The Symposium
Introduction + Context
Plot Summary
Detailed Summary & Analysis
172a-173e 174a-177e 178a-180b 180c-185c 180d-188e 189a-193e 194a-198a 198b-201c 201d-204c 204d-209e 210a-212a 212b-222b 222c-223d
Themes
All Themes The Nature of Love Inferiority of Women Sobriety, Restraint, and Wisdom The Ascent to Immortality
Quotes
Characters
All Characters Socrates Alcibiades Diotima of Mantinea Aristophanes Agathon Pausanias Aristodemus of Cydathenaeum Apollodorus
Terms
All Terms Love/eros Beauty
Symbols
All Symbols Ladder/Staircase/Ascent
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The Symposium

by

Plato

The Symposium Symbols

Ladder/Staircase/Ascent

In Symposium 210a-212a, in Socrates’s dialogue with the prophetess Diotima, Diotima describes the stages through which a lover of wisdom must ascend in order to apprehend true Beauty. In short, the ascent…

read analysis of Ladder/Staircase/Ascent

Ladder/Staircase/Ascent Symbol Icon
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