Diotima of Mantinea

The Truth of Grecian Love According to its most simple definition, love is described as a strong attachment, enthusiasm, or devotion to someone or something. Since the ancient Grecian times, the meaning of love has testified to these words. Ancient text such as Plato’s Symposium explain these ideas about love and prove these to humans that have been questioning love since the beginning of time. Plato’s Symposium is a compilation of speeches made at a party at the Greek poet, Agathon’s house (Raneiri 43). Although each speech brings something different to the conversation, each is centered on the ideals and human conceptions of love. Particularly, the speeches of Aristophanes and Diotima focus on the origins of love. In his speech, Aristophanes…

In Plato’s Symposium, the characters give grand speeches about love, some giving accounts of love while others praise it. At this event, Socrates gives an account of love that once was told to him by the philosopher Diotima. She believed that the origin of love is the inherent human desire for immortality. However, Diotima’s account is inaccurate, and the true origin of love is the human desire for the company of other humans. According to Diotima’s account of love, the origin of love is a…

I will be addressing Diotima’s speech on the nature and rites of Love. Diotima finds that “mortal nature seeks so far as possible to live forever and be immortal”. The rites of Love have the ability to connect mortal and immortality, fulfilling our ultimate goal. “One goes always upwards for the sake of this Beauty, starting out from beautiful things and using them like rising stairs: from one body to two and from two to all beautiful bodies, then from beautiful bodies to beautiful customs, and…

my beauty, of which I was so proud”(219C). Coinciding with the denial to drink is an even more radical action of Socrates, to turn down what was accepted as beauty. There is only one possible explanation for why Socrates does not cave in to sexual immorality: You can’t imagine how little he cares whether a person is beautiful, or rich, or famous in any other way that most people admire”(217A) Plato’s Socrates thinks there is something more beautiful than sex. By refusing the sexual indulgence…

Beginning with Plato’s Symposium, many have written about their opinion on the nature of love. Plato’s work is often consulted to understand Ancient Greek society and explain love and sexual behavior. Throughout history, others choose to voice their opinion on the nature of love. There were multiple published works on the topic in the 1500s, but Tullia d’Aragona’s writings were some of the most progressive for the time. She speaks on issues women face, such as status and equality. Tullia…

Love, starting with Phaedrus. Him and the next three speakers, Pausanias, Eryximachus, and Aristophanes talk more about the origin, purpose, and benefits of love for humanity. When it comes time for the next speaker, Agathon, to give his speech, he makes note of that and has his speech discuss the characteristics and virtues of the god of Love himself, but poorly reinforces the characteristics he attaches to Love. Socrates, Plato’s teacher, is the last to speak starting off by gently…

People can go their whole life without finding the right one. When telling the story, Aristophanes does not say how the halves are supposed to find each other. He just says that they have to find them in order to be whole again. I do not see this as fair because someone can find someone with all their similarities, but maybe one thing is off and now they are with someone they should not be with, and the other person now has no one to be with. In order for this myth to go full circle in my…

In Symposium by Plato there is discussion on what love is and for the assembled guests it has different meanings. Many types of love can be seen in Virgil’s Aeneid as well; there is love between people or of the devotion to gods and family (pietas). These types of loves can be described through Diotima’s speech. Diotima defines love as the desire to give birth to beautiful ideas that last forever; she argues that love is not fully knowledgeable or ignorant, and that the soul is more beautiful…

already have. Instead, people want to preserve the qualities they have now so that they can have them in the future. Socrates also reminds Agathon of having claimed that there is love of beautiful things. Therefore, Love cannot be beautiful if it desires beauty. This suggests that Love must lack beauty, which completely contradicts Agathon’s speech about Eros. Agathon then concedes that he did not know what he was talking about. Socrates finished his criticism by stating that Love lacks…