Socrates’s Symposium Speech

Abstract

A preliminary overview of Socrates’s speech in the Symposium confirms many of the suggestions that we have made in the introduction and the previous two chapters. In the first place, Socrates again indicates that there is a connection between eros and religious belief. Eros is classified as one of the forms of divine madness in the Phaedrus (Phdr. 244a5–245c1), and its role is to spur the growth of the soul’s wings (Phdr. 251bff.), which, in turn, carry the soul to the gods (Phdr. 246d6–7). In his Symposium speech, Socrates replaces divine madness with the demonic realm: eros is defined as a daimon (202d13, 203a7–8),¹ and the function of daimones is to facilitate all interaction between gods and human beings (202e2ff.); it is through daimones that the whole art of the priests, prophecy, and sorcery take place, as well as all communication from gods to human beings (202e7–203a3).