batch.motif.greek-plato-symposium-jowett-gutenberg-l1976-l2100
---
record_id: batch.motif.greek-plato-symposium-jowett-gutenberg-l1976-l2100
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/greek/project-gutenberg/symposium-jowett.md
passage_locator:
label: Symposium / SYMPOSIUM / INTRODUCTION. / SYMPOSIUM; lines 1976-2100
start: '1976'
end: '2100'
translation: Symposium
notes: Generated from OpenAI Batch run motif-extraction-2026-04-28-high-priority;
human review required.
canonical_text:
quote: ''
summary: Socrates responds to Agathon's speech by rejecting ornamental praise that
ignores truth. With Phaedrus' permission, he questions Agathon and argues that
love is always of something, that desire implies lack, and that even the wish
to keep present goods is desire for something not yet possessed in the future.
language: English
quote_policy: summarized
literal_observations:
- id: obs:1
text: Socrates says he was struck by Agathon's concluding words and felt shame about
speaking after him.
category: speech
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
- id: obs:2
text: Socrates likens Agathon's rhetorical effect to a Gorginian or Gorgonian head
that would turn him and his speech to stone and make him dumb.
category: speech
evidence_refs:
- ev:2
- id: obs:3
text: Socrates distinguishes truthful praise from praise that merely attributes
greatness and glory to Love without regard to truth or falsehood.
category: speech
evidence_refs:
- ev:3
- id: obs:4
text: Socrates asks to speak the truth about love in his own manner rather than
compete in the prior style of praise.
category: action
evidence_refs:
- ev:4
- id: obs:5
text: Phaedrus and the company permit Socrates to speak as he thinks best, and Socrates
requests permission to question Agathon first.
category: sequence
evidence_refs:
- ev:5
- id: obs:6
text: Socrates asks whether Love is love of something or of nothing, using father,
mother, and sibling relations as examples.
category: speech
evidence_refs:
- ev:6
- id: obs:7
text: Agathon agrees that Love is of something and that Love desires that of which
Love is.
category: speech
evidence_refs:
- ev:7
- id: obs:8
text: Socrates argues that one who desires something is in want of something, and
that one who desires nothing is in want of nothing.
category: speech
evidence_refs:
- ev:8
- id: obs:9
text: Socrates argues that a person who already has health, wealth, or strength
but wishes for it is wishing for its continuance into the future.
category: speech
evidence_refs:
- ev:9
figures:
- id: fig:1
name_or_label: Socrates
description: Speaker who replies to Agathon, asks to speak truthfully about love,
and questions Agathon about desire and lack.
role_refs:
- role:1
- role:2
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
- ev:4
- ev:6
- ev:8
- ev:9
- id: fig:2
name_or_label: Agathon
description: Previous speaker whose oration prompts Socrates' response and who answers
Socrates' questions.
role_refs:
- role:3
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
- ev:5
- ev:7
- id: fig:3
name_or_label: Phaedrus
description: Participant who grants Socrates permission to ask questions and speak.
role_refs:
- role:4
evidence_refs:
- ev:4
- ev:5
- id: fig:4
name_or_label: Aristodemus
description: Narrating figure who reports that Phaedrus and the company bid Socrates
to speak.
role_refs:
- role:5
evidence_refs:
- ev:5
- id: fig:5
name_or_label: Love
description: Personified subject of praise and inquiry; discussed as being of something
and as desiring what is not possessed.
role_refs:
- role:6
evidence_refs:
- ev:3
- ev:6
- ev:7
- ev:8
- id: fig:6
name_or_label: Gorgias / great master of rhetoric
description: Rhetorical master recalled by Socrates in connection with the Gorginian
or Gorgonian head image.
role_refs:
- role:7
evidence_refs:
- ev:2
roles:
- id: role:1
label: truth-seeking questioner
assigned_to:
- fig:1
basis: Socrates rejects appearance-based praise and proceeds by questioning Agathon
about Love.
evidence_refs:
- ev:3
- ev:4
- ev:6
- ev:8
- id: role:2
label: speaker after a praised discourse
assigned_to:
- fig:1
basis: Socrates says he must speak after hearing Agathon's rich and varied discourse.
