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Assignment ID: FG133288490

Question: Explain these quotes from the Symposium by Plato. What rhetorical devices are used and how they help show there is tragedy in Alcibiades Speech. And why does it matter?

1. “And, furthermore, you know what people say about snakebite-that you’ll only talk about it with your fellow victims: only they will understand the pain and forgive you for all the things it made you do. Well, something much more painful than a snake has bitten me in my most sensitive part -I mean my heart, or my soul, or whatever you want to call it, which has been struck and bitten by philosophy, whose grip on young and eager souls is much more vicious than a viper’s and makes them do the most amazing things” (218 A)

2. “His words made me think that my own had finally hit their mark, that he was smitten by my arrows” (219 B)

3. “But in spite of all my efforts, this hopelessly arrogant, this unbelievably insolent man- -he turned me down! He spurned my beauty, of which I was so proud, members of the jury-for this is really what you are: you’re here to sit in judgment of Socrates’ amazing arrogance and pride” (219 C).

4. “Of course, I was deeply humiliated, but also I couldn’t help admiring his natural character, his moderation, his fortitude -here was a man whose strength and wisdom went beyond my wildest dreams! How could I bring myself to hate him? I couldn’t bear to lose his friendship. But how could I possibly win him over?” (219 D).