Alcibiades Roasts Socrates
"He is just like the statues of Silenus..." — Alcibiades, in Plato's Symposium, comparing Socrates to a mocking, ugly satyr.
Jacques Louis David — "The Death of Socrates" (1787), public domain
Ugly outside, gold within
In Plato’s Symposium, Alcibiades bursts in drunk and says: "He is just like the statues of Silenus, which you see in the statuaries, holding pipes or flutes; but if you open them, inside they have images of the gods." (Symposium, 215b). Socrates looked ridiculous, Alcibiades says, but his mind was a hidden treasure.
Desire meets philosophy
Alcibiades tells his audience: he tried every trick to seduce Socrates—and failed. The speech is part insult, part confession, part tribute. It’s the messiest praise Socrates ever received, and the only one that starts with a joke about satyr statues.
Alcibiades tried to seduce Socrates. Instead, he ended up delivering the strangest love speech in Greek literature.
