The Sympotic Works

Abstract

Plutarch's sympotic works are experiments in form: his Table Talk is the earliest extant text to fuse the Platonic–Xenophontic symposium with encyclopedic content, while his Seven Sages makes the symposium a stage for the display and discussion of earlier Greek wisdom. Each text engages in a unique way with the relationship between philosophy and everyday concerns, and each adds a new dimension to the meaning of the term “symposium.” This chapter begins with a discussion on Plutarch's Table Talk, which is part of a long tradition of sympotic writing that intersects with second-century intellectual currents. The Table Talk's content ranges widely through the fields of literature, philosophy, science, sociology, and etiquette.

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