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
- id: role:3
label: respondent in dialectic
assigned_to:
- fig:2
basis: Agathon answers and assents to Socrates' questions about Love, desire, and
possession.
evidence_refs:
- ev:7
- ev:8
- id: role:4
label: permission-giver
assigned_to:
- fig:3
basis: Phaedrus grants Socrates permission to put his questions.
evidence_refs:
- ev:5
- id: role:5
label: reporting narrator
assigned_to:
- fig:4
basis: Aristodemus reports the exchange in which Socrates is invited to speak.
evidence_refs:
- ev:5
- id: role:6
label: personified object of inquiry
assigned_to:
- fig:5
basis: Love is treated as the subject whose nature and works are being examined.
evidence_refs:
- ev:3
- ev:6
- ev:7
- id: role:7
label: rhetorical exemplar alluded to
assigned_to:
- fig:6
basis: Socrates recalls Gorgias while describing Agathon's rhetorical power through
the Gorgonian image.
evidence_refs:
- ev:2
symbols:
- id: sym:1
label: Gorgonian head
literal_form: A Gorginian or Gorgonian head imagined as shaking at Socrates, turning
him and his speech to stone and striking him dumb.
associated_figures:
- fig:1
- fig:2
- fig:6
taxonomy_refs: []
evidence_refs:
- ev:2
- id: sym:2
label: Love as desired object
literal_form: Love personified as the subject whose relation to desire, possession,
and lack is examined.
associated_figures:
- fig:5
taxonomy_refs: []
evidence_refs:
- ev:6
- ev:7
- ev:8
- id: sym:3
label: future continuance of present goods
literal_form: Health, wealth, or strength desired as something to be preserved in
the future.
associated_figures:
- fig:1
taxonomy_refs: []
evidence_refs:
- ev:9
scenes:
- id: scene:1
label: Socrates rejects ornamental praise
summary: Socrates responds to Agathon's speech, says he misunderstood the kind of
praise expected, and rejects praise that merely makes Love appear great without
regard to truth.
figure_refs:
- fig:1
- fig:2
- fig:5
- fig:6
symbol_refs:
- sym:1
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
- ev:2
- ev:3
- ev:4
- id: scene:2
label: Permission to question Agathon
summary: Aristodemus reports that Phaedrus and the company allow Socrates to speak
as he thinks best, and Phaedrus grants him permission to question Agathon.
figure_refs:
- fig:1
- fig:2
- fig:3
- fig:4
symbol_refs: []
evidence_refs:
- ev:5
- id: scene:3
label: Love, desire, and lack
summary: Socrates questions Agathon and develops the point that Love is of something,
that desire implies lack, and that even desiring present goods means desiring
their future continuance.
figure_refs:
- fig:1
- fig:2
- fig:5
symbol_refs:
- sym:2
- sym:3
evidence_refs:
- ev:6
- ev:7
- ev:8
- ev:9
candidate_motifs:
- id: motif:1
label: wisdom through questioning
taxonomy_refs:
- wisdom
basis: The passage centers on Socrates' insistence on truth and his question-and-answer
examination of Agathon's claims about Love.
evidence_refs:
- ev:3
- ev:4
- ev:6
- ev:8
confidence: high
cautions: This is a philosophical dialectic rather than a mythic narrative episode.
- id: motif:2
label: desire as lack
taxonomy_refs: []
basis: Socrates argues that Love desires something and that desire entails wanting
what one does not possess or does not yet have.
evidence_refs:
- ev:7
- ev:8
- ev:9
confidence: high
cautions: No direct taxonomy motif reference is available for this philosophical
pattern.
