The dialogue's seven main characters, who deliver major speeches, are:
- Phaedrus (speech begins 178a):[12] an Athenian aristocrat associated with the inner-circle of the philosopher Socrates, familiar from Phaedrus and other dialogues
- Pausanias (speech begins 180c): the legal expert
- Eryximachus (speech begins 186a): a physician
- Aristophanes (speech begins 189c): the eminent comic playwright
- Agathon (speech begins 195a): a tragic poet, host of the banquet, that celebrates the triumph of his first tragedy
- Socrates (speech begins 201d): the eminent philosopher and Plato's teacher
- Alcibiades (speech begins 214e): a prominent Athenian statesman, orator, and general
