From the book
Symposium
Plato · Diotimos Editions · 2026
Browse this book’s lexicon →Orientation
At a Glance
- The wordAnypodētos means without footwear.
- In the SymposiumAristodemus’ habitual bare feet initially distinguish the narrator who will accompany Socrates.
- In this editionThe translation renders blautai “slippers,” himation “cloak,” and tribōn “worn cloak.”
- A place to readAristodemus is barefoot; Socrates’ slippers are unusual and festive.
Meaning
Anypodētos means without footwear. Himation is an ordinary cloak; tribōn specifies a worn one. The concrete vocabulary makes poverty, ceremony, attempted intimacy, and bodily endurance legible without turning every garment into an allegorical object.
Use in the book
Aristodemus’ habitual bare feet initially distinguish the narrator who will accompany Socrates. Socrates himself appears unusually bathed and shod: he says he has made himself beautiful for the beautiful Agathon. A small deviation from habit introduces the dinner’s play over beauty.
The barefoot Love of Diotima’s birth-story brings a suggestive resemblance to this Socratic world, but the dialogue does not simply announce that Socrates and Love are the same being. Love’s lack of shoes belongs to a larger portrait of poverty and resourceful pursuit. Socrates’ barefoot walk on ice, by contrast, is Alcibiades’ evidence for extraordinary endurance. Other soldiers protect their feet with felt and sheepskins; they interpret his ease as contempt for them, an interpretation the narrator reports rather than proves.
At 219b the two cloaks must remain distinct. Alcibiades wraps his own himation around Socrates, then lies under Socrates’ worn tribōn and embraces him. The physical closeness sharpens the point of the following denial: nothing sexual, by Alcibiades’ own account, results. The cloak therefore does not itself settle whether a shared bed or association includes sexual activity. In the winter campaign the same ordinary category of garment becomes a measure of what Socrates does not need to add.
Places to read
- 173b–174a2Aristodemus is barefoot; Socrates’ slippers are unusual and festive.
- 203dLove’s barefoot poverty supplies a possible dramatic resemblance.
- 219b–d2Alcibiades’ cloak and Socrates’ worn cloak frame an unsuccessful seduction.
- 220a–bOrdinary clothing and bare feet contrast with the soldiers’ elaborate protection.
Translation in this edition
The translation renders blautai “slippers,” himation “cloak,” and tribōn “worn cloak.” These are three distinct lexical choices. The source notes compare Socrates’ customary clothing elsewhere, but the present entry does not require those external passages to identify the garments here.
ἀνυπόδητος (anypodētos)
anypodētos — Barefoot, a bodily detail shared by Aristodemus, Socrates, and Diotima’s portrait of Love.
- 173b — ἀνυπόδητος. Aristodemus is described as always barefoot.
- 203d — ἀνυπόδητος. Love is barefoot within the account of his poverty.
- 220b — ἀνυπόδητος. Socrates crosses ice barefoot.
Read: Bare feet and cloaks.
βλαῦται (blautai)
blautai — Slippers, here exceptional festive footwear rather than Socrates’ usual appearance.
- 174a — βλαύτας. Socrates wears slippers after bathing for Agathon’s dinner.
Read: Bare feet and cloaks.
ἱμάτιον (himation)
himation — A cloak or outer garment; its wearer and role must be identified in each scene.
- 219b — ἱμάτιον. Alcibiades puts his own cloak around Socrates.
- 220b — ἱμάτιον. Socrates wears his accustomed cloak in severe cold.
Read: Bare feet and cloaks.
τρίβων (tribōn)
tribōn — A worn cloak, specifically Socrates’ garment in the overnight encounter.
- 219b — τρίβωνα. Alcibiades lies under Socrates’ worn cloak.
Read: Bare feet and cloaks.