Symposium - AIC

Anne Gabriel Wersinger
Philoxenus, Agathon is a “passionate of novelty, a philokainos”.
It is not insignificant either that Timothy expressly claims novelty by claiming the name of
the “new Zeus” and by repudiating the Muses of the past:
“Go away Muses of the Beginning (Apito Mousa Archon)” (fr. 20, in Athenaeus,
Deipnosophists, 122c-d) 21 .
Through the synecdoche operated by Diotima, one may reckognize an undeniably Orphic theme
according to which creation and musical poetry considered as begetting a newborn child are
identified 22 .
Subversion of paiderastic intercourse: the beloved as a midwife
But to grasp the very significance of Diotima’s subversive operation, another key element is worth
noting. Indeed observe that Diotima subverts paiderastic relationship (one adult, the erastès is
supposed to appeal to a younger, the erômenos, and to assault him sexually) 23 by giving the erômenos
the posture of a midwife (206d2) and the erastès that of a mother, giving birth to beautiful
discourses 24 .
However, as Diotima herself gives birth to logoi face to Socrates, we must recognize that a
woman, pregnant with discourses, subtitutes herself to an erastès, facing Socrates himself being
invested with the character of an erômènos-midwife 25 .
This is understandable only by comparing the Symposium (where the figure of the midwife
remains passive, all the active part belonging fully to the one that is pregnant, 206d7), with the
Theaetetus where, on the contrary, Socrates as midwife expert in deliveries, masters the art of
delivering as well as aborting (151c4). Obviously, birth control involves the selection of products. It
means that, conversely, in the speech of Diotima, gestation takes over the product itself. Everything
happens as if, according to Diotima, the work as a result was worth less than its gestation, that is to
say, if one wants to translate this into logoi, the gestation of speech outweighs the speeches
themselves.
Philosophical gestation
Even if Diotima's speech is a pastiche composed by Plato for fun 26 , it offers a testimony on the
relationship between New music and Orphism, and on the semantic and conceptual transformations of
the concept of creation under the influence of Orphism. It looks as if the style of orphic religion, of
which it is agreed that it was not fixed in a dogmatic code, proceeded as a kind of wreath by profusion
of ingenious theories. Such could be the theory of the genious musician giving birth to a newborn
work, under the auspices of Orpheus. In this perspective, the metaphor of feminine pregnancy in
Diotima's speech would have the purpose of claiming that especially in thought matter such as
philosophy, where intelligence and truth are concerned, and where the Ilithyie is the Form of Beauty
itself (212a2), creation can’t reduce itself to the begetting of novelty and invention, but takes time 27 as
does a maternal gestation.
21 It is not possible to show in detail here that Agathon's speech reflects the close relationship of the new music with
religious language promoting innovation of which Orpheus seems to be the effigy, Wersinger, 2009, 2013.
22 Diotima emphasizes the opposition between new and ancient, through several progressive arguments (heteron neon anti
toû palaioû, 207d3-4, for the desire to perpetuate one’s mortal life ; (presbutès d6 / neos aei, d8) for one’s own life ; (kainèn
empoioûsa anti tês apiousès 208a6) for spiritual matters such as memory, knowledge.
23 Leitao (2012, p. 131sq.) rightly says that Plato invented the Socrates-as-midwife metaphor as a counter to a teacher-asimpregnator
metaphor originated by Prodicus or another Sophist. But he does not see that the metaphor of the midwife starts
already in the Symposium.
24 We have to remember that to kalon currently denotes the pais (Wersinger, 2012, p. 44-45). Now, Diotima explains that
érôs consists in tokos en kalôi (206b6). Then she progressively explains this definition, by proceeding through substitutions:
- kuoûsi gar substitutes for tokos (206 c1)
- en de kalôi opposed to men aischrôi substitutes to en kalôi (206c4-5)
- hè kuèsis kai hè gennèsis substitutes to tokos (206c7-8)
- Diotima goes back to the opposition between aischron and kalon taken as anarmoston opposed to harmotton (notice the
chiasma) (206 d1-2)
-Moira et Eileithuia are related to Kallonè (substituting to kalon) (d2-3) and Kallonè (206d2) which substitutes to Eileithia,
The formula “en philosophiai aphthonôi” (210d5-6) shows the same construction with en.
25 Wersinger, 2012, p. 11.
26 It is out of the limits of this contribution to locate Diotima’s subversion in the broader context of phallic Dionysian rituals,
where cross-dressing and playing with gender riversal was common, Csapo, 1997, p. 263.
27 Eight months are needed for the real philosopher’s seeds to mature in the soul (Phaedrus, 276b1-8).
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