By This Device the Mortal Partakes of Immortality
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Diotima — θεῖον, ἀλλὰ τῷ τὸ ἀπιὸν καὶ παλαιούμενον ἕτερον νέον ἐγκαταλείπειν οἷον αὐτὸ ἦν. ταύτῃ τῇ μηχανῇ, ὦ Σώκρατες, ἔφη, θνητὸν ἀθανασίας μετέχει, καὶ σῶμα καὶ τἆλλα πάντα· ἀθάνατον δὲ ἄλλῃ. μὴ οὖν θαύμαζε εἰ τὸ αὑτοῦ ἀποβλάστημα φύσει πᾶν τιμᾷ· ἀθανασίας γὰρ χάριν παντὶ αὕτη ἡ σπουδὴ καὶ ὁ ἔρως ἕπεται.
Socrates — καὶ ἐγὼ ἀκούσας τὸν λόγον ἐθαύμασά τε καὶ εἶπον εἶεν, ἦν δʼ ἐγώ, ὦ σοφωτάτη Διοτίμα, ταῦτα ὡς ἀληθῶς οὕτως ἔχει;
the divine, but by the departing and aging thing leaving behind another, a new one such as it was. By this device, Socrates, the mortal partakes of immortality, both body and all else; the immortal in another way. So do not wonder if everything honours by nature its own offshoot; for the sake of immortality this zeal and love attends everything. And I, having heard the argument, marvelled and said: Well then, wisest Diotima, are these things really so?
Diotima names the mechanism: the departing, aging thing leaves behind a new one like itself. By this device the mortal partakes of immortality — body and all — while the divine is immortal in another way. So don't wonder that everything by nature honours its own offspring: for immortality's sake this zeal and this love attend every creature. Socrates, hearing the argument, marvels and asks: wisest Diotima, are these things really so?
From this Diotima draws the affective conclusion that grounds all love: everything honours and cares for its apoblastēma, its offshoot, because through it the creature reaches the only immortality open to it. The universal instinct to cherish offspring — and, by extension, everything one produces — is the reach for the eternal in disguise. Socrates' reaction is telling: he marvels, and addresses her as 'wisest Diotima,' the pupil awed by the teacher. His question 'are these things really so?' is the opening (208c) for the argument's next reach — from the biology of reproduction to the distinctly human hunger for undying fame, which Diotima will illustrate with Alcestis, Achilles, and Codrus. Love of immortality, she will show, is why humans risk everything for glory.
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