The Lover, Not the Beloved
Read the full text in our reader
Diotima — εἶναι, θαυμαστὸν οὐδὲν ἔπαθες. ᾠήθης δέ, ὡς ἐμοὶ δοκεῖ τεκμαιρομένῃ ἐξ ὧν σὺ λέγεις, τὸ ἐρώμενον ἔρωτα εἶναι, οὐ τὸ ἐρῶν· διὰ ταῦτά σοι οἶμαι πάγκαλος ἐφαίνετο ὁ Ἔρως. καὶ γὰρ ἔστι τὸ ἐραστὸν τὸ τῷ ὄντι καλὸν καὶ ἁβρὸν καὶ τέλεον καὶ μακαριστόν· τὸ δέ γε ἐρῶν ἄλλην ἰδέαν τοιαύτην ἔχον, οἵαν ἐγὼ διῆλθον.
Socrates — καὶ ἐγὼ εἶπον, εἶεν δή, ὦ ξένη, καλῶς γὰρ λέγεις· τοιοῦτος ὢν ὁ Ἔρως τίνα χρείαν ἔχει τοῖς ἀνθρώποις;
to be, no wonder did you suffer. You supposed, as it seems to me, judging from what you say, that the beloved is Eros, not the lover; for this reason, I think, Eros appeared to you all-beautiful. For the lovable is the truly beautiful and delicate and perfect and blessed; but the loving has another character, such as I described. And I said: well then, foreign woman, for you speak well; being such, what use has Eros for men?
Diotima names Socrates' original mistake. It was no wonder he erred: he took Eros to be the beloved (τὸ ἐρώμενον) rather than the lover (τὸ ἐρῶν), and that is why Eros seemed all-beautiful to him. For the beloved is the truly beautiful, delicate, perfect, and blessed thing; but the lover has the other, needy character she has described. Then Socrates asks: being such, what use is Eros to men?
This is why the barefoot, scheming portrait had to displace the pretty winged god. Love cannot be the thing it lacks. The correction also quietly re-centres the erotic ideal of Greek pederasty: the honour was conventionally the beloved's (the beautiful youth), but Diotima locates the real dignity in the lover, the one who desires and pursues — the philosopher. With this, the account of what Eros is is finished. Socrates' next question, tina chreian echei tois anthrōpois?, "what use is Eros to men?", turns the inquiry toward what Eros is for — and Diotima's answer will carry the dialogue up its famous ladder, from the love of one beautiful body to the vision of Beauty itself.
Read the full commentary — and tap any word for its dictionary entry — in the interlinear reader.
Open Plato, Symposium 204c in the full reader
Always open passages in the reader
You are reading a page of the Plato, Symposium — the whole book is free in our interlinear reader.
The Great Library Project presses the classics in their original languages, glossed word by word — free to read, always. Browse the whole library.
Also on our shelves:
Plato, Symposium 204c — The Great Library Project interlinear edition · greatlibraryproject.com/book/symposium/204c/