From the book
Symposium
Plato · Diotimos Editions · 2026
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At a Glance
- The wordUnlikeness of conditions and opposition between constituents belong to successive steps of the doctor’s argument, not to a single unexplained maxim that all opposites naturally attract.
- In the SymposiumEryximachus first distinguishes healthy and sick states and their different desires.
- In this editionThe dative in each printed pair marks the opposed relation: cold to hot, bitter to sweet, dry to wet.
- A place to readDifferent states, different desires and the doctor’s reconciliation.
Meaning
Unlikeness of conditions and opposition between constituents belong to successive steps of the doctor’s argument, not to a single unexplained maxim that all opposites naturally attract.
Use in the book
Eryximachus first distinguishes healthy and sick states and their different desires. He then gives the practitioner the task of making hostile opposites friends and lovers. The reconciliation is something expertise produces, not an automatic fact already present merely because the objects are opposite. The seasonal extension similarly makes the quality of their blend, rather than any one constituent by itself, determine the outcome.
Places to read
Translation in this edition
The dative in each printed pair marks the opposed relation: cold to hot, bitter to sweet, dry to wet. “Unlike desires unlike things” must retain the preceding reference to unlike bodily conditions.
ἀνόμοιος (anomoios)
anomoios — Unlike: differing bodily conditions desire differing objects in Eryximachus’ initial formulation.
- 186b — τὸ δὲ ἀνόμοιον ἀνομοίων. The unlike condition is paired with unlike objects of desire.
Read: Opposites and unlike objects.
γλυκύς (glykys)
glykys — Sweet, the counterpart of bitter.
- 186d — γλυκεῖ. Dative counterpart to bitter.
Read: Opposites and unlike objects.
ἐναντίος (enantios)
enantios — Opposite; the superlative identifies constituents most hostile to one another that medicine must reconcile.
- 186d — τὰ ἐναντιώτατα. The most opposed constituents are the most hostile.
Read: Opposites and unlike objects.
θερμός (thermos)
thermos — Hot, the counterpart of cold in the body and seasons.
- 186d — θερμῷ. Dative counterpart to cold.
Read: Opposites and unlike objects.
ξηρός (xēros)
xēros — Dry, paired with wet; the same pair later enters the account of seasons.
- 186d — ξηρὸν ὑγρῷ. Dry in relation to wet.
Read: Opposites and unlike objects.
πικρός (pikros)
pikros — Bitter, paired with sweet in the same list.
- 186d — πικρὸν γλυκεῖ. Bitter in relation to sweet.
Read: Opposites and unlike objects.
ὑγρός (hygros)
hygros — Wet or moist in the physical pair opposed to dry; distinct from Agathon’s figurative suppleness.
- 186d — ὑγρῷ. Dative counterpart to dry.
Read: Opposites and unlike objects.
ψυχρός (psychros)
psychros — Cold, paired with hot as one example of opposed bodily constituents.
- 186d — ψυχρὸν θερμῷ. Cold in relation to hot.
Read: Opposites and unlike objects.