Abstract

This dissertation is a study of Xenophon's Symposium , guided by careful attention to the details and context of the dialogue's action. Its thesis holds that the Symposium contrasts the life of Socrates and that of the gentlemen in a revealing, but moderate way. While the explicit action of the dialogue examines the power of beauty and sway of eros over human beings, and explores questions of virtue and education in an unusual manner, what emerges as the most compelling theme of the work is a Socratic understanding of the gentleman's virtue, kalokagathia, redefined and firmly grounded in moderation. ;The dissertation proceeds as a chapter-by-chapter study, introduced by a wide-ranging preface and an essay situating the dialogue in its larger context, and followed by an appendix with a revised literal translation and an extensive set of endnotes. The aim of the study is to bring to light and comment on the major themes of political philosophy embedded within the action of the dialogue, including the question of education and moral virtue, its teachability or rationality; the tension between the philosophic life embodied by Socrates and the economic life of the gentleman; the nature of the Beautiful as an erotic power holding sway over human beings; and finally, the essential role of moderation in the expression and perpetuation of a philosophic logos. ;The argument of the action in Xenophon's Symposium elucidates the nature of the Socratic life from the time of Socrates' famous 'turn'---away from his early intellectual activities as a natural philosopher, towards his mature pursuit of wisdom through a moderate examination of "the human things"---thereby providing a glimpse of the origin of Socratic rhetoric. In conclusion, this dissertation contends that the dialogue's insight into the Socratic life warrants serious consideration, and that its form is fundamentally 'Socratic' because it rests on Xenophon's deep understanding and use of Socratic irony, that is, an awareness of Socrates' use of rhetoric---or Odyssean speech---in conversation and in deed. The study of Xenophon thus constitutes a recovery of rhetoric in its proper relation to Socrates and to classical political philosophy