In the course of a lively drinking party, a group of Athenian intellectuals exchange views on eros, or desire.
From their conversation emerges a series of subtle reflections on gender roles, sex in society and the sublimation
of basic human instincts. The discussion culminates in a radical challenge to conventional views by Plato's mentor,
Socrates, who advocates transcendence through spiritual love. The Symposium is a deft interweaving of different
viewpoints and ideas about the nature of love--as a response to beauty, a cosmic force, a motive for social action
and as a means of ethical education.