XVI. Concluding Scene: 222 C-end.
The company laughed at the erotic candour of Alcibiades. Then ensued some banter between Socrates and Alcibiades as rival “erastae” of Agathon, which was interrupted by the entrance of a band of revellers who filled the room with uproar. Some of the guests left, and Aristodemus himself fell asleep. On awaking, about dawn, he found only three of the party still present and awake—Agathon, Aristophanes, and Socrates: Socrates was trying to convince the others that the scientific tragedy-writer must be capable also of writing comedy. Presently Aristophanes, and then Agathon, dozed off; whereupon Socrates, still “shadowed” by Aristodemus, departed.
