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Diotima

Original nameDiotima of Mantinea

The Priestess Who Teaches the Philosophy of Eros in Plato’s Symposium

Remembered for a Single Line · Small Roles, Famous Names

The Philosophy of ErosThe Platonic DialoguesThe Ladder of Beauty

Who they are

Diotima is a priestess and sage recorded in Plato’s dialogue the Symposium, and according to Socrates’s own account in the dialogue it was she who taught the young Socrates the most profound philosophical teaching on the nature of "Eros" (love). Whether she had a real historical original, or was a character Plato invented to convey his philosophy of Eros through the mouth of a woman sage, has long been debated by scholars; but whatever her historical reality, the theory of the "ladder of love" she proposes in the Symposium — that Eros should proceed from the love of one concrete beautiful body, rise step by step to the love of all beautiful bodies, to the love of beautiful souls and virtues, to the love of beautiful institutions and knowledge, and at last reach pure philosophical contemplation of "Beauty itself," that eternal Form — forms the most important philosophical core of the whole dialogue, and the phrase "Platonic love," still widely used today, has its intellectual source precisely in this teaching of hers.

Primary sourcesPlato, Symposium

Key stories

The "Ladder of Love"

Diotima described to Socrates a ladder of Eros ascending step by step: beginning with the love of one concrete beautiful body, gradually grasping that all beautiful bodies share in the quality of "beauty," then turning to love beautiful qualities of soul, rising to love beautiful knowledge and institutions, until all these concrete objects of love point toward "Beauty itself," eternal and unchanging beyond all concrete things — only on reaching this pure state of philosophical contemplation does Eros truly realize its highest nature; this argument is one of the most exquisite philosophical passages combining Plato’s theory of Forms and his theory of Eros.

Wisdom Relayed by Socrates

In the narrative structure of the Symposium it is significant that the most brilliant and profound part of the whole discussion of the nature of "Eros" comes not from any of the male philosophers or poets present, but from Socrates solemnly relaying the teaching a woman sage, Diotima, had given him years before — this narrative arrangement itself makes Diotima a rare female figure granted a central philosophical authority in the texts of ancient Greek philosophy.

Version differences

Whether Diotima had a real historical original, or was a character Plato invented, has long been debated by scholars.

Relationships

Disciple

❓Socrates　By Socrates’s own account, it was she who taught him the core teaching of the philosophy of Eros

Echoes today

Below are how modern works borrow or reinterpret this name or story — not the original material. The two differ, so keep them apart.

"Platonic love" (an idiom)The intellectual source of the phrase is precisely the "ladder of love" theory she tells in the Symposium.

Appears in

The Athenian Golden AgeThe Socratic Method and "Knowing That One Knows Nothing"

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