- id: motif:3
label: petrifying rhetorical image
taxonomy_refs: []
basis: Socrates uses the image of a Gorgonian head to describe being turned to stone
and struck dumb by Agathon's rhetorical performance.
evidence_refs:
- ev:2
confidence: medium
cautions: The image is an allusive metaphor in speech, not an enacted mythic event
in the scene.
comparison_claims:
- id: claim:1
claim: The passage explicitly compares Agathon's rhetorical effect to a Gorgonian
head associated with Homeric reference, functioning as an image of petrification
and silencing.
claim_level: same_function
target: Gorgonian head / Homeric Odyssey allusion
evidence_refs:
- ev:2
counter_evidence_refs: []
confidence: medium
limitations: The comparison is rhetorical and internal to Socrates' speech; the
passage does not narrate an actual encounter with a Gorgon.
evidence:
- id: ev:1
type: summary
locator: 1976-1983
quote_or_summary: Socrates says he must speak after Agathon's rich and varied discourse
and was struck by the beauty of the concluding words.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/greek/project-gutenberg/symposium-jowett.md
rights_note: Public domain source; summarized.
- id: ev:2
type: quote
locator: 1983-1990
quote_or_summary: '"Agathon was shaking at me the Gorginian or Gorgonian head...
to turn me and my speech into stone... and strike me dumb."'
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/greek/project-gutenberg/symposium-jowett.md
rights_note: Public domain source; short quotation.
- id: ev:3
type: summary
locator: 1990-2007
quote_or_summary: Socrates says he thought praise should be true, but now sees the
speakers attributed all greatness and glory to Love without regard to truth or
falsehood.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/greek/project-gutenberg/symposium-jowett.md
rights_note: Public domain source; summarized.
- id: ev:4
type: summary
locator: 2007-2016
quote_or_summary: Socrates asks to be released from his promise to praise in that
way and offers instead to speak the truth about love in his own manner.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/greek/project-gutenberg/symposium-jowett.md
rights_note: Public domain source; summarized.
- id: ev:5
type: summary
locator: 2017-2024
quote_or_summary: Aristodemus reports that Phaedrus and the company allow Socrates
to speak as he thinks best; Phaedrus grants permission for questions.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/greek/project-gutenberg/symposium-jowett.md
rights_note: Public domain source; summarized.
- id: ev:6
type: summary
locator: 2025-2044
quote_or_summary: Socrates praises the order of Agathon's speech and asks whether
Love is love of something or nothing, explaining by analogy with father, mother,
and brother relations.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/greek/project-gutenberg/symposium-jowett.md
rights_note: Public domain source; summarized.
- id: ev:7
type: summary
locator: 2045-2056
quote_or_summary: Agathon agrees that Love is of something and that Love desires
that of which Love is.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/greek/project-gutenberg/symposium-jowett.md
rights_note: Public domain source; summarized.
- id: ev:8
type: quote
locator: 2057-2067
quote_or_summary: '"he who desires something is in want of something, and... he
who desires nothing is in want of nothing"'
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/greek/project-gutenberg/symposium-jowett.md
rights_note: Public domain source; short quotation.
- id: ev:9
type: summary
locator: 2068-2100
quote_or_summary: Socrates argues that a person who has health, wealth, or strength
but wishes for it wants its continuance in the future, which is something not
yet possessed.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/greek/project-gutenberg/symposium-jowett.md
rights_note: Public domain source; summarized.
confidence:
extraction: high
motif_candidates: medium
comparison_claims: medium
notes: The passage is primarily philosophical argument, so motif extraction is strongest
for the explicit Gorgonian allusion and the wisdom/dialectic pattern; mythic motif
classification should be reviewed.
reviewer_status:
status: needs_review
reviewer: ''
reviewed_at: ''
notes: Machine-generated draft from OpenAI Batch; not human-reviewed.
extracted_by: openai_batch:gpt-5.5
extracted_at: '2026-04-28'
notes: |-
No available symbol taxonomy refs directly match the Gorgonian head or Love/desire pattern; available motif ref 'wisdom' is used for the dialectical truth-seeking pattern.
batch_run_id=motif-extraction-2026-04-28-high-priority
custom_id=motif_extract:greek-plato-symposium-jowett-gutenberg__l1976-l2100
passage_sha256=29aef3aaf72436c17284a9ef68facbc3d5fa740ff93ad8f1751843de51988ff0