From the book
Symposium
Plato · Diotimos Editions · 2026
Browse this book’s lexicon →Orientation
At a Glance
- The wordAn image can resemble what it does not itself fully instantiate.
- In the SymposiumDiotima’s culminating claim joins contemplation to ethical production.
- In this editionThe English supplies virtue with the feminine true adjective in the first contrast and then translates the explicitly repeated noun in the following clause.
- A place to readPhaedrus’ phantom of Orpheus’ wife supplies a thematic comparison in different Greek vocabulary.
Meaning
An image can resemble what it does not itself fully instantiate. True here means genuine virtue, not merely an accurate sentence about virtue. Nurture matters because giving birth is not treated as the end of responsibility for the offspring.
Use in the book
Diotima’s culminating claim joins contemplation to ethical production. The person who sees beauty with the appropriate means and keeps company with it will there alone be able to generate not images of virtue but true virtue, because the object touched is true rather than an image. This is the local reason for the contrast. The passage does not enumerate every earlier product that should now be assigned to the inferior category, so one should not casually label all poems, laws and educational friendships counterfeit.
The birth imagery has persisted from bodily generation through psychic offspring and the proliferating speeches of the ascent. Its final application prevents a reading of the highest life as passive visual consumption. Yet the genuine product is not guaranteed by a fleeting encounter alone: Diotima adds nurtured it. Becoming loved by the gods belongs to the person who has both generated and reared true virtue. The sentence then offers its qualified culmination concerning immortality, if such a thing belongs to any human being.
Phaedrus’ phantom of Orpheus’ wife supplies a thematic comparison, but uses different Greek vocabulary; the two passages must not be presented as attestations of the same noun-family. It is also distinct from the divine statues inside the Silenus figures in Alcibiades’ praise. Those statues can suggest an inner value concealed by an unpromising exterior; they should not be silently identified with the inferior images of virtue excluded at 212a.
Places to read
- 179dPhaedrus’ phantom of Orpheus’ wife supplies a thematic comparison in different Greek vocabulary.
- 209a–209e2Psychic products and their common rearing prepare the final birth.
- 210dPhilosophical contemplation is already productive in speeches and thoughts.
- 211e–212a2Contact with true beauty, true virtue, nurture, divine favour and qualified immortality.
- 215a–215b; 222aAlcibiades’ divine statues form a distinct image and vocabulary.
Translation in this edition
The English supplies virtue with the feminine true adjective in the first contrast and then translates the explicitly repeated noun in the following clause. This makes the ellipsis intelligible without changing its referent. The means of vision is not explicitly named as mind.
ἀληθής (alēthēs)
alēthēs — True or genuine; here qualifying virtue rather than merely a statement.
- 212a — ἀρετὴν ἀληθῆ. True virtue must be generated and nurtured.
Read: True virtue and images.
εἴδωλον (eidōlon)
eidōlon — An image or semblance; at the culmination, an image of virtue is contrasted with the genuine thing.
- 212a — οὐκ εἴδωλα ἀρετῆς. The successful beholder gives birth not to images of virtue.
- 212a — οὐκ εἰδώλου. The reason given is that the beholder touches no image.
Read: True virtue and images.
θεοφιλής (theophilēs)
theophilēs — Loved by the gods; a consequence attributed to the producer and nurturer of true virtue.
- 212a — θεοφιλεῖ γενέσθαι. Becoming god-loved follows the twofold condition.
Read: True virtue and images.
τρέφω (trephō)
trephō — To nourish or rear; ethical production requires sustained nurture.
- 212a — θρεψαμένῳ. The condition joins nurture to having given birth.
Read: True virtue and images.