In this post, the role of Diotima of Mantinea in Plato’s Symposium is explored. It is argued that the Peloponnesian priestess is represented within that work as not just Plato’s teacher, but also as the personification of beauty and wisdom. This enables Plato to establish a symbolism equivalent with Diotima’s teachings, and which permits an explanation of both Love and the drive to philosophise (itself an act of Love). For, with Diotima positioned as the godly entity opposed to the audience of the Symposium, Socrates, and therefore Philosophy, can be seen as the embodiment of Love and the desire for beauty. With Socrates, or philosophy, placed as this analogy (i.e., acting as the go-between, or spirit, mediating between the realms of the immortal, Diotima, and the mortal, the audience) the motivations for the search for wisdom and the concept of Eros are clarified (i.e., the form of the Symposium can follow its content).

On the surface of things, the role of Diotima of Mantinea within Plato’s Symposium is rather straight forward: She is Socrates’ teacher and is used to clarify the concept of Love, or Eros. From sections §§199c-212c, Socrates relays his encounters with Diotima and employs his dialectical method to interrogate our notions concerning Love, concluding that Eros (Love) is a desire for beauty; a desire to possess something beautiful that is currently lacking, or for the continued possession of something beautiful in the future (see §§200e-201a). For example, to love another is find them beautiful and to desire to have them in your life now and forever. However, although Love is the desire for beauty and cannot therefore be beautiful (for you can desire only what is lacked), this does not mean Love is ugly. Rather, it is between these two poles; it is neither beauty (i.e., perfect and immortal), nor its opposite (i.e., imperfect and mortal), it stands as an intermediary between these two extremes (§§202a-202d). Therefore, the role of Love within our lives is said to drive us forward toward the attainment of beauty; a goal which is an end in-itself as it produces happiness (§205a). Nevertheless, although Love motivates us to attain the beautiful and become happy, as we have seen, it also drives us to try and achieve these things forever (§200e, §206a). Consequently, as the best way to ensure the continued attainment of something is through creation, Love is a driver for the begetting, or the reproduction, of things (e.g., children, laws, art etc.), as what is produced is immortal, either in-itself (e.g., laws or art) or in its own ability to reproduce (e.g., children) (see §§206e-208b).

Consequently, within Plato’s Symposium, it is argued that Love (or Eros) is the desire for beauty and the continued possession of the beautiful, so as to obtain happiness, now and in the future. This desire drives us to attain beauty but also to create beautiful things, as this is the most effective way to assure the continuation of the beautiful and its possession.

However, this begs the question: What is the role of Diotima of Mantinea in Plato’s Symposium? So far, the priestess has been presented as merely Socrates’ mentor, however there is more at play within the dialogue than this surface level. For the form of Socrates’ speech follows its content. This is most obvious in the positioning of Socrates’ as an intermediary between the audience of the symposium and the “wise” Diotima (§201d), driving both us and his fellow Athenians toward the appreciation of her wisdom. This reading, therefore, paints Socrates as Eros. However, what needs to be made explicit at this point is that, as Love is the desire for beauty generally, Love and Loving go beyond the parochial use of the terms in relation to the love between two individuals. Rather, beauty is found in a plurality of things, not just others, and Love drives us to possess many types of beautiful thing. As such, the artist, the athlete, the lawmaker and the poet are as driven by Eros and the desire to attain beauty as the lover (§205d). Moreover, as “wisdom is surely among the most beautiful of things” (§204b), Love must drive us toward its possession. That is, the desire for beauty motivates us to gain understanding, to philosophize and to become wise. Furthermore, as the ultimate expression of Love is to reproduce, to create, and ensure the eternal continuation of the beautiful, then Love drives us to engage actively in philosophy, to debate concepts with our peers and to create and share ideas (see §§209a-e). Consequently, with Socrates, the philosopher, as Eros, as the mediator between the wise Diotima and an audience, Plato is able to show the drive to philosophise: To attain and share the beauty of wisdom. Or as Socrates himself explains:

[W]hen someone… begins clearly to see that, the beautiful, he would pretty well touch the end. For this is the right way to proceed in matters of love…. beginning from these beautiful things here, to ascend ever upward for the sake of that, the beautiful, from one to two, and from two to all beautiful bodies, and from beautiful bodies to beautiful practices, and from practices to beautiful studies, and from studies one arrives in the end at that study which is nothing other than the study of that, the Beautiful itself… It is there, if anywhere, dear Socrates, said the Mantinean Stranger, that human life is to be lived: in contemplating the Beautiful itself… Do you think it a worthless life, she said, for a man to look there and contemplate that with that by which one must contemplate it [i.e., mind or intelligence], and to be with it? Or are you not convinced, she said, that there alone it will befall him, in seeing the Beautiful with that by which it is visible, to beget, not images of virtue… but true virtue?… But in begetting true virtue and nurturing it, it is given to him to become dear to god, and if any other among men is immortal, he is too (see §§211b-212a)

In summary, the role of Diotima of Mantinea in Plato’s Symposium is a symbolic one. She acts as the opposing entity to Socrates audience, allowing Socrates to be painted as the intermediary between the two. This is a situation which exactly mirrors, and symbolises, the theories of love conveyed within the text. Furthermore, with Socrates representing philosophy and Diotima wisdom (“surely among the most beautiful of things”), the symbolism orbiting the priestess shows philosophy as the search for beauty and demonstrates that the pursuit of knowledge will eventual lead to self-immortalisation and happiness through the creation and sharing of ideas. More succinctly, the role of Diotima of Mantinea is to crystallise the statement most closely related to Plato and Socrates’ philosophy: “The unexamined life is not worth living” (see Apology §38a).