From the book
Symposium
Plato · Diotimos Editions · 2026
Browse this book’s lexicon →Orientation
At a Glance
- The wordThe exchange verbs bring two valuations into relation.
- In the SymposiumAlcibiades thinks that Socrates’ serious attraction to his youth is a fortunate opportunity.
- In this editionThe source note identifies the quotation as the exchange of Glaucus’ golden armour for Diomedes’ bronze armour in the Iliad.
- A place to readAgathon’s contact-and-flow image supplies an earlier model of easy acquisition.
Meaning
The exchange verbs bring two valuations into relation. Pleonektein makes the asymmetry explicit: one party would secure more than an equal return. The point is not merely that wisdom is precious, but that the proposed method of obtaining it rests on an untested estimate of both parties.
Use in the book
Alcibiades thinks that Socrates’ serious attraction to his youth is a fortunate opportunity. By granting favours he expects to hear everything Socrates knows. He presents this as an ethical choice: becoming as good as possible comes first, and intelligent observers should approve his compliance with such a helper. Socrates does not simply accept the offered division of roles.
His reply begins with conditions. If Alcibiades’ account is true and Socrates possesses a power that can make him better, then Alcibiades sees a beauty vastly beyond his own fine form. He would be acquiring the truth of beautiful things for an opinion or appearance of them, gold for bronze. The Homeric allusion illustrates unequal worth, not a monetary tariff for instruction. Socrates then tells him to examine more carefully whether he is overlooking Socrates’ being nothing at all. The supposed treasure and its accessibility remain questions, not conceded facts.
The exchange thus recalls Agathon’s earlier wish that wisdom could flow by bodily contact from the fuller person into the emptier. In both scenes close physical association is imagined as a convenient way to acquire a good. The failed night does not show that learning from another is impossible; it shows that Alcibiades’ proposed transaction does not secure what he wants. Socrates offers instead future deliberation about what will be best for both.
Places to read
- 175c–e2Agathon’s contact-and-flow image supplies an earlier model of easy acquisition.
- 216e–217a2Alcibiades sees inner treasure and imagines bodily favour will purchase access.
- 218c–219b2The proposal receives a conditional reply and the gold-for-bronze comparison.
- 219b–e2Physical proximity fails to capture Socrates or make the bargain succeed.
Translation in this edition
The source note identifies the quotation as the exchange of Glaucus’ golden armour for Diomedes’ bronze armour in the Iliad. The English retains “if” and the warning “lest you fail to notice that I am nothing.” Omitting either would turn Socrates’ testing reply into a straightforward assertion that he possesses transferable wisdom.
ἀλλάσσω (allassō)
allassō — To exchange one thing for another; the proposed equivalence of values is precisely what Socrates questions.
- 218e — ἀλλάξασθαι. Socrates describes Alcibiades’ proposal as exchanging beauty for beauty.
Read: Exchange and gold for bronze.
διαμείβομαι (diameibomai)
diameibomai — To exchange reciprocally, here sharpened by the Homeric contrast of gold and bronze.
- 219a — διαμείβεσθαι. Socrates interprets the proposed bargain as an unequal exchange.
Read: Exchange and gold for bronze.
πλεονεκτέω (pleonekteō)
pleonekteō — To obtain more or get the better of another in a transaction.
- 218e — πλεονεκτεῖν. If Socrates has the supposed power, Alcibiades would gain disproportionately.
Read: Exchange and gold for bronze.
χρύσεος (chryseos)
chryseos — Golden; in the quotation the neuter plural stands for golden things, originally armour.
- 219a — χρύσεα χαλκείων. Gold in exchange for bronze: the offered bodily attraction is not equivalent to the supposed inner good.
Read: Exchange and gold for bronze.