Diotima Of Mantinea

Information about Diotima Of Mantinea

Jadwiga Łuszczewska (pen name Diotima), painting by Józef Simmler, 1855

Diotima of Mantinea plays an important role in Plato's Symposium. Since our only source concerning her is Plato, we cannot be certain whether she was a real historical personage or merely a fictional creation. However, it should be noted that nearly all of the characters named in Plato's dialogues have been found to correspond to real people living in ancient Athens.

In Plato's Symposium, Socrates says that Diotima was a seer or priestess who had, in his youth, taught him "the philosophy of love". Socrates also claims that she had succeeded in convincing the gods to postpone the pestilence that besieged Athens for ten years.

Plato was thought by most 19th and early 20th century scholars to have based Diotima on Aspasia, the mistress of Pericles, so impressed was he by her intelligence and wit. This question is far from resolved, however, and some scholars have argued convincingly that Diotima was a historical figure.^[1]

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 Hölderlin used the pen name Diotima as a moniker for Susette Borkenstein Gontard, who inspired him to write Hyperion. In this work, the fictitious first-person author Hyperion addresses letters to his friends Bellarmin and Diotima.
Italian composer Luigi Nono used her name as part of the title in one of his most important works, the string quartet: "Fragmente-Stille, an Diotima", including quotations from Hölderlins letters to Diotima from Hyperion in the work.

Notes

1. ^ Wider, Kathleen. "Women philosophers in the Ancient Greek World: Donning the Mantle". Hypatia vol 1 no 1 Spring 1986. Part of her argument focuses on the point that all scholars who argued 'for' a fictitious Diotima were male, and most used as a starting point Smith's (Smith, Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, 1870) uncertainty of her actual existence.

Bibliography

Navia, Luis E., Socrates, the man and his philosophy, pp. 30, 171. University Press of America ISBN 0-8191-4854-7.

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The Symposium is a philosophical dialogue written by Plato sometime after 385 BC. It is a discussion on the nature of love, taking the form of a series of speeches, both satirical and serious, given by a group of men at a symposium
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Location

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Time zone: EET/EEST (UTC+2/3)
Elevation (min-max): 70 - 338 m (0 - 0 ft)
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SOCRATES is the European Community action programme in the field of education. The second phase of the programme covers the period January 1 2000 to December 31 2006. It draws on the experiences of the first phase (1995-1999) building on the successful aspects of the programme,
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Aspasia (ca. 470 BC^[1]^[2]–ca. 400 BC,<ref name="Nails58-59" />^[3] Greek: Ἀσπασία
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Pericles (also spelled Perikles) (ca. 495–429 BC, Greek: Περικλῆς, meaning "surrounded by glory
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Friedrich Hoelderlin.

Johann Christian Friedrich Hölderlin [ˈjoːhan ˈkrɪsti.
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Susette Borkenstein Gontard (1769-1802), was dubbed Diotima, after Diotima of Mantinea, by the noted German poet Johann Christian Friedrich Hölderlin.

Born Susette Borkenstein, she became the wife of the eighteenth-century Frankfurt banker J. F. Gontard.
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Hyperion is a novel by Friedrich Hölderlin first published in 1797 (Volume 1) and 1799 (Volume 2). The full title is Hyperion, oder der Eremit in Griechenland.

The work is comprised of letters from Hyperion to his friends Bellarmin and the writer Diotima.
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Luigi Nono (January 29, 1924 - May 8, 1990) was an Italian composer of classical music and intellectual, one of the most important composers of the 20th century.

Biography

Early years