From the book
Symposium
Plato · Diotimos Editions · 2026
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At a Glance
- The wordDrinking, drunkenness, and sobriety are distinct lexical and practical categories.
- In the SymposiumAfter the previous night’s excess, Pausanias asks for an easy way of drinking and Eryximachus supports moderation from his medical experience.
- In this editionThe translation differentiates “drink,” “drunk,” and “sober.”
- A place to readThe party agrees to voluntary drinking for pleasure; Socrates can manage either course.
Meaning
Drinking, drunkenness, and sobriety are distinct lexical and practical categories. The setting is a drinking party, but it initially regulates consumption so that conversation need not be subordinated to intoxication.
Use in the book
After the previous night’s excess, Pausanias asks for an easy way of drinking and Eryximachus supports moderation from his medical experience. The resulting agreement is not abstinence: each may drink for pleasure, as much as he wants, without compulsion. Socrates is expressly excepted from the comparison of strong and weak drinkers because he can manage either course.
Alcibiades reverses the arrangement. He enters already drunk, demands that the company drink with him, elects himself ruler of the drinking, and substitutes a wine-cooler for a cup. Even he concedes that making Socrates drink cannot make him drunk. His own intoxication becomes a reason both for frank disclosure and for excusing disorderly recollection, but not for surrendering every claim to truth. Socrates later teasingly calls him sober because his speech seems calculated to separate Socrates and Agathon. The observation about a concealed purpose need not mean that Alcibiades is physiologically sober.
The second arrival of revellers abolishes order altogether and compels excessive drinking. Socrates remains awake and conversing after the others tire, then conducts his ordinary day. Alcibiades’ praise presents this as freedom in both scarcity and abundance: Socrates can enjoy a feast without becoming its captive. It is not a general assurance that large quantities of alcohol are harmless.
Places to read
- 176a–e2The party agrees to voluntary drinking for pleasure; Socrates can manage either course.
- 212d–214c234Alcibiades imposes drinking and recognises his own disadvantage against sober speakers.
- 217eWine is invoked as a proverbial aid to truth-telling.
- 220aAlcibiades connects Socrates’ enjoyment with his resistance to intoxication.
- 222c–223d2Calculated speech, uncontrolled drinking, and Socrates’ continuing wakefulness conclude the contrast.
Translation in this edition
The translation differentiates “drink,” “drunk,” and “sober.” At 213e Burnet’s punctuation makes Agathon an addressee, not the person ordered to fetch the vessel. The claim that no one has seen Socrates drunk belongs to Alcibiades’ encomium; the closing narrative supplies a particular illustration.
μέθη (methē)
methē — Drunkenness, not the act of drinking in itself.
- 176d — ἡ μέθη. Eryximachus calls drunkenness harsh for human beings.
Read: Drinking and sobriety.
μεθύω (methyō)
methyō — To be drunk; the narrator and speakers contrast this state with Socrates’ unusual resistance.
- 212d — μεθύοντος. Alcibiades is audibly very drunk on arrival.
- 220a — Σωκράτη μεθύοντα. Object of Alcibiades’ claim that no human being has ever seen him drunk.
Read: Drinking and sobriety.
νήφω (nēphō)
nēphō — To be sober; Socrates also uses it pointedly of Alcibiades’ apparently calculated speech.
- 222c — Νήφειν. Socrates says Alcibiades seems sober because his speech has a cleverly concealed purpose.
Read: Drinking and sobriety.
πίνω (pinō)
pinō — To drink; the dialogue distinguishes willingness, quantity, pleasure, and compulsion.
- 176e — πίνειν. The agreed rule permits each guest to drink as much as he wants.
Read: Drinking and sobriety.