How to Talk About Love

Explore the nature of love in this charming new translation of selections from Plato's great dramatic work, the Symposium

What is love? In poetry, songs, fiction, movies, psychology, and philosophy, love has been described, admired, lamented, and dissected in endless ways. Is love based on physical attraction? Does it bring out our better selves? How does it relate to sex? Is love divine? Plato's Symposium is one of the oldest, most influential, and most profound explorations of such questions-it is even the source of the idea of "Platonic love." How to Talk about Love introduces and presents the key passages and central ideas of Plato's philosophical dialogue in a lively and highly readable new translation, which also features the original Greek on facing pages.

The Symposium is set at a fictional drinking party during which prominent Athenians engage in a friendly competition by delivering improvised speeches in praise of Eros, the Greek god of love and sex. The aristocrat Phaedrus, the legal expert Pausanias, the physician Eryximachus, the comic playwright Aristophanes, and the tragic poet Agathon-each by turn celebrates different aspects of love before Socrates proposes not to praise love but to tell the truth about it. In the final speech, the politician and libertine Alcibiades argues that Socrates himself is the epitome of love.

Deftly capturing the essence and spirit of Plato's masterpiece, How to Talk about Love makes the Symposium more accessible and enjoyable than ever before. Armand D'Angour is professor of classics at Jesus College, University of Oxford. He is the editor and translator of How to Innovate: An Ancient Guide to Creative Thinking (Princeton), Socrates in Love, and The Greeks and the New. "In How to Talk about Love, D'Angour presents a marvelous translation of Plato's classic text. He faithfully conveys the tone and content of the work, as well as the personalities of the various speakers, and renders nearly impossible passages into a lively, accessible style."-Susan Sauvé Meyer, editor and translator of How to Flourish: An Ancient Guide to Living Well "With modern romance on its last legs, D'Angour revisits Plato's Symposium, mining the philosopher's masterwork for timeless, indispensable insights into love, sex, and attraction." "Immensely readable. . . the nuances of the different characters' tones are beautifully captured. . .This book distills the essence of Plato and is a delight for those both familiar with the material and those who are not."---Philip Womack, The Spectator "How to Talk About Love is a good rendering of the Symposium and a worthy addition to Princeton's series of Ancient Wisdom for Modern Readers. D'Angour acts as a careful, knowledgeable guide whose aim is to communicate clearly the text and some of the longstanding questions and theories attached to it."---John Moss, Times Literary Supplement