Dying for another and dying after · Lexicon

From the book

Symposium

Plato · Diotimos Editions · 2026

Orientation

At a Glance

The wordThe difference between the two death-compounds matters to the argument.
In the SymposiumPhaedrus claims that love makes extraordinary courage possible and that lovers alone willingly die for another, expressly including women.
In this editionThe English carefully preserves “die for” and “die after”.
A place to readThe imagined army and love-inspired courage.

Meaning

The difference between the two death-compounds matters to the argument. Alcestis dies in her husband’s place, while Achilles chooses a death that follows the already dead Patroclus. Divine inspiration describes the lover’s motive-power, not the beloved’s rank.

Use in the book

Phaedrus claims that love makes extraordinary courage possible and that lovers alone willingly die for another, expressly including women. Alcestis supplies the first example. Orpheus supplies the negative contrast: his attempt to enter Hades alive is treated as a refusal of the necessary daring. Achilles then receives greater honor because, in this speaker’s account, he is the beloved who freely responds to his lover. Phaedrus corrects Aeschylus’ assignment of the roles and makes Achilles’ youth and beauty evidence for his own assignment.

The comparative is easily reversed. The lover is called more divine because inspired; precisely for that reason the gods find the beloved’s responsive devotion more admirable and reward it more. This is Phaedrus’ explanation of unequal rewards, not an uncomplicated claim that divine inspiration and merit are the same.

Diotima first broadens the pattern beyond heroic humans: even weak animals fight the strongest and face death to rear their offspring (207a–b2), a phenomenon not adequately explained by deliberate human calculation. She then returns to Alcestis and Achilles while explaining the desire for immortal reputation. The same deaths now bear another explanatory emphasis. Reading the passages together shows the dialogue reinterpreting its own examples, rather than establishing a single unqualified lesson that death proves love or that self-sacrifice guarantees immortality.

Places to read

178e–179b2The imagined army and love-inspired courage.
179b–dAlcestis and Orpheus provide opposed examples.
179e–180b2Achilles dies for and after Patroclus; beloved and lover receive different honors.
207a–c2Animal defense and nurture extend the phenomenon beyond heroic deliberation.
208c–e2Diotima reinterprets heroic sacrifice through immortal memory.

Translation in this edition

The English carefully preserves “die for” and “die after”. At 180b “a lover is a more divine thing than a darling” explains why the beloved’s reciprocation is more admired; it does not identify Achilles as the lover.

ἔνθεος (entheos)

entheos — God-filled or divinely inspired; in Phaedrus’ account the lover’s courage has Love as its inspiring source.

179a — ἔνθεον. Love could inspire even a bad man toward virtue.
180b — ἔνθεος. The lover is more divine because god-filled.

Read: Dying for another and dying after.

ἐπαποθνῄσκω (epapothnēiskō)

epapothnēiskō — To die after or upon another’s death; Phaedrus distinguishes Achilles’ choice from merely substituting for the other.

180a — ἐπαποθανεῖν. Achilles dies after Patroclus has already died.
208d — ἐπαποθανεῖν. Diotima recalls the same heroic sequence.

Read: Dying for another and dying after.

ὑπεραποθνῄσκω (hyperapothnēiskō)

hyperapothnēiskō — To die on behalf of another; the compound marks the beneficiary or cause for which the life is given.

179b — ὑπεραποθνῄσκειν. Phaedrus says lovers alone are willing to die for another.
180a — ὑπεραποθανεῖν. Achilles’ act is first described as dying for Patroclus.
207b — ὑπεραποθνῄσκειν. Diotima broadens the phenomenon to animals willing to die for offspring.

Read: Dying for another and dying after.