batch.motif.greek-plato-symposium-jowett-gutenberg-l411-l502
---
record_id: batch.motif.greek-plato-symposium-jowett-gutenberg-l411-l502
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/greek/project-gutenberg/symposium-jowett.md
passage_locator:
label: Symposium / SYMPOSIUM / INTRODUCTION.; lines 411-502
start: '411'
end: '502'
translation: Symposium
notes: Generated from OpenAI Batch run motif-extraction-2026-04-28-high-priority;
human review required.
canonical_text:
quote: ''
summary: The passage summarizes the close of the Symposium, with dispute, revelry,
sleep, dawn, and Socrates' return to ordinary activity, then comments on the interpretive
difficulty of the work and describes Plato's treatment of love as a force in nature,
mythology, philosophy, and human aspiration toward beauty, goodness, truth, and
knowledge. It also characterizes the speeches on love and notes several philosophical
observations attributed to individual speakers.
language: English
quote_policy: summarized
literal_observations:
- id: obs:1
text: After Alcibiades speaks, a dispute begins among Alcibiades, Agathon, and Socrates.
category: sequence
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
- id: obs:2
text: A band of revellers enters and brings disorder into the feast.
category: action
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
- id: obs:3
text: Eryximachus, Phaedrus, and other sober members of the company withdraw.
category: action
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
- id: obs:4
text: Aristodemus sleeps through a long winter night and wakes at cockcrow.
category: action
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
- id: obs:5
text: Near dawn, Socrates, Aristophanes, and Agathon remain awake, drinking from
a large goblet that is passed around.
category: action
evidence_refs:
- ev:2
- id: obs:6
text: Socrates explains that tragedy and comedy have the same genius, and that a
writer of tragedy should also be a writer of comedy.
category: speech
evidence_refs:
- ev:2
- id: obs:7
text: Aristophanes falls asleep first, then Agathon; Socrates lays them to rest,
bathes, and goes to his daily activities, followed by Aristodemus.
category: sequence
evidence_refs:
- ev:2
- id: obs:8
text: The passage says the Symposium has half-lights, cross-lights, mythological
coloring, sophistic manner, rhetoric, poetry, playfulness, seriousness, old philosophy,
and future knowledge intermingled.
category: attribute
evidence_refs:
- ev:3
- id: obs:9
text: The power of love is described as running through all nature and all being,
from animals and plants to the highest vision of truth.
category: attribute
evidence_refs:
- ev:4
- id: obs:10
text: Love is described as becoming a mythic personage and as being converted by
philosophy into an efficient cause of creation.
category: attribute
evidence_refs:
- ev:5
- id: obs:11
text: The passage mentions gender, sex in plants, elective affinities among elements,
and marriages of earth and heaven.
category: relationship
evidence_refs:
- ev:5
- id: obs:12
text: Male and female are said to appear in the Pythagorean list of opposites alongside
odd and even, finite and infinite.
category: relationship
evidence_refs:
- ev:5
- id: obs:13
text: Socrates is described as not originally unimpassioned, but as one who has
overcome his passions.
category: attribute
evidence_refs:
- ev:6
- id: obs:14
text: In the Phaedrus and Symposium, love is described as mystical contemplation
of the beautiful and the good.
category: attribute
evidence_refs:
- ev:6
- id: obs:15
text: The same passion is described as capable both of degrading itself and of rising
to lofty heights and philosophy's inmost secret.
category: attribute
evidence_refs:
- ev:6
- id: obs:16
text: The highest love is described as love of the highest and purest abstraction,
not of a person.
category: attribute
evidence_refs:
- ev:7
- id: obs:17
text: The successive speeches in praise of love are described as characteristic
of their speakers and as preparing the way for Socrates.
category: sequence
evidence_refs:
- ev:8
- id: obs:18
text: Aristophanes is said to declare that love is the desire of the whole.
category: speech
evidence_refs:
- ev:9
figures:
- id: fig:1
name_or_label: Alcibiades
description: Speaker whose speech precedes a dispute with Agathon and Socrates.
role_refs:
- role:1
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
- id: fig:2
name_or_label: Agathon
description: Participant in the dispute; remains awake with Socrates and Aristophanes
near dawn before falling asleep.
