Diotima Part 1 201D-206B

Summary of Diotimas Speech in The

Symposium
Socrates continues his discussion of Love by restating an account given to him by a woman
named Diotima. He claims that he once held the opinions expressed by Agathon and that Diotima
convinced him he was mistaken through a series of questions similar to those Socrates has just
asked Agathon. Thus, Socrates picks up where he left off in his dialogue with Agathon, only he
now presents himself as being in Agathon's position, and presents Diotima as taking his role.
Having been convinced that Love is not beautiful or good, Socrates asks Diotima if that means
Love is ugly and bad. Diotima argues that not everything must be either one thing or its opposite.
For instance, having unjustified true opinions is neither wisdom nor ignorance. Wisdom consists
in justified true opinions, but one would hardly call a true opinion ignorant.
Diotima points out that, in spite of himself, Socrates has denied that Love is a god altogether.
They have concluded that Love is not good and beautiful because he is in need of good and
beautiful things. No one would deny that a god is both happy and beautiful, and yet Love seems
to be neither of these things. Then, Socrates asks, does that mean that Love is mortal? Diotima
replies once more that not everything must be one thing or its opposite. Love is neither mortal
nor immortal, but is a spirit, which falls somewhere between being a god and being human.
Spirits, Diotima explains, serve as intermediaries between gods and humans. They convey
prayers and sacrifices from humans to gods, and send gifts and commands from gods to humans.
The gods never communicate directly with humans, but only through the medium of spirits, who
are the source of all divination. There are many kinds of spirits, Love being but one.
Love was conceived at a feast to celebrate the birth of Aphrodite, goddess of love. Resource, the
son of Invention, got quite drunk and lay down to sleep in the garden of Zeus. Poverty crept up
on Resource and slept with him, hoping to relieve her lack of resources by having a child with
Resource. Love is the child that Poverty conceived by Resource. Because he was conceived on
Aphrodite's birthday, Love has become her follower, and has become in particular a lover of
beauty. As the child of Resource and Poverty, Love is always poor, and, far from being sensitive,
he is very tough, sleeping out of doors on the rough ground. Like his mother, he is always in a
state of need, but like his father, he can scheme to get what he wants. Being neither mortal nor
immortal, Love may shoot into life one day only to die the next and then return to life the
following day.
Love is also a great lover of wisdom. None of the gods love wisdom because they are already
wise and do not need wisdom, nor do the ignorant love wisdom since they do not realize that
they need wisdom. Love falls between ignorance and wisdom because his father, Resource, is
both wise and resourceful, while his mother, Poverty, is neither. Diotima suggests that Socrates'
earlier grandiose claims about Love's greatness were directed at the object of love and not the

Diotima Part 1 201D-206B

lover himself. Beauty, perfection, and so on, are the qualities of the things we love, but the lover
himself is not at all like this.
Next, Diotima asks Socrates why Love is love of beautiful things or of good things. Socrates
replies that Love wants these things to become his own so that he will be happy. Diotima has
Socrates agree that everyone always wants good things and happiness to be theirs forever. In that
case, everyone would be a lover, but we only call certain people lovers. The reason is that, while
everyone is in love, we only call a certain class of those in love "lovers." This is similar to the
fact that while everyone who creates composes something, we would only call those who create
music "composers."
So while love constitutes a desire for all kinds of good things and happiness, those who are
money-makers, athletes, or philosophers are not normally called "lovers." Diotima dismisses the
idea (that was put forth by Aristophanes) that lovers are in search of their other half, claiming
instead that lovers love what is good. We would be willing to have limbs amputated if we
thought they were diseased and bad, suggesting that we only want to be attached to what is good.
Socrates and Diotima agree that love is the desire to have the good forever.