From the book
Symposium
Plato · Diotimos Editions · 2026
Browse this book’s lexicon →Orientation
At a Glance
- The wordThe porch is not Agathon’s dining room and not necessarily his own porch: the slave specifies the neighbours’.
- In the SymposiumSocrates’ pause displaces a guest from the expected route into dinner.
- In this edition“Neighbours’ porch” is a precise spatial detail.
- A place to readAn open door welcomes Aristodemus while Socrates remains in the neighbouring porch.
Meaning
The porch is not Agathon’s dining room and not necessarily his own porch: the slave specifies the neighbours’. Doors separate the ordered company from arrivals outside.
Use in the book
Socrates’ pause displaces a guest from the expected route into dinner. Later knocking introduces Alcibiades, and an accidentally open door allows the final crowd to enter unchecked. These concrete thresholds control who can join, delay, or dissolve the company. They can support a reading about access to philosophical company without needing to become a fixed allegory.
Places to read
Translation in this edition
“Neighbours’ porch” is a precise spatial detail. It should not be silently replaced by “Agathon’s porch” merely because the dinner is his.
θύρα (thyra)
thyra — A door; openings and arrivals repeatedly govern the party’s changes.
- 174e — θύραν. Aristodemus finds Agathon’s door open.
- 223b — θύρας. The second band of revellers finds the doors open and enters.
Read: Porch and threshold.
πρόθυρον (prothyron)
prothyron — A porch or space before a door, here the neighbours’ place where Socrates stops.
- 175a — προθύρῳ. Socrates is reported standing in the neighbours’ porch.
- 175d — προθύροις. Agathon imagines that a wise discovery arrived there.
Read: Porch and threshold.