This is the second installment of "Power and Pleasure at the Dinner Table." Click here to find part 1, "An Invitation." Our first stop is a party table, in Athens around 400ish BCE, as described in Plato’s dialogue Symposium.[1] Socrates, perhaps the quintessential philosopher, and friends are celebrating the poet Agathon, who has won a contest as part of the Lenaian Festival. The friends are drunk. Although I refer to this scene as ‘a dinner party,’ the term “symposium” better translates to … [Read more...]