Person
Diotima of Mantinea
Philosophy & Ethics
Spirituality & MythWho is Diotima of Mantinea in the Agency editorial?
Diotima of Mantinea is a figure of Plato's Symposium, the woman from whom Socrates says he learned about love. Issue.13 attributes to her a sentence at its opening, lists her among the characters of the dialogue as "a prophetess" and summarizes her teaching, which it places at the most inspiring pages of the book.
In short
Diotima of Mantinea is a figure of Plato's Symposium: Socrates reports in his speech what she taught him about love. Whether she was a historical person is not known. In the Agency editorial she is named only in Issue.13. At the opening, the author attributes to her a sentence said to Socrates about love as "a bridge that connects the physical world of men to the abstract and perfect world of the gods". In the section on the philosophy of love she is listed as a prophetess, and the edition summarizes her speech: love is not a god but a spirit, it desires beauty, and it rises from physical beauty to the Form of Beauty.
Key facts
- Who is Diotima of Mantinea?
- A figure of Plato's Symposium, presented as the woman who taught Socrates about love. It is not known whether she was a historical person.
- Where does the Agency editorial name Diotima?
- In Issue.13: at the opening, where a sentence about love is attributed to her, and in the section on the philosophy of love, in the list of characters of the Symposium and in the summary of her speech.
- What does Issue.13 say she teaches?
- That "love is not a god, but a spirit that is neither immortal nor mortal", that it desires beauty, and that it progresses from physical beauty to spiritual beauty and to the Form of Beauty itself.
Who is Diotima of Mantinea?
Diotima of Mantinea is a figure of Plato's Symposium. She does not attend the dinner: Socrates, in his speech, reports what she taught him about love. Nothing is known of her outside Plato's dialogue, and whether she was a historical person is not known. Plato and Socrates have their own entries in this wiki.
How does Diotima appear in Issue.13?
Issue.13 opens by speaking of love under the Tupi word Aûsu. Among the sentences it collects about that word, the author attributes one to her, describing love as "a bridge that connects the physical world of men to the abstract and perfect world of the gods", and adds that this was what Diotima of Mantinea said to Socrates in the Symposium.
In the section on the philosophy of love, the edition lists her among the characters of the dialogue as "a prophetess". The author writes that the book reaches its most inspiring pages after Socrates starts his discourse, because he shares what Diotima taught him. The summary under her name says that "love is not a god, but a spirit that is neither immortal nor mortal", that love is not beautiful but desires beauty, that it begins with the desire for physical beauty and progresses to the Form of Beauty itself, and that it is a process of giving birth in beauty.
Source editions
Where this entry comes from in the Agency editorial.