Symposium

This ancient dialogue is set at an Athenian drinking party after a tragic victory. Each guest - among them Phaedrus, Pausanias, Aristophanes, Agathon, and Socrates - gives a speech on the nature of Eros. The comic poet tells a myth of split human beings seeking their other halves; Socrates reports the teaching of Diotima on ascent from one beautiful body to Beauty itself. Alcibiades arrives late and praises Socrates rather than love. The work is a philosophical banquet in reported conversation, not a treatise in the author's own voice and not a play.

Quarter-bound in purple cloth with paper sides, printed in colour with a design by Linda Baker-Smith. Purple slipcase.