DiotimosReading Desk

Erotic roles

Testing, pursuit and flight

βασανίζω (basanizō); διώκω (diōkō); φεύγω (pheugō); δίωξις (diōxis)

Testing is a process of discrimination, and pursuit and flight give it dramatic form.

From the book

Symposium

Plato · Diotimos Editions · 2026

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Orientation

At a Glance

  • The wordTesting is a process of discrimination, and pursuit and flight give it dramatic form.
  • In the SymposiumPausanias explains delay in courtship by the work time can do.
  • In this edition“Test” renders the repeated basanizō, not a single decisive examination.
  • A place to readTime, resistance and the testing of character.

Meaning

Testing is a process of discrimination, and pursuit and flight give it dramatic form. These verbs do not supply a uniform moral code: one must ask what is pursued, what is avoided, and why.

Use in the book

Pausanias explains delay in courtship by the work time can do. Quick capture is suspect because lasting character has not yet been tested. Money and coercive political advantage produce a different kind of capture, not the stable friendship he values. The law, imagined as a contest-organizer, assigns pursuit to one role and flight to the other to make distinctions visible. His account is not a claim that all resistance is a hidden invitation: it is his reconstruction of the particular conventional system under discussion.

Aristophanes changes the sought object into the lost whole; Diotima then asks whether that object is good. Alcibiades reverses the moral value of flight again: he evades Socrates because he has acknowledged a demand he does not fulfill. Direction alone cannot determine whether the movement is well ordered. The vocabulary carries the reader from external courtship patterns into the problem of directing an entire life.

Places to read

  1. 183e–184bTime, resistance and the testing of character.
  2. 192e–193a2Pursuit of the whole defines Aristophanes’ love.
  3. 205d–206b2Diotima changes the criterion and asks how the good is pursued.
  4. 216a–c2Flight becomes avoidance of acknowledged self-care.
  5. 219eSocrates escapes Alcibiades’ expected means of capture.

Translation in this edition

“Test” renders the repeated basanizō, not a single decisive examination. “Catching”, “being caught”, “pursuing” and “fleeing” belong to Pausanias’ metaphorical organization of the relationship; their attribution and context should remain explicit.

βασανίζω (basanizō)

basanizō — To test or assay; Pausanias represents time and custom as testing which kind of lover and beloved one confronts.

  • 184a — βασανίζειν. The law seeks to test lovers well.
  • 184a — βασανίζων. The law is pictured as organizer and examiner of a contest.

Read: Testing, pursuit and flight.

διώκω (diōkō)

diōkō — To pursue, seek or chase; erotic pursuit becomes an image for directed striving.

  • 184a — διώκειν. The law encourages the lover to pursue.

Read: Testing, pursuit and flight.

δίωξις (diōxis)

diōxis — Pursuit, the action-noun paired with desire in Aristophanes’ description of love for the whole.

  • 192e–193a2 — διώξει. Aristophanes includes pursuit in his formula of love for the whole.

Read: Testing, pursuit and flight.

φεύγω (pheugō)

pheugō — To flee or avoid, either a protective response to a bad lover or a refusal to confront a demanding good.

  • 184a — φεύγειν. The beloved is encouraged to flee so the pursuit can test character.
  • 216b — φεύγω. Alcibiades flees the person before whom he feels shame.

Read: Testing, pursuit and flight.