Secondary sourceBooklate 360s BCE
Symposium
Xenophon · late 360s BCE
Xenophon's account of a dinner party where Socrates jokes about his looks and marriage, offering a lighter view of him than Plato's.
Socrates is the central guest at this dinner party, shown joking about his appearance and marriage.
About this source
What it is
This is a Socratic dialogue written by Xenophon in the late 360s BCE, set at a dinner party, or symposium, hosted by the wealthy Athenian Kallias. Socrates and several companions, including Antisthenes, Kritoboulos, and others, attend and discuss what each guest is most proud of.
Why it matters
Unlike Plato's serious dialogues, Xenophon shows Socrates in a playful mood, joking about his own ugly face and his marriage to Xanthippe. This gives historians a different, more humorous portrait of Socrates to compare with Plato's. Some guests mentioned, like Lykon, later played roles in Socrates' prosecution, and others were killed by the Thirty Tyrants, linking the dinner party to the turbulent politics of Athens.
Look closer
- Why might Xenophon have wanted to show Socrates joking rather than being serious?
- What does it tell us that some guests at this dinner later turned against each other politically?
- How does this playful portrait compare with the Socrates found in Plato's writings?
This book is part of the curated material that grounds the AI version of Socrates on Humy.ai — when students ask about related events, the AI can quote it and cite it.
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