From the book
Symposium
Plato · Diotimos Editions · 2026
Browse this book’s lexicon →Orientation
At a Glance
- The wordOnar here names a likeness rather than a dream actually narrated.
- In the SymposiumSocrates calls his wisdom paltry or disputable, like a dream, against Agathon’s brilliant and publicly witnessed achievement.
- In this editionThe edition’s “being like a dream” attaches to Socrates’ wisdom.
- A place to readDreamlike personal wisdom is set against Agathon’s theatrical brilliance.
Meaning
Onar here names a likeness rather than a dream actually narrated.
Use in the book
Socrates calls his wisdom paltry or disputable, like a dream, against Agathon’s brilliant and publicly witnessed achievement. The extravagant contrast belongs to the irony Agathon immediately recognises as insolence. It does not prove that Socrates has received a dream revelation in the porch or that all his thought is unreal.
Places to read
- 175d–eDreamlike personal wisdom is set against Agathon’s theatrical brilliance.
Translation in this edition
The edition’s “being like a dream” attaches to Socrates’ wisdom. Diotima’s separate reference to divine-human communication during waking and sleep at 203a is not the same image or a narrated explanation of this comparison.
ὄναρ (onar)
onar — A dream; in the opening comparison, a figure for wisdom that is uncertain or disputable.
- 175e — ὥσπερ ὄναρ. Socrates compares his own wisdom to a dream.
Read: Dreamlike wisdom.