From the book
Symposium
Plato · Diotimos Editions · 2026
Browse this book’s lexicon →Orientation
At a Glance
- The wordHunting, plotting and weaving devices describe purposeful ingenuity.
- In the SymposiumThe genealogy makes Love both needy and inventive.
- Reading contextThe genealogy makes Love both needy and inventive.
- A place to readPoverty’s plot and Love’s inherited inventiveness.
Meaning
Hunting, plotting and weaving devices describe purposeful ingenuity. Device can also name a structural means, without implying dishonest trickery.
Use in the book
The genealogy makes Love both needy and inventive. His pursuit of beauty and good is strenuous and strategic, unlike the polished beloved Socrates had imagined. When the same device-noun returns in the mortality argument, it names the process of replacement. The later occurrence does not accuse mortal nature of deception; it identifies the route by which a limited creature continues.
Places to read
ἐπίβουλος (epiboulos)
epiboulos — Plotting against or laying plans for an object.
- 203d — ἐπίβουλός. Love lays plans for beautiful and good things after his father’s nature.
Read: Hunting and devices.
θηρευτής (thēreutēs)
thēreutēs — Hunter, an image of Love’s active pursuit.
- 203d — θηρευτὴς δεινός. Love is a formidable hunter, not a passive beautiful object.
Read: Hunting and devices.
μηχανή (mēchanē)
mēchanē — Device, contrivance or means of achieving something.
- 203d — πλέκων μηχανάς. Love continually weaves devices.
- 208b — ταύτῃ τῇ μηχανῇ. Replacement is the device by which mortals share in immortality.
Read: Hunting and devices.