What is the significance of Diotima in the Symposium?
Thanks to Diotima, Socrates and Plato deliver a lesson in communication besides a lecture on eros. However, as such, Diotima is part of a larger tool of communication, that is, the whole dialogue between her and the younger Socrates, reported by Socrates himself.
What is the myth of Diotima?
Diotima gives Socrates a genealogy of Love (Eros), stating that he is the son of "resource (poros) and poverty (penia)". In her view, love drives the individual to seek beauty, first earthly beauty, or beautiful bodies. Then as a lover grows in wisdom, the beauty that is sought is spiritual, or beautiful souls.
Was Diotima a priestess?
We know of Diotima from a single source in ancient literature: she appears in Plato's Symposium as a prophet and priestess who tutored Socrates and profoundly shaped his conceptions of Eros (love).
Does Diotima speak in the Symposium?
In the Symposium, the dialogue on love, when Socrates finishes speaking, he gives the floor to a woman: Diotima. She does not participate in these exchanges or in this meal among men. She is not there. She herself does not speak.
What did Diotima say about love?
Diotima conceded the point, but then she said something interesting. Love, she argued, is neither immortal nor mortal, but somewhere in between. Love is an intermediary because it binds together the mortal and the immortal, and this is why love has the power to lead mortals to more enduring truths.
Why does Diotima claim love is not a god what do gods have that love does not?
In their view, love does not desire emptiness or ugly things because it has to adore something or beautiful things. Therefore, Socrates presumed that love is a god of beautiful and marvelous things only. However, Diotima disputed this view because gods own both beautiful and ugly things.
Was Diotima a real person?
In Section II I present the evidence others have given to the effect that Diotima was not a historical person but rather was a fictitious character created by Plato.
What is beauty according to Diotima?
Diotima's teachings Next, he must realize that the physical beauty is meaningless and impermanent, unlike souls. Whenever he encounters with other individuals that have beauty within their spirits and even if the bodies aren't particularly attractive, he will fall in love to the immaterial part.
When did Socrates meet Diotima?
440 BCEPlato's Symposium has no less than three dramatic dates: its narrative frame is placed in 401 BCE; Agathon's dinner party is envisaged as having occurred in 416; finally, Plato makes Socrates meet Diotima in 440 BCE.
What are the two forms of love Diotima discuss?
In Plato's Symposium, the priestess Diotima, whom Socrates introduces as an expert in love, describes how the lover who would advance rightly in erotics would ascend from loving a particular beautiful body and individual to loving Beauty itself.
Which stage of Eros is the last?
The final end of Eros is participation in immortality, but not merely the mortal immortality that is described at the lower levels of Eros. Rather, because the soul is itself divine, it participates in the kind of immortality proper to divinity, the immortality that consists in being always the same.
Why is Socrates unafraid of death?
Socrates ultimately does not fear death because of his innocence, he believes that death is not feared because it may be one of the greatest blessings of the soul. For a person such as Socrates that has lived virtuously there no reason for them to fear death.
Was Diotima a real person?
In Section II I present the evidence others have given to the effect that Diotima was not a historical person but rather was a fictitious character created by Plato.
What is beauty according to Diotima?
Diotima's teachings Next, he must realize that the physical beauty is meaningless and impermanent, unlike souls. Whenever he encounters with other individuals that have beauty within their spirits and even if the bodies aren't particularly attractive, he will fall in love to the immaterial part.
What was Aspasia known for?
Aspasia is commonly remembered for her romantic relationship with Pericles, the leader of democratic Athens. As his mistress, and the reputed reason for his divorce, Aspasia was also an objectionable figure to many Athenians, who believed she had too much political influence.
What is the parable of Poros and penia?
Poros, god of ingenuity, gets drunk on nectar and goes to lie down. Penia, who instead represent poverty, was there to beg and takes advantage of the situation conceiving Eros, and Eros was also beautiful as he was conceived on the birthday of Aphrodite, who was beautiful herself.
