From the book
Symposium
Plato · Diotimos Editions · 2026
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At a Glance
- The wordThe political verb makes bodily division resemble the dispersal of a community.
- In the SymposiumAristophanes compares humans separated by the god to Arcadians separated by the Spartans.
- In this editionThe note identifies the historical comparison and its apparent anachronism.
- A place to readLost unity, political comparison and the warning of another cut.
Meaning
The political verb makes bodily division resemble the dispersal of a community.
Use in the book
Aristophanes compares humans separated by the god to Arcadians separated by the Spartans. The comparison gives the myth a civic scale: unity can be lost through punitive dispersal, and another division remains a threat. The edition connects it with Mantinea’s historical breakup, an event later than the dramatic date of the dinner; that dating inference belongs to editorial historical interpretation.
Places to read
Translation in this edition
The note identifies the historical comparison and its apparent anachronism. This entry does not infer a precise composition date beyond what that note supports.
Ἀρκάδες (Arkades)
Arkades — Arcadians, the people used in Aristophanes’ simile for the gods’ breaking apart of human unity.
- 193a — Ἀρκάδες. The comparison with Spartan action.
διοικίζω (dioikizō)
dioikizō — To disperse or break up a settlement into separate habitations; transferred to humanity’s division.
- 193a — διῳκίσθημεν. Humans are said to have been broken up because of injustice.