batch.motif.greek-plato-symposium-jowett-gutenberg-l2318-l2392
---
record_id: batch.motif.greek-plato-symposium-jowett-gutenberg-l2318-l2392
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/greek/project-gutenberg/symposium-jowett.md
passage_locator:
label: Symposium / SYMPOSIUM / INTRODUCTION. / SYMPOSIUM; lines 2318-2392
start: '2318'
end: '2392'
translation: Symposium
notes: Generated from OpenAI Batch run motif-extraction-2026-04-28-high-priority;
human review required.
canonical_text:
quote: The object which they have in view is birth in beauty, whether of body or
soul.
summary: Diotima explains to Socrates that love seeks generation and birth in beauty.
She describes conception and generation as an immortal principle in mortal creatures,
says beauty presides over birth, and argues that mortal beings pursue immortality
through procreation, offspring, bodily and psychic succession, and recollection.
language: English
quote_policy: quoted
literal_observations:
- id: obs:1
text: Diotima asks Socrates what lovers are pursuing and what object they have in
view.
category: speech
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
- id: obs:2
text: Socrates says he does not know and has come to learn from Diotima.
category: speech
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
- id: obs:3
text: Diotima teaches that the object of love is birth in beauty, whether of body
or soul.
category: speech
evidence_refs:
- ev:2
- id: obs:4
text: Diotima says human nature desires procreation at a certain age, and that procreation
must be in beauty rather than deformity.
category: speech
evidence_refs:
- ev:3
- id: obs:5
text: Diotima describes conception and generation as an immortal principle in a
mortal creature.
category: attribute
evidence_refs:
- ev:3
- id: obs:6
text: Beauty is described as a destiny or goddess of parturition who presides at
birth.
category: attribute
evidence_refs:
- ev:4
- id: obs:7
text: Diotima says love is not only love of the beautiful, but love of generation
and birth in beauty.
category: speech
evidence_refs:
- ev:5
- id: obs:8
text: Diotima states that generation is a sort of eternity and immortality for mortal
creatures.
category: speech
evidence_refs:
- ev:5
- id: obs:9
text: Diotima describes animals, birds, and beasts as experiencing desire for procreation,
desire of union, and care for offspring.
category: action
evidence_refs:
- ev:6
- id: obs:10
text: Diotima says weak animals are ready to fight stronger ones, die, suffer hunger,
or suffer anything to maintain their young.
category: action
evidence_refs:
- ev:6
- id: obs:11
text: Diotima says mortal nature seeks to be everlasting and immortal as far as
possible, and attains this by generation that leaves a new existence in place
of the old.
category: speech
evidence_refs:
- ev:7
- id: obs:12
text: Diotima says a living individual undergoes continual loss and repair in body,
including hair, flesh, bones, blood, and the whole body.
category: sequence
evidence_refs:
- ev:8
- id: obs:13
text: Diotima says the soul’s habits, tempers, opinions, desires, pleasures, pains,
and fears are always coming and going.
category: sequence
evidence_refs:
- ev:8
- id: obs:14
text: Diotima says knowledge is forgotten and renewed and preserved by recollection,
appearing the same although in reality new.
category: sequence
evidence_refs:
- ev:9
- id: obs:15
text: Diotima contrasts mortal preservation by substitution with the divine, which
is always the same.
category: relationship
evidence_refs:
- ev:10
- id: obs:16
text: Diotima concludes that universal love and care for offspring is for the sake
of immortality.
category: speech
evidence_refs:
- ev:10
figures:
- id: fig:1
name_or_label: Diotima
description: Speaker who teaches Socrates about love, generation, beauty, and immortality.
role_refs:
- role:1
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
- ev:2
- ev:5
- ev:7
- id: fig:2
name_or_label: Socrates
description: Interlocutor who says he does not know and asks Diotima to teach him
the cause and mysteries of love.
role_refs:
- role:2
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
- ev:6
- id: fig:3
name_or_label: Beauty
description: Described by Diotima as the destiny or goddess of parturition who presides
at birth.
role_refs:
- role:3
evidence_refs:
- ev:4
- id: fig:4
name_or_label: mortal creatures
description: Mortal beings said to seek immortality through generation and substitution.
role_refs:
- role:4
evidence_refs:
- ev:5
- ev:7
- ev:10
- id: fig:5
name_or_label: animals, birds, and beasts
description: Non-human creatures described as desiring procreation, union, and care
of offspring.
role_refs:
- role:5
evidence_refs:
- ev:6
- id: fig:6
name_or_label: offspring or young
description: Young creatures for whom animals suffer, fight, or die; objects of
universal love and interest.
role_refs:
- role:6
evidence_refs:
- ev:6
- ev:10
- id: fig:7
name_or_label: the divine
description: Contrasted with mortal things as always the same and not another.
role_refs:
- role:7
evidence_refs:
- ev:10
roles:
- id: role:1
label: teacher of love
assigned_to:
- fig:1
basis: Diotima says she will teach Socrates and explains the object, cause, and
mysteries of love.
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
- ev:2
- ev:6
- id: role:2
label: learner-questioner
assigned_to:
- fig:2
basis: Socrates says his ignorance is why he comes to Diotima and asks for teaching.
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
- ev:6
- id: role:3
label: presider over birth
assigned_to:
- fig:3
basis: Beauty is called the destiny or goddess of parturition who presides at birth.
evidence_refs:
- ev:4
- id: role:4
label: seekers of immortality through generation
assigned_to:
- fig:4
basis: Mortal creatures are said to desire immortality and attain it by generation.
evidence_refs:
- ev:5
- ev:7
- ev:10
- id: role:5
label: procreating and offspring-protecting creatures
assigned_to:
- fig:5
basis: Animals, birds, and beasts are described as desiring union and protecting
young even at cost to themselves.
evidence_refs:
- ev:6
- id: role:6
label: objects of care
assigned_to:
- fig:6
basis: Offspring are the beings for whose maintenance animals battle, suffer, or
die.
evidence_refs:
- ev:6
- ev:10
- id: role:7
label: unchanging contrast to mortal succession
assigned_to:
- fig:7
basis: The divine is described as always the same, unlike mortal things preserved
by substitution.
evidence_refs:
- ev:10
symbols:
- id: sym:1
label: birth in beauty
literal_form: birth in beauty, whether of body or soul
associated_figures:
- fig:1
- fig:2
- fig:3
taxonomy_refs: []
evidence_refs:
- ev:2
- id: sym:2
label: beauty as goddess of parturition
literal_form: Beauty as destiny or goddess presiding at birth
associated_figures:
- fig:3
taxonomy_refs: []
evidence_refs:
- ev:4
- id: sym:3
label: generation as mortal immortality
literal_form: generation leaving a new existence in place of the old
associated_figures:
- fig:4
- fig:6
taxonomy_refs: []
evidence_refs:
- ev:5
- ev:7
- id: sym:4
label: offspring as continuation
literal_form: offspring or young preserved through care and sacrifice
associated_figures:
- fig:5
- fig:6
taxonomy_refs: []
evidence_refs:
- ev:6
- ev:10
- id: sym:5
label: recollection as renewal
literal_form: knowledge forgotten, renewed, and preserved by recollection
associated_figures: []
taxonomy_refs: []
evidence_refs:
- ev:9
scenes:
- id: scene:1
label: Diotima teaches the object of love
summary: Diotima questions Socrates and then teaches that love aims at birth in
beauty, not merely at the beautiful itself.
figure_refs:
- fig:1
- fig:2
- fig:3
symbol_refs:
- sym:1
- sym:2
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
- ev:2
- ev:4
- ev:5
- id: scene:2
label: Procreation and care among animals
summary: Diotima points to animals, birds, and beasts that seek union, procreate,
and suffer or fight to maintain their young.
figure_refs:
- fig:1
- fig:2
- fig:5
- fig:6
symbol_refs:
- sym:3
- sym:4
evidence_refs:
- ev:6
- id: scene:3
label: Mortal succession and recollection
summary: Diotima explains that body, soul, and knowledge continually change, and
that mortal things are preserved by substitution rather than by remaining absolutely
the same.
figure_refs:
- fig:1
- fig:2
- fig:4
- fig:7
symbol_refs:
- sym:3
- sym:5
evidence_refs:
- ev:7
- ev:8
- ev:9
- ev:10
candidate_motifs:
- id: motif:1
label: instruction in the mysteries of love
taxonomy_refs:
- wisdom
- initiation
basis: A teacher instructs an ignorant learner in the object, cause, and mysteries
of love, using questions and explanations.
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
- ev:2
- ev:6
confidence: medium
cautions: The passage is philosophical dialogue rather than a narrative initiation
rite; the taxonomy references are functional and should be reviewed.
- id: motif:2
label: birth or generation as access to immortality
taxonomy_refs: []
basis: Diotima states that generation is a sort of eternity and immortality for
mortal creatures and that love is directed toward immortality.
evidence_refs:
- ev:5
- ev:7
- ev:10
confidence: high
cautions: This is an explicitly philosophical account, not a mythic birth episode.
- id: motif:3
label: offspring protected through self-sacrifice
taxonomy_refs:
- sacrifice
basis: Animals are said to fight stronger creatures, die, suffer hunger, or endure
anything to maintain their young.
evidence_refs:
- ev:6
confidence: medium
cautions: The passage uses animal behavior as an explanatory example; it is not
a ritual sacrifice narrative.
- id: motif:4
label: mortal renewal through substitution
taxonomy_refs:
- death_rebirth
basis: Mortal nature is described as leaving a new existence in place of the old,
while body, soul, and knowledge undergo continual loss and renewal.
evidence_refs:
- ev:7
- ev:8
- ev:9
- ev:10
confidence: medium
cautions: The language concerns succession and replacement rather than literal death
and rebirth of a single figure.
comparison_claims: []
evidence:
- id: ev:1
type: summary
locator: 2318-2325
quote_or_summary: Diotima asks Socrates what lovers pursue; Socrates replies that
he does not know and came to learn from her.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/greek/project-gutenberg/symposium-jowett.md
rights_note: Public domain source; summarized.
- id: ev:2
type: quote
locator: 2325-2327
quote_or_summary: "“The object which they have in view is birth in beauty, whether
of body or soul.”"
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/greek/project-gutenberg/symposium-jowett.md
rights_note: Public domain source; short quote.
- id: ev:3
type: summary
locator: 2328-2336
quote_or_summary: Diotima says all people bring to birth in body and soul; human
nature desires procreation in beauty, and conception and generation are an immortal
principle in mortal creatures.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/greek/project-gutenberg/symposium-jowett.md
rights_note: Public domain source; summarized.
- id: ev:4
type: quote
locator: 2336-2345
quote_or_summary: "“Beauty, then, is the destiny or goddess of parturition who presides
at birth.”"
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/greek/project-gutenberg/symposium-jowett.md
rights_note: Public domain source; short quote.
- id: ev:5
type: summary
locator: 2345-2355
quote_or_summary: Diotima says love is the love of generation and birth in beauty;
generation is a sort of eternity and immortality for mortal creatures, so love
is of immortality.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/greek/project-gutenberg/symposium-jowett.md
rights_note: Public domain source; summarized.
- id: ev:6
type: summary
locator: 2356-2370
quote_or_summary: Diotima describes animals, birds, and beasts as agonized by procreative
desire, seeking union, caring for offspring, and enduring danger, hunger, or death
for their young; Socrates asks to be taught the cause and mysteries of love.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/greek/project-gutenberg/symposium-jowett.md
rights_note: Public domain source; summarized.
- id: ev:7
type: summary
locator: 2370-2378
quote_or_summary: Diotima says mortal nature seeks to be everlasting and immortal
and attains this by generation, which leaves a new existence in place of the old.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/greek/project-gutenberg/symposium-jowett.md
rights_note: Public domain source; summarized.
- id: ev:8
type: summary
locator: 2378-2386
quote_or_summary: Diotima says the same individual is not absolutely unified but
undergoes bodily loss and repair, and that the soul’s qualities also come and
go.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/greek/project-gutenberg/symposium-jowett.md
rights_note: Public domain source; summarized.
- id: ev:9
type: summary
locator: 2386-2390
quote_or_summary: Diotima explains recollection as knowledge departing through forgetfulness
and being renewed and preserved so that it appears the same though it is new.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/greek/project-gutenberg/symposium-jowett.md
rights_note: Public domain source; summarized.
- id: ev:10
type: summary
locator: 2390-2392
quote_or_summary: Diotima says mortal things are preserved by substitution, unlike
the divine, and concludes that universal care for offspring is for the sake of
immortality.
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: uncertain
notes: The philosophical content and main figures are explicit. Motif taxonomy assignments
are cautious because the passage is an argument about love, generation, and immortality
rather than a mythic narrative. No comparison claims were added because the passage
does not itself compare traditions or corpora.
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: |-
Used only the supplied passage and metadata. Available symbol taxonomy contained no direct matches for the passage’s main images, so symbol taxonomy references are empty.
batch_run_id=motif-extraction-2026-04-28-high-priority
custom_id=motif_extract:greek-plato-symposium-jowett-gutenberg__l2318-l2392
passage_sha256=57efd7419546d0576609046e18c6a6d356ef35f2d1b7648c320cbe0b375593ea