role_refs:
- role:2
- role:3
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
- ev:2
- id: fig:3
name_or_label: Socrates
description: Participant in the dispute; explains the relation of tragedy and comedy;
lays others to rest, bathes, and goes to daily activities; later described as
self-controlled and as gathering up the speeches on love.
role_refs:
- role:2
- role:4
- role:5
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
- ev:2
- ev:6
- ev:8
- id: fig:4
name_or_label: band of revellers
description: Group that appears and introduces disorder into the feast.
role_refs:
- role:6
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
- id: fig:5
name_or_label: Eryximachus
description: One of the sober company who withdraws; later cited for remarks on
music.
role_refs:
- role:7
- role:8
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
- ev:9
- id: fig:6
name_or_label: Phaedrus
description: One of the sober company who withdraws.
role_refs:
- role:7
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
- id: fig:7
name_or_label: Aristodemus
description: Follower of Socrates who sleeps through the winter night, wakes at
cockcrow, and follows Socrates.
role_refs:
- role:9
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
- ev:2
- id: fig:8
name_or_label: Aristophanes
description: Participant who remains awake near dawn, then falls asleep; later cited
as saying love is the desire of the whole.
role_refs:
- role:3
- role:8
evidence_refs:
- ev:2
- ev:9
- id: fig:9
name_or_label: Plato
description: Authorial figure discussed as mingling jest and earnest, truth and
opinion, and as presenting a doctrine of love.
role_refs:
- role:10
evidence_refs:
- ev:7
- ev:9
- id: fig:10
name_or_label: Love
description: Personified and conceptualized as a mythic personage, a god addressed
by speeches, and a philosophical cause or object of contemplation.
role_refs:
- role:11
- role:12
evidence_refs:
- ev:5
- ev:6
- ev:8
- id: fig:11
name_or_label: Pausanias
description: Speaker cited for the remark that personal attachments are inimical
to despots.
role_refs:
- role:8
evidence_refs:
- ev:9
- id: fig:12
name_or_label: Agathon as speaker
description: Speaker cited for the saying that no man can be wronged of his own
free will.
role_refs:
- role:8
evidence_refs:
- ev:9
roles:
- id: role:1
label: preceding speaker
assigned_to:
- fig:1
basis: Alcibiades has finished speaking before the dispute starts.
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
- id: role:2
label: disputant
assigned_to:
- fig:2
- fig:3
basis: A dispute begins between Alcibiades, Agathon, and Socrates.
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
- id: role:3
label: last wakeful banquet participant
assigned_to:
- fig:2
- fig:3
- fig:8
basis: Only Socrates, Aristophanes, and Agathon remain awake near dawn.
evidence_refs:
- ev:2
- id: role:4
label: teacher or explainer
assigned_to:
- fig:3
basis: Socrates explains the relation of tragedy and comedy to the others.
evidence_refs:
- ev:2
- id: role:5
label: self-controlled lover of wisdom
assigned_to:
- fig:3
basis: Socrates is described as passionate but self-controlled, and as preparing
the final synthesis of speeches.
evidence_refs:
- ev:6
- ev:8
- id: role:6
label: disorder-bringing group
assigned_to:
- fig:4
basis: The revellers introduce disorder into the feast.
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
- id: role:7
label: sober withdrawer
assigned_to:
- fig:5
- fig:6
basis: Eryximachus, Phaedrus, and other sober members withdraw.
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
- id: role:8
label: speaker in praise or analysis of love
assigned_to:
- fig:5
- fig:8
- fig:11
- fig:12
basis: These figures are named in the discussion of successive speeches and their
remarks.
evidence_refs:
- ev:8
- ev:9
- id: role:9
label: follower and witness
assigned_to:
- fig:7
basis: Aristodemus is identified as the follower of Socrates and is present for
the night and morning sequence.
