From the book
Symposium
Plato · Diotimos Editions · 2026
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At a Glance
- The wordThe phantom is not the recovered person.
- In the SymposiumIn this version Orpheus does not receive his wife and then lose her by looking back.
- In this editionBurnet’s continuous text has phasma; the apparatus reports a longer alternative form in other witnesses.
- A place to readThe unsuccessful descent and the punishment.
Meaning
The phantom is not the recovered person. Phaedrus makes the substitution an explicit sign of failure.
Use in the book
In this version Orpheus does not receive his wife and then lose her by looking back. The gods show only a phantom because, Phaedrus says, he contrived to enter Hades alive rather than daring to die as Alcestis did. His later death at women’s hands is represented as punishment. The dismissal of a lyre-singer as soft belongs to Phaedrus’ heroic valuation, not to the lexicon’s judgment on music.
Places to read
- 179d–eThe unsuccessful descent and the punishment.
Translation in this edition
Burnet’s continuous text has phasma; the apparatus reports a longer alternative form in other witnesses. The supplied note explicitly contrasts the better-known later look-back narrative, which must not replace this account.
κιθαρῳδός (kitharōidos)
kitharōidos — A singer to the lyre, invoked by Phaedrus as an explanation of Orpheus’ supposed softness.
- 179d — κιθαρῳδός. The profession colors the speaker’s adverse judgment.
Read: Orpheus and the phantom.
Ὀρφεύς (Orpheus)
Orpheus — Orpheus, the singer whom Phaedrus treats as an insufficiently courageous lover.
- 179d — Ὀρφέα. The gods send him away from Hades without the woman herself.
Read: Orpheus and the phantom.
φάσμα (phasma)
phasma — A phantom or apparition, distinguished from the actual wife Orpheus came to recover.
- 179d — φάσμα. What the gods show instead of granting the woman.
Read: Orpheus and the phantom.