Plato’s Symposium uses dramatical devices, such as the framing story, the arrangement of the speeches or the lesson with Diotima, as a means of guiding the reader to the underlying philosophical message, which includes an examination of the system of Socratic education. Socrates’ acolytes display a commendable enthusiasm for philosophy, but seem incapable of distinguishing between love of Socrates and love of wisdom. Agathon occupies a central position: due to punning on his name, the trek to dinner at his house symbolises the ascent to the Good, and he represents sophistic and poetic education, just as all of the other speakers represent a particular kind of expertise, meaning that Eryximachus should not simply be dismissed as a pedant or Aristophanes’ speech regarded as a comic interlude. Rather, they form part of a complex intertextual web. Alcibiades displays the shortcomings of a man unable or unwilling to complete the Socratic course of study; his demand to be taken to Agathon symbolises his inability to find his way to the Good, while the interruption of the revellers into the orderly arrangement of the symposium evokes the attitude of tyrannical men and those hostile towards philosophy. Despite this criticism of some of Socrates’ students, the Symposium closes on a positive note. Socrates’ final actions in the dialogue are other-centred; an implied critique of those who claim that philosophy undermines social ties.