From the book
Symposium
Plato · Diotimos Editions · 2026
Browse this book’s lexicon →Orientation
At a Glance
- The wordThe insect comparison belongs to the myth’s contrast between two arrangements of generation.
- In the SymposiumAristophanes says the original creatures begot and gave birth into the earth like cicadas.
- In this editionThe edition’s “cicadas” translates the explicit insect name.
- A place to readThe second divine device changes generation and makes everyday life sustainable.
Meaning
The insect comparison belongs to the myth’s contrast between two arrangements of generation.
Use in the book
Aristophanes says the original creatures begot and gave birth into the earth like cicadas. Zeus’ later device makes generation occur in one another and makes sexual satisfaction possible, allowing the embracing halves to resume work. The comparison is part of a narrated prehistoric anatomy, not a scientific account of human reproduction.
Places to read
Translation in this edition
The edition’s “cicadas” translates the explicit insect name. The source does not elaborate its biology or explain the comparison further.
τέττιξ (tettix)
tettix — A cicada, used to characterize the original humans’ manner of generating into the earth rather than into one another.
- 191c — οἱ τέττιγες. The comparison precedes Zeus’ relocation of the genitals.
Read: Cicadas and birth into earth.