Virtual Socrates Colloquium – Johann Goeken: “When Socrates drinks like Gorgias: on wine in Xenophon’s Symposium”

The International Society for Socratic Studies is pleased to announce the schedule for the Virtual Socrates Colloquium 2025-2026.
You can see the schedule HERE

Notice that there is no need to register and all you need to do is join the following Zoom link: https://biu-ac-il.zoom.us/j/8062705537

The International Society for Socratic Studies is pleased to invite you to a lecture by Johann Goeken from the University of Strasbourg, on the topic

When Socrates drinks like Gorgias: on wine in Xenophon’s Symposium

Abstract: Xenophon’s Symposium depicts a symposion held in 422 BC in the house owned by the very wealthy Callias in Piraeus. A detailed examination of the text shows that the entire event is dominated by the rhetoric of the sophists. In this respect, it should be emphasised that the figure of Gorgias is summoned at two key moments, by Socrates himself: in the prologue and at the moment when the symposion proper begins. The paper aims to show that Xenophon’s Socrates does not severely criticise rhetoric, as Plato’s Socrates would, nor the sophists. In fact, Socrates goes so far as to draw on the thoughts and biography of Gorgias to persuade his companions to drink moderately and thus ensure that the banquet runs smoothly. It therefore appears that, unlike Plato’s Symposium, Xenophon’s Symposium presents a pleasant but positive image of rhetoric and the sophists.

Bio: Johann Goeken is Professor at the University of Strasbourg, where he heads the Institute of Greek. A specialist in the history of rhetoric, he is particularly interested in religious discourse in the Greco-Roman era, as well as the practice of speech and dialogue in rituals of conviviality, as evidenced by his two extensive works on Aelius Aristides (Aelius Aristide et la rhétorique de l’hymne en prose, 2012) and on Plato and Xenophon (Boire sous l’oeil de Gorgias. Un commentaire rhétorique du Banquet de Platon et du Banquet de Xénophon, 2022). He is currently working on an annotated edition/translation of the lectures that F. Nietzsche gave on Greek tragedy when he was professor of classical philology at the University of Basel.