Who was Diotima based on?
Plato was thought by some 19th and early 20th century scholars to have based Diotima on Aspasia, the companion of Pericles who famously impressed him by her intelligence and eloquence, but they offered no evidence other than a general resemblance.
Who is Diotima in Pericles Commission?
Diotima is a major recurring character, the love interest, assistant sleuth, and eventually wife of Corby's protagonist, Nicolaos.
What did Diotima say about the Plague of Athens?
Socrates also claims that Diotima successfully postponed the Plague of Athens. In a dialogue that Socrates recounts at the symposium, Diotima says that Socrates has confused the idea of love with the idea of the beloved. Love, she says, is neither fully beautiful nor good, as the earlier speakers in the dialogue had argued.
Why is Diotima not mentioned in the Gorgias?
This hypothesis recalls the practise of using fictional characters in other Platonic dialogues (for instance Callicles in the Gorgias ), and draws on the fact that Diotima is not mentioned by any contemporary sources and because her name and origin could be understood as symbolic (see above).
What does Diotima mean?
The name Diotima means one who honors or is honored by Zeus , and her descriptor as "Mantinikê" (Mantinean) seems designed to draw attention to the word " mantis ", which suggests an association with prophecy. However, she is not described or depicted as a priestess or prophetess, but simply as a 'clever woman' and a 'non-Athenian' ( xenê ).
When did Diotima of Mantinea live?
Diotima of Mantinea ( / ˌdaɪəˈtaɪmə /; Greek: Διοτίμα; Latin: Diotīma) is the name or pseudonym of an ancient Greek woman or fictional figure in Plato 's Symposium, indicated as having lived circa 440 B.C. Her ideas and doctrine of Eros as reported by Socrates in the dialogue are the origin of the concept of Platonic love.
What was Socrates' role in Plato's Symposium?
Role in Symposium. In Plato's Symposium the members of a party discuss the meaning of love. Socrates says that in his youth he was taught "the philosophy of love" by Diotima, who was a seer or priestess. Socrates also claims that Diotima successfully postponed the Plague of Athens. In a dialogue that Socrates recounts at the symposium, ...
How does Diotima end her speech?
Diotima ends her speech outlining what she refers to as the rites of love, otherwise referred to ask the ladder of love. First, Love leads a person to love one body and beget beautiful ideas. From these ideas, this person realizes that the beauty of one body is found in all bodies and if he is seeking beauty in form, he must see beauty in all bodies and become lover to all beautiful bodies. After that, the person moves on to thinking the beauty of souls is greater than the beauty of bodies. Here, Diotima specifically refers to giving birth through the soul to make young men better. This results in the lover seeing love in activities and laws, over the beauty of bodies. She also refers to these as beautiful customs, from which the lover loves beautiful things, or other kinds of knowledge. The lover will lastly fall on giving birth to many beautiful ideas and theories, finding love of wisdom. This love never passes away and is always beautiful. The end lesson is learning of this very Beauty (wisdom), coming to know what is beautiful. Only at this point will a lover be able to give birth to true virtue. This person will be loved by the gods and is one of the few who could become immortal.
What does Diotima mean?
Here, Diotima specifically refers to giving birth through the soul to make young men better. This results in the lover seeing love in activities and laws, over the beauty of bodies.
What does Diotima say about immortality?
Socrates asks if this is really true, and Diotima answers it is, using the example of honor. Humans pursue honor, wanting to become famous and immortal. They expect the memory of their virtue and brave acts to live on forever.
Why does Diotima say that a person will not pursue their other half?
Diotima states this is because a special kind of love is separated from other loves to be referred to as such. For other loves we use other words such as poetry. Diotima also refutes Aristophanes ' story, saying a person will not pursue their other half, unless the other half is good. People only love what is good.
What does Socrates tell Diotima?
