Companionship and love are fundamental necessities within all living beings, from animals to Humans the idea of being alone is one which is a struggle and makes it hard to live. This fundamental idea dates back to our encounter with Gilgamesh and Enkidu where they were seeking companionship and found each other. Even in basic Judeo-Christian literature the idea of a companionship is a fundamental belief, for it is stated in the book of genesis that “It is not good that the man should be alone” (Gen 2:18). Plato understood the gravity of love and companionship and wrote the Symposium to further investigate the different levels of love and companionship as a narrative piece. Plato opens the Symposium as a dialogue between Apollodorus and an unnamed companion. The unnamed companion asks Apollodorus to retell the story of a symposium which Socrates had attended. Apollodorus states …show more content…
This starts the story off on a shaky note because then we are not sure of the creditability of such accounts. He goes on to retell the story by giving the background in the introduction. The play write, Agathon, had just “won the prize with his first tragedy” an award and he was hosting a symposium in his own honor. He then starts the story by telling about Aristodemus encountering Socrates, "who had just bathed and put on his fancy sandals-both very unusual events" . Aristodemus questions Socrates why he was all dressed up, and Socrates answered that he is going to the symposium held at Agathon's, for he got out of going to the first celebration the previous night and promised he would attend