Symposium. Plato

«Symposium» by Plato is a central work in world culture, interpreting love not only as a natural but also as a social and creative principle. Many customs of infatuation and romantic relationships, as well as ideas about the value of a creative personality, trace their roots back to the «Symposium». The vivid and striking images of Socrates' interlocutors, heightened drama, and the play of various poetic and prose styles make the «Symposium» an inexhaustible resource for the «romantic» style of thinking. In a sense, the «Symposium» is a project not just of a novel as a literary work, but of a novel as a social institution. The meaning of Plato's complexly structured dialogue is far from being reduced to the celebration of idealized love, as outdated translations and interpretations might inadvertently suggest. The text of the «Symposium» is provided in the translation by Professor Alexander Markov from the Russian State Humanitarian University, considering the latest philosophical and philological interpretations of Plato's central work.