Socrates retells a speech he heard from Diotima, a woman he describes as wise, but who was apparently a fictitious character . Once again, the structure of the speech begins with telling of the qualities of Love before talking of his works. Diotima also questions Socrates, who used to think that Love was beautiful and good. Socrates retells this questioning. When Diotima stated this, Socrates inferred that Love was ugly and bad.
What is Diotima's speech about love?
Diotima’s speech begins with descriptions of Love himself. Love was conceived on the day of Aphrodite’s birth to Poros (a word for resource) and Penia ( poverty). This is why Love follows Aphrodite and why he loves beauty. Being the son of Poros and Penia, Love is always poor, far from delicate and beautiful, but rather tough and always living with Need. He is also a schemer after the good and beautiful, resourceful, and in pursuit of intelligence.
Why does Diotima scold him?
Diotima scolds him, and they establish that just because something is not beautiful, does not automatically make it ugly. Someone can be not wise and not ignorant, understanding things (so he’s not ignorant), but not understanding the reasons behind such things (so he’s not wise).
Who was Diotima in Plato's work?
Diotima was a teacher of Socrates, a priestess, and a philosopher of love . She appears only once in contemporary accounts, in the work of Plato; and for centuries, scholars have debated her historicity. But whether or not she truly existed, the ideas attributed to her are both subtle and powerful.
What is Diotima's idea of the in-between?
Diotima’s idea of the in-between, or metaxy wasn’t limited just to ignorance and wisdom. She called into question all kinds of binary oppositions, including between good and evil, beautiful and ugly, divine and mortal. Given how little we have to go on, it is hard to fully reconstruct Diotima’s philosophy; but it seems that for her most of the interesting stuff happens in these in-between spaces, in the middle-ground. And the kinds of distinctions that philosophers make between good and evil ignore how connected and entangled these oppositions are.
What does Diotima ask Socrates about judgement?
In the story in the Symposium, Diotima asks Socrates if anything exists that occupies the middle position between knowledge and ignorance. At first Socrates can’t think of anything. But then Diotima proposes judgement as something that sits in this in-between position. Judgement is not knowledge because when we judge something to be true, this isn’t the same as knowing it to be true. But judgement is not ignorance either because good judgement often hits the mark of truth, ‘and how could what hits the truth be ignorance?’
What did Diotima teach Socrates?
In the Symposium, Plato says that Diotima taught Socrates ‘the art of love ’ — an ambiguous phrase. As she was teaching him this art, Socrates made the claim that love was a great and powerful god. Diotima challenged him. Socrates was astonished by the challenge: but surely, he protested, love can’t be mortal. Diotima conceded the point, but then she said something interesting. Love, she argued, is neither immortal nor mortal, but somewhere in between. Love is an intermediary because it binds together the mortal and the immortal, and this is why love has the power to lead mortals to more enduring truths.
Why is Plato interested in philosophy?
One reason that Plato is interested in this is because it says something about philosophy. After all, philosophy is the love of wisdom. And the fact that philosophy is not wisdom, but instead the love of wisdom, makes it an intermediary between knowledge and ignorance.
What does Diotima mean?
Diotima’s name means ‘honoured by Zeus.’ Her name suggests that she was a priestess, and according to Plato’s Symposium, she was also a philosopher and one of Socrates’s teachers. This would put her life in the fifth century before the common era.
Who edited Diotima?
— 500 A.D. edited by Mary Ellen Waithe (University of Minnesota Press 1987).
What did Diotima teach?
Diotima's teachings. Diotima began with saying that if a man is normal, he will naturally fall in love with one particular beautiful body. Then, he must consider the similarities of the beauty in different bodies. If he understands that all bodies are beautiful he will become a lover of all bodies, not just one.
What is Diotima's ladder of love?
Jump to navigation Jump to search. Diotima's Ladder of Love, also known as Plato’s ladder of love or Plato’s ladder of Eros is a philosophy of different types of love that originated in Plato 's Symposium. Socrates had a speech contest of praising Eros, the god of love.
Why did Aristophanes split us in two?
