DIOTIMA OF MANTINEA, character in Plato’s Symposium (c. 385–370 BCE), possibly based on a historical person, who instructs Socrates on the nature of love, ultimately leading him to comprehend the ascent from physical attraction to spiritual enlightenment. In her History of Women Philosophers Mary Ellen Waithe challenges the prevalent view that Diotima was merely a fictional creation of Plato’s, marshaling textual and artifactual evidence in support of her case. Even if this is true, however, Diotima’s life remains shrouded in mystery; we know little beyond the seeming fact of her origins in Mantinea, a Peloponnesian city. Regardless of her historicity, Diotima’s teachings, as set forth in the Symposium, have left an indelible mark on the history of philosophy; her vision of love as a transformative and intellectual journey has inspired countless philosophers, poets, and theologians throughout the ages.
Diotima’s concept of desire (eros) transcends mere physical lust and encompasses a journey of spiritual growth and intellectual discovery. Toward the end of the Symposium she expounds her theory of the “ladder of love” to Socrates:
It is necessary … for him who proceeds rightly to … begin while still young by going to beautiful bodies; and first, if his guide guides rightly, to love one single body and beget there beautiful discourses ... After this he must come to believe that beauty in souls is more to be valued than that in the body, so that even if someone good of soul has but a slight bloom, it suffices for him, … in order that he may be constrained in turn to contemplate what is beautiful in practices and laws and to see that it is in itself all akin to itself.
The ladder of love is a progression from the vulgar love of the body to the love of souls, laws and institutions, knowledge, and, finally, to the ideal love of the form of the Beautiful itself:
What then do we suppose it would be like … if it were possible for someone to see the Beautiful itself, pure, unalloyed, unmixed, not full of human flesh and colors, and the many other kinds of nonsense that attach to mortality, but if he could behold the divine Beauty itself, single in nature?
According to Diotima ideal love is not limited to the pursuit of physical beauty but involves the pursuit of wisdom and virtue, leading the soul toward ultimate fulfillment. In presenting love as a universal force that transcends heterosexual physical desire, furthermore, Diotima challenges traditional notions of sex and boundaries of gender. Also central to Diotima’s teachings is the notion that love is a means of seeking immortality; through the pursuit of beauty and wisdom, individuals can transcend the limitations of the physical world and participate in the realm of the eternal forms.
Diotima’s philosophy of eros represents a transformative journey of spiritual fulfillment, liberating its initiates from the tyranny of unchecked desire and guiding them towards self-awareness and moral integrity via disciplined contemplation of the Beautiful. In an age characterized by rampant materialism and the ceaseless goading of impulse, her teachings offer a profound reminder of the enduring value of intellectual and moral cultivation. Though Diotima herself remains enigmatic, her ideas continue to illuminate the path toward intellectual growth and spiritual fulfillment.