Why Is Diotima a Woman? Essay

The Symposium revolves around a Greek party made up of various men throwing around their views on love, building up to height of the evening by a speech from Socrates. Socrates knows the true way to obtain love, and tells of a tale between him and his mentor, Diotima. Through Diotima, Socrates is able to

Diotima, Socrates' great teacher from the Symposium, a work by Plato was one of the most influential women thinkers of all time, whether she was a real person or a literary fictional character. She related to Socrates the theory of love that he described to the partygoers at Agathon's banquet, a celebration of Agathon's victory at the competition of Dionysis in Athens and of Eros.

According to the general hierarchy when Shakespeare wrote his play, men were deemed to be more able than women. Instead in Othello, Shakespeare emphasizes the strength of Desdemona despite the stereotypical views about women. Desdemona is portrayed to be more able than the women and as able as the men in the Venetian society. Unlike other women in Othello, Desdemona proves to be very strong and relentless in her beliefs and love.

Euripides was one of the most well-known playwrights of ancient Greece. He was known as a modern playwright because he wrote with realism, and had a doubtful way of portraying the gods in his plays. Euripides’s plays had women as the main character because he had a sympathetic way of portraying women. The women were mainly strong and are passionate in their motives for their actions. Although Euripides is well known now, during ancient Greece Euripides wasn’t an appreciated playwright. When there were play performances men would be the audience since women weren’t allowed to take part in or watch the plays. So with the focus of women in his plays, he gave them a voice, which would throw men off, mainly because they would be terrified if their wives did and said the same things. Euripides supplied a philosophical thought to the women he has written about.

Studies concerning the lives of women in classical Athens have sparked much controversy because, despite the apparent fascination with femininity manifested in art and drama, we have no evidence voicing the opinions of the actual women themselves. This presents a

The Greco-Roman society was a very patriarchal society. This is reflected throughout the myths in classical mythology. By looking at the classic mythology we will see that the roles women portrayed are very different than women’s roles in today’s society. Although there are a few similarities to women’s roles in today’s society, their roles are more like those women in the past. We can see this by looking at the attributes of Greco-Roman female gods and looking at the roles women play in the myths. By comparing the roles of women in the myths with women’s roles today we will see that the roles have many differences and few similarities.

The different portrayals of female characters Antigone and Lysistrata illustrate the fundamental nature of the proper Athenian woman. Sophocles' Antigone allows the reader to see that outrage over social injustices does not give women the excuse to rebel against authority, while Aristophanes' Lysistrata reveals that challenging authority in the polis becomes acceptable only when it's faced with destruction through war. Sophocles and Aristophanes use different means to illustrate the same idea; the ideal Athenian woman's ultimate loyalty lies with her polis. This Greek concept of the proper woman seems so vital when considering Athenian society because both a tragedy and comedy revolve around this concept. The differing roles accorded to

The role of women in ancient Greek life was insignificant compared to that of Greek men. A woman's job was to take care of the children and to cook and clean unless she had servants or slaves that would do it for her. Yet, in Greek mythology, women were often written as major characters. Well-known Greek plays contain many well-written, complex, female characters. Female individuals in Greek mythology were often seen as very powerful and fierce and were depicted by “her wits, her beauty, or her bad deeds.”

Starting at 210a of The Symposium, Diotima speaks with Socrates about reaching the final vision of the mysteries. She starts talking about a young boy who is starting to be attracted to beautiful bodies. He first loves one body; and then, realizing that all bodies are relatively alike, he begins to love all beautiful bodies. After that, he comes to appreciate the beauty of minds, not caring anymore about physical attraction. After all stages, the boy will ultimately come to loving beauty itself and all beautiful things. This gradual climb to the final vision is similar to the climb out of the cave in Plato's "Allegory of the Cave."

