From the book
Symposium
Plato · Diotimos Editions · 2026
Browse this book’s lexicon →Orientation
At a Glance
- The wordSleep and waking organise access to conversation.
- In the SymposiumAlcibiades’ private speech requires first checking that Socrates is awake.
- In this edition“Having put them to sleep” at the close is a playful active expression in the narrative.
- A place to readThe lamp is out and the slaves gone, but Socrates is awake.
Meaning
Sleep and waking organise access to conversation. The final cocks and daylight mark elapsed time with ordinary sensory details.
Use in the book
Alcibiades’ private speech requires first checking that Socrates is awake. At the symposium’s end Aristodemus’ sleep creates a gap in the report; his drowsiness after waking prevents full recall of the final argument. The two poets then fall asleep in turn while Socrates remains capable of his ordinary day. Bodily endurance and the limits of testimony coincide, without making the sleepy witnesses dishonest.
Places to read
Translation in this edition
“Having put them to sleep” at the close is a playful active expression in the narrative. No drug, spell, or deliberate sleep-inducing technique is described.
ἀλεκτρυών (alektryōn)
alektryōn — A cock, whose crowing marks the approach of day.
- 223c — ἀλεκτρυόνων. The cocks are already crowing when Aristodemus wakes.
Read: Sleep and dawn.
ἐγρήγορα (egrēgora)
egrēgora — To be awake, a perfect form used to describe a continuing waking state.
- 223c — ἐγρηγορέναι. Only Socrates and the two poets are still awake when Aristodemus wakes.
Read: Sleep and dawn.
καθεύδω (katheudō)
katheudō — To sleep; whether someone is asleep determines what can be said, heard, or remembered.
- 218c — καθεύδεις. Alcibiades asks whether Socrates is asleep before making his proposal.
Read: Sleep and dawn.
ὕπνος (hypnos)
hypnos — Sleep, an ordinary bodily need that also limits the narrator’s access to speech.
- 223b — ὕπνον. Sleep overtakes Aristodemus after the second crowd’s arrival.
Read: Sleep and dawn.