From the book
Symposium
Plato · Diotimos Editions · 2026
Browse this book’s lexicon →Orientation
At a Glance
- The wordThis word is an unusually consequential textual choice, not a secure basis for a whole theory of celibacy.
- In the SymposiumThe printed text describes someone pregnant in soul from youth, unwed, and reaching the age when he desires to give birth.
- In this editionThe word unwed translates the conjecture printed in the main text.
- A place to readThe description introduces the person seeking beauty for psychic birth.
Meaning
This word is an unusually consequential textual choice, not a secure basis for a whole theory of celibacy.
Use in the book
The printed text describes someone pregnant in soul from youth, unwed, and reaching the age when he desires to give birth. The edition reports divine as the reading of the manuscripts and papyrus, while adopting unwed by conjecture. The entry records what this edition actually prints without claiming that the conjecture is independently confirmed. The surrounding account of psychic generation does not impose a universal ban on marriage.
Places to read
- 209a–209bThe description introduces the person seeking beauty for psychic birth.
Translation in this edition
The word unwed translates the conjecture printed in the main text. The alternative divine belongs to the apparatus and the edition’s note; no new witness collation is claimed.
ᾔθεος (ēitheos)
ēitheos — Unwed or unmarried; the supplied text uses this of a soul-pregnant person reaching productive maturity.
- 209b — ᾔθεος. Burnet prints Parmentier’s conjecture in the description of psychic pregnancy.
Read: Unwed.