Plato's "The Symposium" Paperback

Set in the year 416 BCE, The Symposium is a Socratic Dialogue exploring a series of impromptu speeches given by a group of Athenian men at a banquet. During this banquet, praises are given to Eros, Greek God of love. 

The men at the banquet include:

• Phaedrus: an ancient Athenian aristocrat associated with the inner-circle of Socrates,

• Pausanias: an ancient Athenian from the city-state Kerameis, and lover of Agathon, 

• Eryximachus: an ancient Athenian physician who was indicted during a conflict of the Peloponnesian War, 

• Aristophanes: an ancient Athenian comic playwright often referred to as “The Father of Comedy”,

• Agathon: an Athenian tragic poet who is portrayed by Plato as a ‘handsome man with polished manners’,

• Socrates: an ancient Greek philosopher from Classical Athens, known only through the posthumous accounts of other writers, 

• Alcibiades:  an Athenian statesman and general who played a major role in the Peloponnesian War.