From the book
Symposium
Plato · Diotimos Editions · 2026
Browse this book’s lexicon →Orientation
At a Glance
- The wordDiēgeisthai is to tell a connected story; apangellein is to report words or events to someone else.
- In the SymposiumThe opening distinguishes knowing a story from attending its events.
- In this editionThe supplied translation retains “he said,” even when Apollodorus is reporting Aristodemus reporting a guest.
- A place to readGlaucon’s muddled report is corrected; Aristodemus is named and Socrates supplies limited confirmation.
Meaning
Diēgeisthai is to tell a connected story; apangellein is to report words or events to someone else. Phēmi supplies the repeated “he said” by which Plato keeps reports nested within reports. These are working verbs of the dialogue’s construction, not dispensable verbal padding.
Use in the book
The opening distinguishes knowing a story from attending its events. Glaucon has heard a report through someone who heard Phoenix, but its chronology is confused. Apollodorus corrects him: the dinner took place while they were still boys, whereas his own association with Socrates is less than three years old. His source is Aristodemus, a participant who also supplied Phoenix. Apollodorus has additionally asked Socrates about some of the material, and Socrates agreed with that account. “Some” is the limit of this verification; the passage does not certify every speech word for word.
At 174a Apollodorus undertakes to reproduce what Aristodemus related. The narration consequently contains Aristodemus’ recollections, the guests’ speeches, Socrates’ report of Diotima, and Alcibiades’ remembered private conversation with Socrates. Repeated “he said” formulas sometimes make the English cumbersome, but preserve whose knowledge or recollection warrants each statement.
The frame is neither an ordinary eyewitness transcript nor a declaration that the story is worthless. It offers a named chain of transmission, a limited check with Socrates, recent rehearsal, and explicit admissions of forgetting. Readers can distinguish the narrated occasion, the remembered accounts, and Plato’s composition without treating the confidently voiced claim of any guest as an unqualified authorial verdict.
Places to read
- 172a–173b2Glaucon’s muddled report is corrected; Aristodemus is named and Socrates supplies limited confirmation.
- 173c–174a2Apollodorus repeats a recently rehearsed account and undertakes to tell it from the beginning.
- 178aThe narrator identifies remembered and selected speeches rather than claiming complete reproduction.
- 223c–dAristodemus preserves the final argument’s main point but not its reasoning.
Translation in this edition
The supplied translation retains “he said,” even when Apollodorus is reporting Aristodemus reporting a guest. Its note identifies Glaucon as the acquaintance on the road, not the unnamed companion listening in the present frame. These persons must not be conflated.
ἀπαγγέλλω (apangellō)
apangellō — To report or bring back another person’s words; the relationship to the speaker is part of the claim to authority.
- 172b — ἀπαγγέλλειν. Glaucon calls Apollodorus especially entitled to report his companion’s speeches.
Read: Narrating and reporting.
διηγέομαι (diēgeomai)
diēgeomai — To relate an event or speech in an ordered account; in the frame it marks a report dependent on previous tellers.
- 172b — διηγεῖτο. Glaucon describes an earlier, unsatisfactory report.
- 174a — διηγήσασθαι. Apollodorus promises to try to tell it as Aristodemus told it.
Read: Narrating and reporting.
φημί (phēmi)
phēmi — To say; repeated reporting formulas keep different levels of narration visible.
- 174a — ἔφη. Apollodorus introduces what Aristodemus said about meeting Socrates.
Read: Narrating and reporting.