Athenian statesman and general — the most brilliant and disastrous figure of his generation — who was Socrates's student/admirer, led Athens into the disastrous Sicilian Expedition, defected to Sparta, became a Persian ally, and returned to Athens before being murdered — making him for René Girard the supreme case of mimetic desire's destructiveness.
In Plato's Symposium, Alcibiades's entrance drunk and his confession of love for Socrates (reversed — he tried to seduce Socrates, not vice versa) is the most revealing moment in Plato's dialogues: Alcibiades's desire for Socrates is itself mimetic — he wants what Socrates has — not Socrates himself.
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