Aristophanes told a tale of how humans were originally double of what we are now (with 2 heads, 4 arms, 4 legs, and so on) but that when our ancestors tried to overpower the gods, they split them in two as a punishment . Since then, all of us have been yearning with a desire for wholeness. He believed that men and women who are lovers marry and have children not because they really want to but from their desire to complete themselves, having lost their other half.
Who is the god of heavenly love?
The second, Uranian, the god of Heavenly Love, presides over the higher level of love, the sort that is beyond that of purely physical and external features. Eryximachus made one speech upon about love for each of various topics: medicine, music, gymnastics, agriculture, and religion.
Who is the god of love?
Pausanias hypothesized that there are two gods of love. The first, Pandemian, or the god of Common Love, presides over the normal relationship, including temporary physical attraction, connection, or interest to both living and non-living things.
Is Diotima's ladder of love religious?
Furthermore, Diotima's ladder of love also has a religious connection, and is especially taken up in the Christian mystical tradition, most notably in Dante's Commedia. This was interpreted by hidden messages used in the writing by Plato.
What does Socrates ask Diotima?
Having been convinced that Love is not beautiful or good, Socrates asks Diotima if that means Love is ugly and bad. Diotima argues that not everything must be either one thing or its opposite. For instance, having unjustified true opinions is neither wisdom nor ignorance.
Is wisdom a true opinion?
Wisdom consists in justified true opinions, but one would hardly call a true opinion ignorant. Diotima points out that, in spite of himself, Socrates has denied that Love is a god altogether. They have concluded that Love is not good and beautiful because he is in need of good and beautiful things.
Is love a lover of wisdom?
Love is also a great lover of wisdom. None of the gods love wisdom because they are already wise and do not need wisdom, nor do the ignorant love wisdom since they do not realize that they need wisdom. Love falls between ignorance and wisdom because his father, Resource, is both wise and resourceful, while his mother, Poverty, is neither. Diotima suggests that Socrates' earlier grandiose claims about Love's greatness were directed at the object of love and not the lover himself. Beauty, perfection, and so on, are the qualities of the things we love, but the lover himself is not at all like this.
What is Plato's Symposium?
In Plato’s Symposium, we find a passage (191d–192e) in which Aristophanes proposes an inventory of sexual behaviors. The passage ends with some very fine lines that describe the wish expressed by a lover and his beloved never to be separated from one another, in life or in death, because they will have been fused into a single being by Hephaestus (192e). {231|232}
Who is 2.3.2.2.Pausanias?
2.3.2.2.Pausanias. We know practically nothing about this Pausanias [ 43] outside of the corpus platonicum. In his Symposium (8.32), Xenophon describes Pausanias as an ardent defender of paiderastia. [ 44]
What is the theme of reminiscence?
The theme of reminiscence is, moreover, in perfect agreement with that of the Mysteries ( Symposium 209e–210d). The lover ( erastês) can only reactualize the knowledge he already possesses in a virtual mode in a relation with the beautiful body of his beloved ( erômenos ), which relation must then move on to his soul, and culminate in the vision of Beauty (210e–212a). Thus, paiderastia, henceforth described by terms borrowed from the Mysteries, is completely reinterpreted. Although she is a woman, Diotima is aware of the social convention known as paiderastia. Yet she wants to transform it:
When did Pausanias accompany Agathon?
c. Around 407, Pausanias accompanies Agathon to the court of Archelaus, king of Macedonia.
Who was Pausanias thinking of?
It is possible, and even likely, that Pausanias is thinking of the young Agathon who was his “beloved” in the context of paiderastia, when, in his speech in the Symposium, he complains about the Athenians’ ambiguous attitude towards this convention, of which Xenophon tells us that Pausanias was an ardent defender. Moreover, Aristophanes seems to anticipate the Thesmophoriazusae as he ends his speech in the Symposium (193b).
Who criticized paiderastia?
