# Alcibiades — Dialogues character guide

> Alcibiades in Dialogues by Plato.

**Role:** supporting

**Also known as:** noble Alcibiades, Alcibiades Good, Alcibiades True, Alcibiades Arithmetic, the fair Alcibiades

**First appearance:** 0031-symposium

## Snapshot

The brilliant, beautiful, and dangerously ambitious Athenian whose entrance at Agathon's symposium upends the evening's orderly praise of love.

## Who they are

Alcibiades arrives late and drunk at the Symposium, a charismatic general whose relationship with Socrates is as charged as it is complicated. He is both admirer and accuser, offering a portrait of Socrates that is intimate, comic, and unsettling. His speech transforms the dialogue from abstract eulogy to lived drama, exposing the tension between philosophy and political ambition that defines his own tragic career.

## Relationships

### [Socrates](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/dialogues_se/characters/socrates)

_psychological_

Alcibiades is both enamored and frustrated by Socrates, seeking his approval while being intellectually and emotionally dominated by him.

### [Socrates](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/dialogues_se/characters/socrates)

_psychological_

Alcibiades is both enamored and frustrated by Socrates, seeking his approval while being intellectually and emotionally dominated by him.

### [Socrates](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/dialogues_se/characters/socrates)

_psychological_

Alcibiades is both enamored and frustrated by Socrates, seeking his approval while being intellectually and emotionally dominated by him.

## In the story

### [Protagoras](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/dialogues_se/chapters/protagoras)

Mentioned as being present and participating in the discussion.

### [Symposium](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/dialogues_se/chapters/symposium)

Arrives late and delivers a speech praising Socrates' virtue and character.

### [Appendix I](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/dialogues_se/chapters/appendix-i)

Alcibiades is persuaded by Socrates to seek virtue and education, acknowledging his own ignorance and agreeing to become Socrates' disciple.

### [First Alcibiades](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/dialogues_se/chapters/first-alcibiades)

Alcibiades is shown to be ignorant of the greatest matters (justice, the good, the expedient) and is convinced by Socrates to seek education and reform.

### [First Alcibiades](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/dialogues_se/chapters/first-alcibiades)

The ambitious young Athenian who is persuaded by Socrates that he lacks true wisdom and must take care of his soul before entering politics.

### [Appendix II](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/dialogues_se/chapters/appendix-ii)

Engages with Socrates, agreeing that a state lacking knowledge of the best is bad, and that the many trust in opinion devoid of intelligence.

### [Second Alcibiades](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/dialogues_se/chapters/second-alcibiades)

The interlocutor who is guided by Socrates to reconsider his assumptions about knowledge and prayer.

## Links

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