From the book
Symposium
Plato · Diotimos Editions · 2026
Browse this book’s lexicon →Orientation
At a Glance
- The wordThe divine name identifies the bearer of the tender-footed description, not another name for Love.
- In the SymposiumAgathon cites Ate’s movement over people’s heads rather than the ground to support an inference from soft footing to tenderness.
- In this editionThe edition’s note identifies the Homeric context and glosses Ate as “Delusion”.
- A place to readHomer’s example and Agathon’s transfer of the inference.
Meaning
The divine name identifies the bearer of the tender-footed description, not another name for Love.
Use in the book
Agathon cites Ate’s movement over people’s heads rather than the ground to support an inference from soft footing to tenderness. He then transfers and refines the reasoning: Love dwells among soft souls and characters. The analogy is deliberately ingenious, and its attribution to a god of destructive delusion complicates the bland sweetness of the encomium without requiring an imported theory of Ate.
Places to read
Translation in this edition
The edition’s note identifies the Homeric context and glosses Ate as “Delusion”. The article keeps the distinction between the quoted feet and Agathon’s claim about the god’s overall tenderness.
Ἄτη (Atē)
Atē — Ate, Delusion, invoked from Homer as a goddess with tender feet for Agathon’s analogy about Love.
- 195d — Ἄτην. Agathon introduces the Homeric example.
Read: Ate and tender feet.