Symposium by Plato
Published -385 · 35,635 words · about 3 hours at an average pace · Philosophy, Essays & Criticism
How hard is Symposium to read?
Symposium scores 50 out of 100 for difficulty on ReadingRate, making it quite demanding. The score is a weighted composite of nine measures: four of how hard the prose is to parse, five of how hard the meaning is to extract.
- Vocabulary: 52 out of 100
- Plato's vocabulary is accessible and literary. The philosophical terminology (eros, beauty, the Forms) is introduced through speeches and conversation. The dramatic framing and narrative charm keep the language inviting. Less terminologically demanding than the Republic.
- Sentence structure: 48 out of 100
- The dialogue form and speech structure produce clear, well-organized prose. Each speaker's contribution is self-contained. Diotima's speech builds complexity gradually. The Symposium is one of Plato's most readable works syntactically.
- Abstraction: 75 out of 100
- The speeches progress from concrete praise of love to Diotima's abstract ascent toward the Form of Beauty. Aristophanes's myth is vividly concrete. The philosophical abstraction peaks in Socrates/Diotima's speech but is grounded in sensory and emotional experience throughout.
- Information density: 62 out of 100
- The speech structure provides natural breathing room between philosophical arguments. Aristophanes, Agathon, and Alcibiades provide entertainment alongside philosophy. Diotima's ladder of love is dense, but the overall work is lighter than the Republic or Phaedo.
- Narrative indirection: 60 out of 100
- The dialogue is reported by someone who heard it from someone who was there; Socrates reports Diotima's teaching.
- Symbolic density: 70 out of 100
- The ladder, the Silenus statues that open to reveal gods, the crowning with ribbons—rich symbolic layer over philosophical content.
- Ironic distance: 70 out of 100
- Alcibiades's failure with Socrates ironically comments on the preceding speeches; who really understands love?
- Resolution withholding: 50 out of 100
- Diotima's vision provides philosophical resolution, but Alcibiades's disruption introduces new questions; the dialogue ends with Socrates still talking at dawn.
- Structural complexity: 60 out of 100
- Frame narrative containing seven speeches, the last interrupted; generic mixing of philosophy, rhetoric, and comedy.
How Symposium is regarded
Symposium holds a literary regard score of 98 out of 100, weighing its place in the canon, its critical reception, its influence on other writers, and the standing of its author. Regard is measured separately from difficulty: a demanding book is not necessarily an admired one.