Diotima of Mantinea
Encyclopedia
Seer
Seer or Seers or SEER may refer to:Predicting the future* A clairvoyant, prophet, oracle, or diviner* The Seer , a fictional character on the television series Charmed...
who plays an important role in Plato's Symposium. Her ideas are the origin of the concept of Platonic love
Platonic love
Platonic love is a chaste and strong type of love that is non-sexual.-Amor Platonicus:The term amor platonicus was coined as early as the 15th century by the Florentine scholar Marsilio Ficino. Platonic love in this original sense of the term is examined in Plato's dialogue the Symposium, which has...
. Since the only source concerning her is Plato, it is uncertain whether she was a real historical personage or merely a fictional creation. However, nearly all of the characters named in Plato's dialogues have been found to correspond to real people living in ancient Athens
Athens
Athens , is the capital and largest city of Greece. Athens dominates the Attica region and is one of the world's oldest cities, as its recorded history spans around 3,400 years. Classical Athens was a powerful city-state...
.
Role in Symposium
In Plato's SymposiumSymposium (Plato)
The Symposium is a philosophical text by Plato dated c. 385–380 BCE. It concerns itself at one level with the genesis, purpose and nature of love....
the members of a party discuss the meaning of love. Socrates
Socrates
Socrates was a classical Greek Athenian philosopher. Credited as one of the founders of Western philosophy, he is an enigmatic figure known chiefly through the accounts of later classical writers, especially the writings of his students Plato and Xenophon, and the plays of his contemporary ...
says that in his youth he was taught "the philosophy of love" by Diotima, who was a seer or priestess. Socrates also claims that Diotima successfully postponed the plague of Athens.
In a dialogue that Socrates recounts at the symposium, Diotima gives Socrates a genealogy of Love (Eros
Eros
Eros , in Greek mythology, was the Greek god of love. His Roman counterpart was Cupid . Some myths make him a primordial god, while in other myths, he is the son of Aphrodite....
), stating that he is the son of "resource and need." In her view, love is a means of ascent to contemplation of the Divine. For Diotima, and for Plato generally, the most correct use of love of other human beings is to direct one's mind to love of Divinity. In short, with genuine Platonic love, the beautiful or lovely other person inspires the mind and the soul and directs one's attention to spiritual things. One proceeds from recognition of another's beauty, to appreciation of Beauty as it exists apart from any individual, to consideration of Divinity, the source of Beauty, to love of Divinity.
Identity of Diotima
The name Diotima means "honoured by ZeusZeus
In the ancient Greek religion, Zeus was the "Father of Gods and men" who ruled the Olympians of Mount Olympus as a father ruled the family. He was the god of sky and thunder in Greek mythology. His Roman counterpart is Jupiter and his Etruscan counterpart is Tinia.Zeus was the child of Cronus...
". Plato was thought by most 19th and early 20th century scholars to have based Diotima on Aspasia
Aspasia
Aspasia was a Milesian woman who was famous for her involvement with the Athenian statesman Pericles. Very little is known about the details of her life. She spent most of her adult life in Athens, and she may have influenced Pericles and Athenian politics...
, the mistress of Pericles
Pericles
Pericles was a prominent and influential statesman, orator, and general of Athens during the city's Golden Age—specifically, the time between the Persian and Peloponnesian wars...
, so impressed was he by her intelligence and wit. The identity of Diotima is far from resolved, however. Since Aspasia appears under her own name in Plato's dialogue Menexenus some scholars have argued convincingly that Plato did not use false names, and that therefore Diotima is a historical figure.
Use of her name
Her name has often been used as a moniker for philosophical or artistic projects, journals, essays, etc.:- Polish writer Jadwiga Łuszczewska (1834–1908) used the pen name Diotima (Deotyma).
- German poet Friedrich HölderlinFriedrich HölderlinJohann Christian Friedrich Hölderlin was a major German lyric poet, commonly associated with the artistic movement known as Romanticism. Hölderlin was also an important thinker in the development of German Idealism, particularly his early association with and philosophical influence on his...
used the pen name Diotima as a moniker for Susette Borkenstein GontardSusette Borkenstein GontardSusette Gontard, née Borkenstein , dubbed Diotima by the German poet Friedrich Hölderlin after Diotima of Mantinea, was the inspiration for his novel Hyperion, published in 1797–1799. She was the wife of Hölderlin's employer, the Frankfurt banker J. F. Gontard...
, who inspired him to write HyperionHyperion (Hölderlin)Hyperion is a novel by Friedrich Hölderlin first published in 1797 and 1799 . The full title is Hyperion oder Der Eremit in Griechenland ....
. In this work, the fictitious first-person author Hyperion addresses letters to his friends Bellarmin and Diotima. - Italian composer Luigi NonoLuigi NonoLuigi Nono was an Italian avant-garde composer of classical music and remains one of the most prominent composers of the 20th century.- Early years :Born in Venice, he was a member of a wealthy artistic family, and his grandfather was a notable painter...
used her name as part of the title of his string quartet: "Fragmente-Stille, an Diotima", including quotations from Hölderlins letters to Diotima from Hyperion in the work. - Diotima is one of the main female protagonists in The Man Without QualitiesThe Man Without QualitiesThe Man Without Qualities is an unfinished novel in three books by the Austrian writer Robert Musil....
by Robert MusilRobert MusilRobert Musil was an Austrian writer. His unfinished long novel The Man Without Qualities is generally considered to be one of the most important modernist novels... - Diotima was the name of Leni Riefenstahls character in the silent film, Der Heilige Berg.
- Diotima appears in short poem "Irpen'" by Boris PasternakBoris PasternakBoris Leonidovich Pasternak was a Russian language poet, novelist, and literary translator. In his native Russia, Pasternak's anthology My Sister Life, is one of the most influential collections ever published in the Russian language...
. - Diotima of Mantinea is one of the two main characters in "The Pericles Commission" and "The Ionia Sanction", by Gary CorbyGary CorbyGary Corby is an Australian author of historical mysteries set in the world of Classical Greece.His novels feature historical men and women from the time as recurring characters, notably Socrates, Pericles, and the priestess Diotima of Mantinea...
. - AsteroidAsteroidAsteroids are a class of small Solar System bodies in orbit around the Sun. They have also been called planetoids, especially the larger ones...
423 Diotima423 Diotima423 Diotima is a one of the largest main-belt asteroids. It is classified as a C-type asteroid and is probably composed of primitive carbonaceous material....
is named after her.