Why is diotima a woman symposium

We should also discuss about how women were generally treated in the days of the Symposium. We read in the beginning of the Symposium that Eryximachus wants to get rid of the women so that the men may "stick to conversation".

Symposium This could be justified because ancient Greeks thought our women emotions get in the way. The ancient Greeks men had wives for the purpose of producing babies. They had boyfriends for the purpose of fun. The men felt the women should be subservient to the men and men were head of the family.

For this reason women in ancient Greece seemed inferior socially. However, Diotima is quite careful in pointing out the distinction between love as the word is commonly used and the more general desire for happiness and beauty.

She says that while Love extends over the more general term, we normally only use it to denote a very specific kind of love, similar to the way we use "composer" only to denote those who compose music. As we have seen, she uses "pregnant" and "reproduction" as well as "love" in a broader sense than we are used to.

Diotima's speech can be read as containing subtle rebukes for all the speakers heretofore. We have already seen how Socrates first demolishes Agathon through dialogue and then points out that Agathon identifies Love with the loved one rather than with the lover. We can also find an improvement upon Phaedrus, where Diotima speaks of the courage of Alcestis and Achilles.

Both of these characters were used by Phaedrus as exemplars of love because they were willing to do anything for their lovers. Diotima refines the example, pointing out that their willingness to die comes from a desire to be immortalized for their bravery. We also find a refinement of Pausanias' distinction between Heavenly and Common Love. She wants the readers, whoever it is, old, young, men and especially women to understand that this attitude to women as a whole, is wrong and should be changed.

She also encourages the readers to take action against this treatment of women and also wants the husbands to stop unfair treatment of their wives, including their attitude of demanding too much from their wives. Women were held to this standard, unless they were a prostitute or some kind of courtesan of sorts. The idea that Lusanna did not live up to this ideal is demonstrated a few different times throughout these proceedings. It is alleged that Lusanna used these meeting times to seduce Giovanni into his vow that he would marry her if anything were to happen with her husband.

I'm positively ashamed to be a woman- a member of a sex which can't even live up to male slanders! To hear our husbands talk, we're sly, deceitful, always plotting, monsters of intrigue Almost all of her dialogue is a pro-feminist diatribe about the need for more female involvement in society Lysistrata has likewise made arrangements with the more seasoned women of Athens also known as the Chorus of Old Women to grasp the Akropolis later on that day. Those women from the different districts at last gather and Lysistrata persuades them to make a solemn vow that they will withhold sex from their spouses until both sides sign an arrangement of peace.

As the women relinquish a jug of wine to the Gods in a festival of their vow, they hear the resonances of the more established women taking the Akropolis, the fortification that houses the treasury of Athens.

This outrages the Magistrate that a woman has a plan for the war or even that she has an opinion. Lysistrata then dresses the Magistrate as a woman as punishment. She expresses her concern for the aging women at home while the men are at war, women have a short time before her time is up but men have the rest of their life. Another point I would like to make is how clever the author was in his time. During the meeting, which Lysistrata leads, Lysistrata suggests to the women of Greece to withhold sex from their husbands.

The women are hesitant and some refuse "I won't do it! We should now go on to why Diotima is a woman. Socrates consulted the Oracle at Delphi Know thyself so we know that it is possible that Socrates would consult a priestess.

I have uncovered two plausible answers to this question. The first is obvious. Diotima is a woman because she is not a man. If Diotima had been portrayed as a man then Socrates would have been seen as having been initiated into the mysteries of erotic desire by an older and wiser male.

By having a woman educate Socrates in the ways of Eros, Plato avoided the suggestion that the he was Socrates real lover. Plato wanted to rule out that he and Socrates were sexual lovers, rather than just merely platonic lovers.

Gould p. Get Access. Why Is Diotima a Woman? Essay Words 4 Pages 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. Read More.