Eros and Paideia in Xenophon’s Symposium: Is a Comparison with Plato’s Symposium Possible?

Abstract

XENOPHON, whom Diogenes Laertius included among the philosophers, composed a series of writings in which he followed Socratic tradition, whose preserved texts include, besides our author and some extant fragments, the works of Plato, Aristotle and the references of Aristophanes. This explains the coincidence of titles with Plato’s Apology and Symposium. However, this does not imply some direct dependence. On the contrary, a study of the treatment of eros in Xenophon’s Symposium reveals the originality of this author who, as in the rest of his works, is inspired by the pedagogic ideal represented by Socrates’ figure and summarized in the search for human excellence, the arete of the man kalos kagathos. Definitely, Xenophon and Plato made use of the same literary context –symposium and dialogue– that explains the coincidences between the two works, but their goal was different: while Plato elaborates the theory of Ideas, the Athenian historian formulates the principles of the Socratic paideia.