From the book
Symposium
Plato · Diotimos Editions · 2026
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At a Glance
- The wordThe Greek actually names the head of Gorgias; the Gorgon belongs to the recognized Homeric allusion and pun.
- In the SymposiumSocrates jokes that Agathon’s brilliant ending may send a formidable speaker’s head against him and petrify him into silence.
- In this editionThe note identifies Odysseus’ fear of the Gorgon head and the pun on the rhetorician’s name.
- A place to readAgathon’s patterned ending and the petrifaction joke.
Meaning
The Greek actually names the head of Gorgias; the Gorgon belongs to the recognized Homeric allusion and pun.
Use in the book
Socrates jokes that Agathon’s brilliant ending may send a formidable speaker’s head against him and petrify him into silence. The compliment is followed by his distinction between truthful praise and lavish attribution without regard to truth. The joke marks both Agathon’s rhetorical achievement and Socrates’ refusal to compete on identical terms. It is not a literal assertion that rhetorical beauty prevents inquiry: Socrates immediately begins a different kind of speaking.
Places to read
Translation in this edition
The note identifies Odysseus’ fear of the Gorgon head and the pun on the rhetorician’s name. It also distinguishes the “dread” or “formidable” force of the adjective in the allusion. “Gorgon” is an English lookup title, not claimed as a Greek word printed in this passage.
ἀφωνία (aphōnia)
aphōnia — Speechlessness, the figurative petrifaction feared by Socrates after Agathon’s display.
- 198c — τῇ ἀφωνίᾳ. The effect that would turn Socrates to stone.
Read: Gorgias and the Gorgon.
Γοργίας (Gorgias)
Gorgias — Gorgias, the rhetorician whose name Socrates turns into a pun on the petrifying Gorgon.
- 198c — Γοργίου κεφαλὴν. The head sent in Agathon’s speech against Socrates’ speech.
Read: Gorgias and the Gorgon.