From the book
Symposium
Plato · Diotimos Editions · 2026
Browse this book’s lexicon →Orientation
At a Glance
- The wordWitnesses and oaths are ways a speaker presses a claim upon hearers.
- In the SymposiumSocrates’ appeal to more than thirty thousand Greek witnesses is part of his ironic estimate of Agathon’s public success.
- In this editionThe repeated formula “you will not say that I lie” is a challenge to Socrates within the story.
- A place to readThe public audience is used in Socrates’ teasing praise.
Meaning
Witnesses and oaths are ways a speaker presses a claim upon hearers. They offer an evidential posture, not automatic independent verification.
Use in the book
Socrates’ appeal to more than thirty thousand Greek witnesses is part of his ironic estimate of Agathon’s public success. Alcibiades repeatedly appeals to Socrates’ ability to contradict him, offers witnesses, and eventually swears to the uneventful outcome of the shared night. These devices make the testimony emphatic while leaving its narrative status intact: the reader is hearing Alcibiades’ report inside another remembered report.
Places to read
Translation in this edition
The repeated formula “you will not say that I lie” is a challenge to Socrates within the story. It should not be silently upgraded into a statement that every detail has been independently corroborated.
μά (ma)
ma — An oath particle introducing the deity or deities invoked; it does not itself mean that the assertion is true.
- 219c — μὰ θεούς, μὰ θεάς. Alcibiades swears by gods and goddesses that the night produced no sexual result.
Read: Witnesses and oaths.
μάρτυς (martys)
martys — A witness called to support a claim or to establish the public visibility of an achievement.
- 175e — μάρτυσι. The theatrical audience serves as witness to Agathon’s brilliant wisdom in Socrates’ teasing praise.
- 215b — μάρτυρας. Alcibiades threatens to bring witnesses to Socrates’ insolence.
Read: Witnesses and oaths.
ὄμνυμι (omnymi)
omnymi — To swear an oath, invoked as a guarantee of sincerity in a difficult account.
- 215d — ὀμόσας. Alcibiades says he would describe his experience on oath.
Read: Witnesses and oaths.