I read this in a great class all about Ancient Greek Eroticism. I loved it.

Not a bad pair of dialogues. I've heard Plato was an easy read compared to Aristotle, and this is my first good look at the Socratic method of Dialectic. I got the feel from reading this that it was an English translation of a Latin translation from the original Greek, but Plato's meaning was made quite clear.

I also got a good feel for Plato's arguments, but couldn't help but notice his apparent tendency to put words in Socrates' mouth...

Rather unfortunate that Socrates never wrote down anything himself, as it would have been interesting to read an objective record of what he had to say firsthand.

Still, Plato's works are the best-known records we have of his teacher so far, and I recommend this book for an insight into the mode of thinking of a prominent post-Socratic philosopher.

Very accessible translation, which still retains the beauty of the work. Good introduction, raising the appropriate questions without overwhelming a new reader. The notes at the end of the book are adequate for the everyman reader.

I read this purely for Alcibiades waxing (gay) poetry at Socrates. 10/10 no regrets

La véritable philosophie des amants est celle de Platon ; durant le charme, ils n'en n'ont jamais d'autres. Un homme ému ne peut quitter la philosophie ; un lecteur froid ne peut le souffrir.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Plato's Phaedrus is a consequential to symposium in the nature of Eros as the master creative energy that surpasses rationality and transfigures the lover to a poet that sees the essence beyond the world of Shadows.
Socrates starts from love's negation in order to create a thesis that in a cunning way he himself shall disprove and he shall bring the notion to clarity , that the lover is a divine creature that is only restricted to reach the world of ideas only by his double-self counterpart that is immersed to the world of matter and vulgarity.
Socrates in a convincing manner builds bridges toward understanding that the equal quality is applied in all the arts ,thus inclination begets artists who dwelling in the oceanic sense of love become histors and creators likewise.
Plato appears as sifting all phenomena and in a dialectic way stands above all discourse to forge the path of theory in any issue
Book is a delight while it does retain an unmoved structure that strikes the reader with its argumentative force

I had no idea when I read this that I had Jowett's translation (and Jowett wouldn't have meant much to me before Hellenism and Homosexuality in Victorian Oxford: American Thought and Culture in the 1960s). I read this on my own time, which seems like a strange thing to do, but given its influence on my thesis project later in life it makes sense, rather, that I would.

The Phaedrus would be awesome if they didn't talk about rhetoric for a million years at the end. Also, I know it was more than 2000 years ago, but it's hard to fully get over the old man / teenage boy dynamic going on. In my opinion, the book itself criticized this "norm" in many ways, but I'm not gonna write a paper on it in the goodreads comment section... Though, somewhat tempted to?

A good academic edition, with detailed footnotes. I like how it's split into introduction-translation-discussion, exactly as it would be in a classroom setting. This may be too academic for someone who isn't involved in the classics, and the translation sometimes lacks flow due to the translator's attempts at philosophical accuracy, but the liveliness of the speakers comes through & even an impatient reader will find this book to be engagingly readable.

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Intéressant, je sais pas quoi dire de plus aha.

Le banquet 4/5
Phèdre 2/5 (j'ai pas eu le courage de le finir tellement les arguments sont mauvais)