From the book
Symposium
Plato · Diotimos Editions · 2026
Browse this book’s lexicon →Orientation
At a Glance
- The wordRoundness is first a specified bodily feature, then part of the explanatory genealogy.
- In the SymposiumThe original humans have four hands and four legs, two opposed faces and one head.
- In this editionThe English “form” here describes a bodily configuration.
- A place to readAnatomy, movement and cosmic parentage.
Meaning
Roundness is first a specified bodily feature, then part of the explanatory genealogy.
Use in the book
The original humans have four hands and four legs, two opposed faces and one head. They walk upright but can move rapidly by rolling on their eight limbs like tumblers. Their rounded forms and paths are explained through likeness to sun, earth and moon, the three kinds’ parents. This fantastic bodily completeness supplies the physical starting point for the later language of division and restoration.
Places to read
Translation in this edition
The English “form” here describes a bodily configuration. It should not automatically be identified with the metaphysical status of the beautiful itself later in Diotima’s speech.
κυβιστάω (kybistaō)
kybistaō — To tumble or turn cartwheels; a familiar bodily action explains the mythic humans’ rapid movement.
- 190a — κυβιστῶντες. The comparison uses actual tumblers to make the strange body imaginable.
Read: Roundness and cartwheels.
στρογγύλος (strongylos)
strongylos — Round, describing the original humans’ entire bodily shape in Aristophanes’ story.
- 189e — στρογγύλον. The whole form is circular, with back and sides all round.
Read: Roundness and cartwheels.