School

(Symposium, 37)" Love inspires people to do great things, and is the greatest source of pleasure there is. ... The people in Plato's Symposium are truly great and wise men. ... (Symposium, 20)" The moral value of this sentence is questionable. ... Agathon's speech is masterful. ... His speech is, again, not so much a speech as a dialog between himself and Diotima, a woman he claims taught him the art of love. ...

• Word Count: 1657
• Approx Pages: 7
• Grade Level: High School

In this paper I will discuss Aristophanes" speech on love found in Plato's Symposium. I will summarize his speech and explain the characteristics of love as Aristophanes thinks of it. ... Aristophanes" speech begins by explaining the nature of man and what has become of it. ... He does however touch on a very significant point that none of the other speakers in the Symposium have touched on. ... The other problem that surfaces in Aristophanes speech pertains to his notion that our soul yarns for a unification with its other counterpart. ...

• Word Count: 1564
• Approx Pages: 6
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate