batch.motif.greek-plato-symposium-jowett-gutenberg-l2263-l2316
---
record_id: batch.motif.greek-plato-symposium-jowett-gutenberg-l2263-l2316
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/greek/project-gutenberg/symposium-jowett.md
passage_locator:
label: Symposium / SYMPOSIUM / INTRODUCTION. / SYMPOSIUM; lines 2263-2316
start: '2263'
end: '2316'
translation: Symposium
notes: Generated from OpenAI Batch run motif-extraction-2026-04-28-high-priority;
human review required.
canonical_text:
quote: love ... may be described generally as the love of the everlasting possession
of the good
summary: Socrates reports a dialogue in which Diotima argues that love is not merely
desire for beauty but desire for possession, happiness, and finally the everlasting
possession of the good. She explains that the word love is applied to one part
of a broader desire, just as poetry names one part of making, and she rejects
the claim that lovers simply seek their other half unless that half is good.
language: English
quote_policy: quoted
literal_observations:
- id: obs:1
text: Socrates asks Diotima what use Love has for human beings, after accepting
her account of Love's nature and birth.
category: speech
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
- id: obs:2
text: Diotima moves the discussion from love of the beautiful to love of the good
and asks what the lover gains by possessing the good.
category: speech
evidence_refs:
- ev:2
- id: obs:3
text: Socrates answers that possession of the good brings happiness.
category: speech
evidence_refs:
- ev:2
- id: obs:4
text: Diotima and Socrates agree that all human beings always desire their own good.
category: attribute
evidence_refs:
- ev:3
- id: obs:5
text: Diotima explains that one part of love receives the name of the whole while
other parts have other names.
category: relationship
evidence_refs:
- ev:4
- id: obs:6
text: 'Diotima gives poetry as an analogy: all making is creative, but only the
portion concerned with music and metre is usually called poetry.'
category: speech
evidence_refs:
- ev:4
- id: obs:7
text: Diotima says paths such as money-making, gymnastics, and philosophy can be
forms of the broader desire for good and happiness, though their practitioners
are not usually called lovers.
category: relationship
evidence_refs:
- ev:5
- id: obs:8
text: Diotima reports the common saying that lovers seek their other half, but she
denies that they seek the half or whole unless it is also good.
category: speech
evidence_refs:
- ev:6
- id: obs:9
text: Diotima states that people would cut off and cast away their own hands and
feet if those parts were evil.
category: action
evidence_refs:
- ev:6
- id: obs:10
text: Diotima and Socrates conclude that love is the love of the everlasting possession
of the good.
category: speech
evidence_refs:
- ev:7
figures:
- id: fig:1
name_or_label: Socrates
description: Speaker who questions Diotima and answers her questions in the reported
dialogue.
role_refs:
- role:1
- role:3
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
- ev:2
- ev:3
- ev:7
- id: fig:2
name_or_label: Diotima / stranger woman
description: Female interlocutor who instructs Socrates by questioning him and unfolding
the account of Love.
role_refs:
- role:2
- role:3
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
- ev:2
- ev:4
- ev:7
- id: fig:3
name_or_label: Love
description: Personified or abstract subject of the discussion, described as connected
with desire for beauty, good, happiness, and everlasting possession of the good.
role_refs:
- role:4
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
- ev:2
- ev:5
- ev:7
- id: fig:4
name_or_label: all men
description: Collective human group said to desire their own good and happiness.
role_refs:
- role:5
evidence_refs:
- ev:3
- ev:5
- id: fig:5
name_or_label: lovers
description: People commonly said to seek their other half; in Diotima's correction,
they seek the good rather than merely a half or whole.
role_refs:
- role:6
evidence_refs:
- ev:6
- ev:7
roles:
- id: role:1
label: questioning narrator
assigned_to:
- fig:1
basis: Socrates reports his own questions and answers in dialogue with Diotima.
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
- ev:2
- id: role:2
label: instructor in dialectic
assigned_to:
- fig:2
basis: Diotima says she will unfold the matter and leads Socrates through questions
and distinctions.
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
- ev:2
- ev:4
- id: role:3
label: dialogue participant
assigned_to:
- fig:1
- fig:2
basis: The passage consists of exchanged questions and answers between Socrates
and Diotima.
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
- ev:2
- ev:7
- id: role:4
label: object of definition
assigned_to:
- fig:3
basis: Love is repeatedly defined and redescribed in relation to beauty, good, happiness,
and everlasting possession.
evidence_refs:
- ev:2
- ev:5
- ev:7
- id: role:5
label: universal desiring group
assigned_to:
- fig:4
basis: All men are said to always desire their own good.
evidence_refs:
- ev:3
- id: role:6
label: seekers of the good
assigned_to:
- fig:5
basis: Diotima says lovers seek neither half nor whole unless it is good, and that
love is for everlasting possession of the good.
evidence_refs:
- ev:6
- ev:7
symbols:
- id: sym:1
label: the good
literal_form: the good
associated_figures:
- fig:3
- fig:4
- fig:5
taxonomy_refs: []
evidence_refs:
- ev:2
- ev:3
- ev:7
- id: sym:2
label: everlasting possession
literal_form: everlasting possession of the good
associated_figures:
- fig:3
- fig:5
taxonomy_refs: []
evidence_refs:
- ev:7
- id: sym:3
label: other half
literal_form: other half
associated_figures:
- fig:5
taxonomy_refs: []
evidence_refs:
- ev:6
- id: sym:4
label: paths toward love
literal_form: path of money-making, gymnastics, or philosophy
associated_figures:
- fig:3
- fig:4
taxonomy_refs: []
evidence_refs:
- ev:5
scenes:
- id: scene:1
label: Question about Love's use to humans
summary: Socrates asks what Love is useful for, and Diotima begins to examine what
the lover of beauty desires.
figure_refs:
- fig:1
- fig:2
- fig:3
symbol_refs:
- sym:1
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
- ev:2
- id: scene:2
label: From beauty to good and happiness
summary: Diotima substitutes the good for the beautiful, and Socrates agrees that
possession of the good yields happiness and is desired by all.
figure_refs:
- fig:1
- fig:2
- fig:4
symbol_refs:
- sym:1
evidence_refs:
- ev:2
- ev:3
- id: scene:3
label: Naming one part as the whole
summary: Diotima explains why not all people are called lovers although all desire
the good, using poetry as an analogy for a part that receives the name of a broader
activity.
figure_refs:
- fig:1
- fig:2
- fig:3
- fig:4
symbol_refs:
- sym:4
evidence_refs:
- ev:4
- ev:5
- id: scene:4
label: Correction of the other-half saying
summary: Diotima rejects the idea that lovers simply seek their other half or whole
and argues that people love only what is good.
figure_refs:
- fig:1
- fig:2
- fig:5
symbol_refs:
- sym:1
- sym:2
- sym:3
evidence_refs:
- ev:6
- ev:7
candidate_motifs:
- id: motif:1
label: instruction in wisdom through dialogue
taxonomy_refs:
- wisdom
basis: The passage presents Diotima instructing Socrates by questions and distinctions
about Love, the good, happiness, and proper naming.
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
- ev:2
- ev:4
- ev:7
confidence: high
cautions: This is a philosophical-dialogue motif rather than a narrative mythic
episode.
- id: motif:2
label: quest for the good as the true object of love
taxonomy_refs:
- mystical_quest
basis: Love is described as a broad power drawing people by various paths toward
the good and its everlasting possession.
evidence_refs:
- ev:5
- ev:7
confidence: medium
cautions: The passage uses abstract philosophical reasoning; it does not narrate
an actual journey or ritual quest.
- id: motif:3
label: rejected search for the other half
taxonomy_refs:
- duality
basis: The passage cites the idea that lovers seek their other half but explicitly
qualifies or rejects it unless the half or whole is good.
evidence_refs:
- ev:6
confidence: medium
cautions: The passage reports this as a common saying and corrects it; the motif
is present mainly as a rejected formulation.
comparison_claims:
- id: claim:1
claim: The passage itself contrasts Diotima's definition of love with a reported
pattern in which lovers seek their other half, treating the latter as insufficient
unless the half or whole is good.
claim_level: same_motif
target: other-half lover pattern within the Symposium's surrounding discourse
evidence_refs:
- ev:6
- ev:7
counter_evidence_refs:
- ev:6
confidence: medium
limitations: The passage alludes to the pattern but does not retell its wider narrative
context; the claim is limited to the explicit contrast made here.
evidence:
- id: ev:1
type: summary
locator: 2263-2267
quote_or_summary: Socrates asks the stranger woman what use Love has for humans
after accepting her prior account of Love's nature and birth; Diotima says she
will unfold it.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/greek/project-gutenberg/symposium-jowett.md
rights_note: Public domain source; concise summary.
- id: ev:2
type: summary
locator: 2267-2278
quote_or_summary: Diotima asks what a man who loves the beautiful desires, then
substitutes the good for the beautiful; Socrates says possession of the good brings
happiness.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/greek/project-gutenberg/symposium-jowett.md
rights_note: Public domain source; concise summary.
- id: ev:3
type: summary
locator: 2278-2284
quote_or_summary: Diotima and Socrates agree that the desire for one's own good
is common to all human beings.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/greek/project-gutenberg/symposium-jowett.md
rights_note: Public domain source; concise summary.
- id: ev:4
type: summary
locator: 2284-2298
quote_or_summary: Diotima explains that one part of love is separated off and given
the name of the whole, comparing this to poetry as one named portion of all creative
making.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/greek/project-gutenberg/symposium-jowett.md
rights_note: Public domain source; concise summary.
- id: ev:5
type: summary
locator: 2298-2307
quote_or_summary: Diotima says all desire for good and happiness is the great subtle
power of love; money-making, gymnastics, and philosophy are named as different
paths not usually called love.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/greek/project-gutenberg/symposium-jowett.md
rights_note: Public domain source; concise summary.
- id: ev:6
type: summary
locator: 2307-2313
quote_or_summary: Diotima notes the saying that lovers seek their other half, but
says they seek neither half nor whole unless it is good, adding that people would
discard even their own hands or feet if evil.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/greek/project-gutenberg/symposium-jowett.md
rights_note: Public domain source; concise summary.
- id: ev:7
type: quote
locator: 2313-2316
quote_or_summary: Diotima and Socrates agree that love is love of the possession,
and the everlasting possession, of the good.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/greek/project-gutenberg/symposium-jowett.md
rights_note: Public domain source; short quotation/summary used.
confidence:
extraction: high
motif_candidates: medium
comparison_claims: medium
notes: The dialogue content is explicit, but motif classification is partly interpretive
because the passage is philosophical rather than narrative.
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 taxonomy symbol refs such as cave, fire, water, tree, mountain, milk, or serpent are directly present in the passage.
batch_run_id=motif-extraction-2026-04-28-high-priority
custom_id=motif_extract:greek-plato-symposium-jowett-gutenberg__l2263-l2316
passage_sha256=dbd418567cad6eadb3a55f73b154e8c65d1cb8abbb4b7ce11cd72649ebfaeb09