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The Church Fathers · c. 290
The Symposium
Symposion
Methodius of Olympus · d. c. 311
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What it is
Ten virgins at a banquet deliver speeches in praise of chastity, in deliberate imitation of Plato's dialogue on love, closing with a hymn sung by the winner.
Why it lasted
The most artful Christian appropriation of a Platonic form, and the first substantial theology of virginity in the Greek church.
Scripture it works from
Where to read it
Public domain and free to read in full, though not held here. The archives below have it.
These open a search on each archive rather than a direct link, which is the honest way to point at an edition nobody here has checked line by line.
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