Symposium

Name: Symposium
Author: Plato

Ancient Greek with an independent English translation.

SymposiumSymposium · 205b–205e

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Symposium · 205b–205e

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Ancient Greek

p. 94

τι εἶδος ὀνομάζομεν, τὸ τοῦ ὅλου ἐπιτιθέντες ὄνομα, ἔρωτα, τὰ δὲ ἄλλα ἄλλοις καταχρώμεθα ὀνόμασιν.

Ὥσπερ τί; ἦν δ’ ἐγώ.

Ὥσπερ τόδε. οἶσθ’ ὅτι ποίησίς ἐστί τι πολύ· ἡ γάρ τοι ἐκ τοῦ μὴ ὄντος εἰς τὸ ὂν ἰόντι ὁτῳοῦν αἰτία πᾶσά ἐστι 205c ποίησις, ὥστε καὶ αἱ ὑπὸ πάσαις ταῖς τέχναις ἐργασίαι ποιήσεις εἰσὶ καὶ οἱ τούτων δημιουργοὶ πάντες ποιηταί.

Ἀληθῆ λέγεις.

Ἀλλ’ ὅμως, ἦ δ’ ἥ, οἶσθ’ ὅτι οὐ καλοῦνται ποιηταὶ ἀλλὰ ἄλλα ἔχουσιν ὀνόματα, ἀπὸ δὲ πάσης τῆς ποιήσεως ἓν μόριον ἀφορισθὲν τὸ περὶ τὴν μουσικὴν καὶ τὰ μέτρα τῷ τοῦ ὅλου ὀνόματι προσαγορεύεται. ποίησις γὰρ τοῦτο μόνον καλεῖται, καὶ οἱ ἔχοντες τοῦτο τὸ μόριον τῆς ποιήσεως ποιηταί.

Ἀληθῆ λέγεις, ἔφην.

205dΟὕτω τοίνυν καὶ περὶ τὸν ἔρωτα. τὸ μὲν κεφάλαιόν ἐστι πᾶσα ἡ τῶν ἀγαθῶν ἐπιθυμία καὶ τοῦ εὐδαιμονεῖν ὁ μέγιστός τε καὶ δολερὸς ἔρως παντί· ἀλλ’ οἱ μὲν ἄλλῃ τρεπόμενοι πολλαχῇ ἐπ’ αὐτόν, ἢ κατὰ χρηματισμὸν ἢ κατὰ φιλογυμναστίαν ἢ κατὰ φιλοσοφίαν, οὔτε ἐρᾶν καλοῦνται οὔτε ἐρασταί, οἱ δὲ κατὰ ἕν τι εἶδος ἰόντες τε καὶ ἐσπουδακότες τὸ τοῦ ὅλου ὄνομα ἴσχουσιν, ἔρωτά τε καὶ ἐρᾶν καὶ ἐρασταί.

Κινδυνεύεις ἀληθῆ, ἔφην ἐγώ, λέγειν.

Καὶ λέγεται μέν γέ τις, ἔφη, λόγος, ὡς οἳ ἂν τὸ ἥμισυ 205e ἑαυτῶν ζητῶσιν, οὗτοι ἐρῶσιν· ὁ δ’ ἐμὸς λόγος οὔτε ἡμίσεός φησιν εἶναι τὸν ἔρωτα οὔτε ὅλου, ἐὰν μὴ τυγχάνῃ γέ που, ὦ ἑταῖρε, ἀγαθὸν ὄν, ἐπεὶ αὑτῶν γε καὶ πόδας καὶ χεῖρας ἐθέλουσιν ἀποτέμνεσθαι οἱ ἄνθρωποι, ἐὰν αὐτοῖς δοκῇ τὰ

Symposium

p. 95

a certain form and name it, putting on it the name of the whole, love, and for the others we use other names.’

“‘Like what?’ I said.

“‘Like this. You know that making is something manifold; for surely every cause for anything whatever to pass from what is not into what is, is 205c making, so that the works done under all the crafts are makings, and their craftsmen are all poets.’

“‘What you say is true.’

“‘But all the same,’ she said,¹ ‘you know that they are not called poets but have other names, and that from all making one part has been marked off, the part concerned with music and metres, and is addressed by the name of the whole. For this alone is called making, and those who have this part of making, poets.’²

“‘What you say is true,’ I said.

205d“‘So too, then, with love. In sum, every desire of good things and of being happy is “the greatest and treacherous love” for everyone;³ but those who turn to it otherwise, in many ways, in money-making or in love of athletics or in philosophy, are neither said to be in love nor called lovers, while those who go after one form and are in earnest about it keep the name of the whole: love, and being in love, and lovers.’

“‘It looks like what you say is true,’ I said.

“‘And an account is told,’ she said, ’that those who 205e seek the half of themselves, these are in love;⁴ but my account says that love is neither of a half nor of a whole, unless, I take it, my companion, it is in fact good; since human beings are willing to have even their own feet and hands cut off, if it seems to them that the

1.She said: ē d’ hē, which the papyrus has here and at 206b1, and Bekker restored at 206a3 and 206c1; the manuscripts have ēdē, “already”, in all four places.

2.Poets: poiētai, literally “makers”, from poiein, “make”; poiēsis, “making”, was also the word for poetry. Diotima’s point is that the name of the whole has been given to one part. Agathon had used poiēsis of music and then of the making of all animals (196e–197a).

3.”The greatest and treacherous love”: Burnet spaces these words as a quotation, without naming a source; Schanz conjectured prōtos, “first”, for doleros, “treacherous” (apparatus, d3).

4.An account is told: Aristophanes’ story of the halves (191a–193a). When Socrates finishes, Aristophanes tries to answer, because Socrates had referred to his speech (212c).

About This Reading Edition

The complete Symposium, 172a–223d: at Agathon’s banquet the guests praise Love, Socrates recounts Diotima’s teaching, and Alcibiades praises Socrates. Burnet’s Greek faces a new Diotimos Editions English translation, with an introduction, key words, outline, glossary, critical apparatus, and linked translator notes.

Historical Text and Translation

Greek: Plato, Symposium, in John Burnet, Platonis Opera, volume II (Oxford, 1901; second edition, 1910), in a later impression printed by John Johnson and issued by Humphrey Milford no earlier than January 1935, as described by the supplied edition. Its Greek was taken from the Perseus Digital Library transcription and checked against photographs of that impression; Burnet’s readings and critical apparatus are retained. The digital Greek transcription and its modifications are attributed to the Perseus Digital Library, Tufts University, under CC BY-SA 4.0. English translation and editorial matter: Diotimos Editions, 2026.

About Diotimos Editions

This historical edition credits Diotimos Editions as its English translator.

Rights

The ancient Greek work and Burnet’s printed edition are in the public domain. The Perseus digital Greek transcription and its modifications are reused under CC BY-SA 4.0, as verified from the official Perseus repository license. The supplied edition reports checking its transcription against Burnet’s printed pages. The new English translation and editorial matter are credited to Diotimos Editions, 2026; no open license for those new contributions is stated in the supplied files.