Here I will limit myself to Plato’s critique of paiderastia, praised in the speeches of Pausanias and Agathon, but criticized in that of Diotima, [ 6] who considers the acquisition of knowledge as childbirth, implying the experiences of pregnancy and giving birth. Consequently, while I concede that the first subtitle of this dialogue is On love, I would like to show that for Plato, the point is above all to raise questions about paiderastia, a social convention which, implying sexual relations among males, played an important part in education at Athens in the highest social classes.
Is Agathon an older partner than Socrates?
The image is suggestive in itself, [ 5] but in a Greek context and within the framework of paiderastia, it raises a number of problems. Aga thon, who is not the older partner, plays the dominant role that should by rights be that of Socrates. However, is this not, on Socrates’ part, an expression of his irony? At the end of the dialogue, we find a similar reversal of roles between Alcibiades and Socrates. Alcibiades, who also wants to lie down beside Socrates gives a detailed description of his attempts to seduce Socrates:
Overview
Role in Symposium
In Plato's Symposium the members of a party discuss the meaning of love. Socrates says that in his youth he was taught "the philosophy of love" by Diotima, who was a seer or priestess. Socrates also claims that Diotima successfully postponed the Plague of Athens. In a dialogue that Socrates recounts at the symposium, Diotima says that Socrates has confused the idea of love with th…
Identity
The name Diotima means one who honors or is honored by Zeus, and her descriptor as "Mantinikê" (Mantinean) seems designed to draw attention to the word "mantis", which suggests an association with prophecy. Explicitly described as a foreigner (ξένη) (201e) and as wise (σοφὴ) in not only the subject of love but also of many other things (ἄλλα πολλά), she is often associated with priestcraft by a majority of scholars insofar as: 1 - she advises the Athenians on sacrifice (t…
The name Diotima means one who honors or is honored by Zeus, and her descriptor as "Mantinikê" (Mantinean) seems designed to draw attention to the word "mantis", which suggests an association with prophecy. Explicitly described as a foreigner (ξένη) (201e) and as wise (σοφὴ) in not only the subject of love but also of many other things (ἄλλα πολλά), she is often associated with priestcraft by a majority of scholars insofar as: 1 - she advises the Athenians on sacrifice (t…
Recent interpretations
Beginning in the 20th century, the dehistoricization of Diotima became a subject of interest for several scholars, including Mary Ellen Waithe. In 2005, Margaret Urban Walker summarized Waithe's research, stating that "the evidence for Diotima's reality is substantial, even if not conclusive, and that her imaginary status appears to be a fifteenth-century fiction that stuck."
In 2010, Australian novelist Gary Corby published The Pericles Commission, the first in a series of mystery …
See also
• List of speakers in Plato's dialogues
• Diotima's Ladder of Love
• Metaxy
Notes
1. ^ Evans, Nancy. "Diotima and Demeter as Mystagogues in Plato's Symposium." Hypatia, vol. 21, no. 2, 2006, pp. 1–27. JSTOR 3810989.
2. ^ Riegel, Nicholas (2016). Cosmópolis: mobilidades culturais às origens do pensamento antigo. Eryximachus and Diotima in Plato’s Symposium: Imprensa da Universidade de Coimbra. ISBN 978-989-26-1287-4.
Further reading
• Navia, Luis E., Socrates, the man and his philosophy, pp. 30, 171. University Press of America ISBN 0-8191-4854-7
Philosophy
Story
Quotes
Usage
Purpose
Style
Example
Summary
Reproduction
Introduction
- Diotima is generally accepted to be a fictional creation of Socrates (or Plato). This device (creating a character and conversation) is unprecedented in rhetoric. In terms of frame narrative, it creates another layer of distance from the original teller of the story to the reader, at a point where the most serious speech occurs. It may be Plato imp...
Philosophy
- There are two ideas attributed to Diotima in the Symposium that have had an influence on the direction of Greek philosophy. The first is her distinctive teachings on love, and the second is her idea of metaxyor the ‘in-between’.
The Art of Love
The In-Between
Signals Through The Wall