Dear to the Gods, and Immortal
Read the full text in our reader
Diotima — γίγνεσθαι ἐκεῖσε βλέποντος ἀνθρώπου καὶ ἐκεῖνο ᾧ δεῖ θεωμένου καὶ συνόντος αὐτῷ; ἢ οὐκ ἐνθυμῇ, ἔφη, ὅτι ἐνταῦθα αὐτῷ μοναχοῦ γενήσεται, ὁρῶντι ᾧ ὁρατὸν τὸ καλόν, τίκτειν οὐκ εἴδωλα ἀρετῆς, ἅτε οὐκ εἰδώλου ἐφαπτομένῳ, ἀλλὰ ἀληθῆ, ἅτε τοῦ ἀληθοῦς ἐφαπτομένῳ· τεκόντι δὲ ἀρετὴν ἀληθῆ καὶ θρεψαμένῳ ὑπάρχει θεοφιλεῖ γενέσθαι, καὶ εἴπέρ τῳ ἄλλῳ ἀνθρώπων ἀθανάτῳ καὶ ἐκείνῳ;
for a person looking there and beholding that with what one must, and being with it? Or do you not consider, she said, that there alone it will happen to him, seeing Beauty with that by which it is visible, to beget not images of virtue, since touching no image, but true virtue, since touching the true; and to one who has begotten and reared true virtue it belongs to become dear to the gods, and, if any human, immortal — he too.
The teaching reaches its summit. For a person looking there — beholding Beauty with the faculty by which it must be seen, and being with it — only there, Diotima says, will it happen that, seeing Beauty with that by which it is visible, he begets not images of virtue (since he touches no image) but true virtue (since he touches the true). And to one who has begotten and reared true virtue, it belongs to become dear to the gods (θεοφιλής), and immortal, if any human ever is. Diotima's speech ends; Socrates' conclusion follows in 212b.
And the reward is the double crown the argument has been reaching for since 206a: theophilēs genesthai, kai … athanatōi — to become dear to the gods and, so far as any human can, immortal. Contact with the eternal makes the mortal, at last, share in the eternal — the reach for the good 'forever' fulfilled. The phrasing is careful: not simply 'immortal,' but 'immortal if any human is,' Plato's characteristic reticence about how far a mortal may go. With this the great speech closes: love, which began as a needy daimon born of poverty and resource, is revealed as the power that carries the soul from one beautiful body to the vision of Beauty itself, and there begets the true virtue that makes a human godlike. 212b turns from Diotima's words back to the party — Socrates declaring himself persuaded, and urging every man to honour Eros.
Read the full commentary — and tap any word for its dictionary entry — in the interlinear reader.
Open Plato, Symposium 212a 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 212a — The Great Library Project interlinear edition · greatlibraryproject.com/book/symposium/212a/