Plato’s Symposium attempts to define the eclectic theory of love, a theory that is often believed to be the universal principle that guides mankind’s actions. Plato introduces several narratives in the form of a dialogue that seek to characterize this multifaceted theory of Eros. The meaning of love naturally varies in each narrative. Yet, in this dialogue of love, Plato presents a metaphysical approach to understanding the ambiguous meaning of love. Ultimately, Plato values the perennial quest for knowledge above all else. In Symposium, Platonic love is exhibited in the relationship between virtue and desire, as expressed in Diotima’s ladder. Desire is the vehicle, or the means to an end. The six Athenians ultimately present different

Plato was a philosopher from Classical Greece and an innovator of dialogue and dialect forms which provide some of the earliest existing analysis ' of political questions from a philosophical perspective. Among some of Plato 's most prevalent works is his dialogue the Symposium, which records the conversation of a dinner party at which Socrates (amongst others) is a guest. Those who talk before Socrates share a tendency to celebrate the instinct of sex and regard love (eros) as a god whose goodness and beauty they compete. However, Socrates sets himself apart from this belief in the fundamental value of sexual love and instead recollects Diotima 's theory of love, suggesting that love is neither beautiful nor good because it is the desire to possess what is beautiful, and that one cannot desire that of which is already possessed. The ultimate/primary objective of love as being related to an absolute form of beauty that is held to be identical to what is good is debated throughout the dialogue, and Diotima expands on this description of love as being a pursuit of beauty (by which one can attain the goal of love) that culminates in an understanding of the form of beauty. The purpose of this paper is to consider the speeches presented (i.e. those of Phaedrus, Pausanias, Eryximachus, Aristophanes, and Agathon) in Plato 's Symposium as separate parts that assist in an accounting of the definition and purpose of platonic love.

Diotima tells Socrates that philosophers (lovers of wisdom) are in between the gods and the ignorant. She says Love is one of the philosophers, because he is in between wisdom and ignorance. This is because his father Plenty has wisdom but his mother does not. Diotima, who says wisdom is one of the most beautiful things, believes "Love is a love for the beautiful, so Love must necessarily be a philosopher" (99).

Under the influence of Diotima, Socrates has come to understand that Love must not be confused with the object of love, which is in contrast, extremely beautiful and extremely good. Diotima has explained to Socrates that if love desires, but does not possess beautiful and good things, then love cannot, as most people think, be a god (Symposium 5). However, though Love cannot be beautiful or good, this does not mean on the contrary that he is ugly and evil, but rather at some point in-between. So Diotima, taught Socrates that Love is not a god, but a daimon, or something like a spirit that not only conveys the prayers of man to the gods and the answers and commands of the gods to the minds of man alike (Symposium 5), connecting one who desires something with that which he desires. “He is by nature neither mortal nor immortal, … never in want and never in wealth; and, further, he

Gender roles have persisted throughout all human history. The time of the ancient Greeks was no exception. As shown in the play Antigone, males and females had very different places in society. Men were in charge, and women were submissive to them. Women took care of the men and supplied emotional support and heirs. Questioning or defying their male superiors received disdain because of their place in society. Women were disposable baby-makers because, as Creon says, “there are other fields just as fertile” (585).  The main character, Antigone, both lives up to and defies the role of her gender.

When reading the Symposium, some may think Alcibiades is a man simply because he has a penis, but this is false. Yes, he is physically a man, but that is assuming the essentialist view, which is based on anatomy. The essentialist view states that because someone has a penis, they are a man. However, using Luce Irigaray’s non-essentialist view, this is not what constitutes a man. In “The Sex Which is not One” and “When Our Lips Speak Together” Irigaray explains that women don’t need the “two lips” of a vagina to be considered a women, and the same goes for men. It is dangerous to think that Alcibiades is a man based on his anatomy, because one would be thinking with an essentialist mindset rather than considering the non-essentialist view. When reading Irigaray with a literal mindset, some may be deceived and think that Alcibiades is actually a “women” because he is the object of sexual gratification, and is unable to voice his feelings toward Socrates. This incorrect, because when understanding Irigaray from a strategic perspective, she is in fact saying the opposite. It is important to understand Irigaray’s true views on women because gender roles and stereotypes are a heated topic in today's society. Based on Irigaray’s understanding of what constitutes a women, Alcibiades is not like a women relative to the behavior and ideas present at the Symposium based on his actions toward Socrates.