From the book
Symposium
Plato · Diotimos Editions · 2026
Browse this book’s lexicon →Orientation
At a Glance
- The wordThese phrases make the limits of mortal fulfilment explicit.
- In the SymposiumGeneration is not said to turn the mortal creature straightforwardly into an unchanging god.
- Reading contextGeneration is not said to turn the mortal creature straightforwardly into an unchanging god.
- A place to readThe immortality of generation receives a mortal qualification.
Meaning
These phrases make the limits of mortal fulfilment explicit.
Use in the book
Generation is not said to turn the mortal creature straightforwardly into an unchanging god. It is deathless in the way available to mortal nature, which is then explained through replacement and offspring. Keeping the qualifiers prevents the immortality vocabulary from promising more than the intermediate argument establishes. The different closing possibility at 212a must still be read on its own terms.
Places to read
δυνατός (dynatos)
dynatos — Possible or within a capacity.
- 207d — κατὰ τὸ δυνατὸν. Mortal nature seeks immortality only so far as it can.
ὡς (hōs)
hōs — As or in the capacity of; the local phrase limits the application of immortal.
- 206e — ὡς θνητῷ. Generation is everlasting and immortal for a mortal.