Symposium: Alcibiades Speech
...tes’ while Dionysus was to be the judge (1765e). “Greetings, Gentleman, Will you let someone who’s drunk-very drunk, actually-join your party? If not we’ll just put a chaplet on Agathon, which is why we came, and then we’ll be on our way” (212e). The chaplet was a wreath of violets, ribbons, and ivy that Alcibiades wore as a gift to Agathon in congratulations of his victory. “I’ve got these ribbons on my head so that I can take them off my head and put them on the cleverest and most attractive man in the world, he said” (212e). Here his suggestions towards Agathon are self-explanatory. As Alcibiades makes his way, after Agathon calls on him to come to his couch, parts of the ribbon fall over his eyes and impair his sight. However, on the couch next to Agathon is Socrates, who is forced to move as the blinded Alcibiades staggers over. As soon as he was able to focus in on the third party of his couch, Alcibiades melodramatically gasps in shock to realize it was Socrates himself. “God what’s this? Socrates? You’ve been lurking there waiting for me…your always suddenly popping up where I least expect to find you. What are you doing here this time? And why here, on this couch...you found a way to share a couch with the handsomest man at the party” (213c). Thereafter, Socrates pleads to Agathon to protect him from the jealous and angry Alcibiades; “…please protect me from him, because he gets insanely attached to his lovers, and it terrifies me” (213d). The dispute ends, and Alcibiades asks Agathon if he would give back some of the ribbons from his chaplet so that he could make one for Socrates as well. I believe that by doing such a thing, especially in a society that values beauty and idealizes youth, noting Socrates was polar opposite of beauty and youthfulness, Alcibiades is suggesting that Socrates was still glorious and desirable enough to steal the limelight of the immaculate host, Agathon. Alcibiades believed, much like Diotima, that inner beauty and wisdom is worth more praise than physical beauty, which fades much more quickly than inner beauty (pp. 53-55). Also, remember that Agathon suggested a contest between himself and Socrates’ wisdom earlier in the symposium, with Dionysus being the judge; Socrates won that contest and the ‘contest’ on the couch too, that Alcibiades, whom strongly resembles Dionysus, judged. After a few moments, Alcibiades suggests that the men engage in heavier drinking, also a characteristic Dionysus had given that he was the god of wine. However, recall that early into the celebration Pausnias suggested that everyone take a slight break from their drinking habits; everyone agreed (176b). “You look sober to me, and that’s not allowed, you have to drink, becaus...