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
- ev:2
- id: role:10
label: philosophical-poetic authorial figure
assigned_to:
- fig:9
basis: The passage attributes to Plato the mingling of jest, earnest, truth, opinion,
and the doctrine of love.
evidence_refs:
- ev:7
- ev:9
- id: role:11
label: mythic personage
assigned_to:
- fig:10
basis: Love is said to become a mythic personage and to be addressed by speeches
dedicated to the god.
evidence_refs:
- ev:5
- ev:8
- id: role:12
label: cosmic and philosophical principle
assigned_to:
- fig:10
basis: Love is described as running through nature and being, and as an efficient
cause of creation and contemplation of the beautiful and good.
evidence_refs:
- ev:4
- ev:5
- ev:6
symbols:
- id: sym:1
label: large goblet
literal_form: A large goblet passed around by Socrates, Aristophanes, and Agathon
while they drink near dawn.
associated_figures:
- fig:2
- fig:3
- fig:8
taxonomy_refs: []
evidence_refs:
- ev:2
- id: sym:2
label: cockcrow and dawn
literal_form: Cockcrow and dawning mark the transition from the night of revelry
to morning activity.
associated_figures:
- fig:2
- fig:3
- fig:7
- fig:8
taxonomy_refs: []
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
- ev:2
- id: sym:3
label: Love as mythic personage
literal_form: Love is described as a mythic personage and as a god to whom speeches
are dedicated.
associated_figures:
- fig:10
taxonomy_refs: []
evidence_refs:
- ev:5
- ev:8
- id: sym:4
label: marriages of earth and heaven
literal_form: The passage refers to marriages of earth and heaven in a discussion
of gender, mythology, and natural philosophy.
associated_figures:
- fig:10
taxonomy_refs: []
evidence_refs:
- ev:5
- id: sym:5
label: Pythagorean opposites
literal_form: Male and female are paired with odd and even, finite and infinite.
associated_figures: []
taxonomy_refs: []
evidence_refs:
- ev:5
- id: sym:6
label: far-off heaven
literal_form: The highest abstraction is described as a far-off heaven on which
the eye of the mind is fixed.
associated_figures:
- fig:10
taxonomy_refs: []
evidence_refs:
- ev:7
- id: sym:7
label: eye of the mind
literal_form: An image of mental vision fixed on the far-off heaven of abstraction.
associated_figures: []
taxonomy_refs: []
evidence_refs:
- ev:7
scenes:
- id: scene:1
label: Dispute and disorder at the feast
summary: After Alcibiades speaks, a dispute begins; revellers enter, disturb the
feast, and the sober company withdraws.
figure_refs:
- fig:1
- fig:2
- fig:3
- fig:4
- fig:5
- fig:6
symbol_refs: []
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
- id: scene:2
label: Winter night, cockcrow, and dawn
summary: Aristodemus sleeps through the winter night and wakes at cockcrow; Socrates,
Aristophanes, and Agathon continue drinking from a large goblet, then Aristophanes
and Agathon fall asleep as day dawns.
figure_refs:
- fig:2
- fig:3
- fig:7
- fig:8
symbol_refs:
- sym:1
- sym:2
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
- ev:2
- id: scene:3
label: Socrates returns to daily life
summary: After laying the others to rest, Socrates bathes and goes to his daily
activities, with Aristodemus following.
figure_refs:
- fig:3
- fig:7
symbol_refs:
- sym:2
evidence_refs:
- ev:2
- id: scene:4
label: Interpretive character of the Symposium
summary: The work is described as difficult to interpret because mythology, sophistry,
rhetoric, poetry, playfulness, seriousness, old philosophy, and future knowledge
are interwoven.
figure_refs:
- fig:9
symbol_refs: []
evidence_refs:
- ev:3
- id: scene:5
label: Love across nature and being
summary: Love is presented as present throughout nature and being, linked to animals,
plants, truth, gender, elemental affinities, earth and heaven, and oppositional
pairs.
figure_refs:
- fig:10
symbol_refs:
- sym:3
- sym:4
- sym:5
evidence_refs:
- ev:4
- ev:5
- id: scene:6
label: Human love and philosophical ascent
summary: Love in human beings is described as extending beyond sex, transforming
passion toward mystical contemplation of beauty, goodness, abstraction, truth,
knowledge, and the eternal.
figure_refs:
- fig:3
- fig:10
symbol_refs:
- sym:6
- sym:7
evidence_refs:
- ev:6
- ev:7
- id: scene:7
label: Speeches preparing Socrates
summary: The speeches in praise of love are treated as varied rhetorical and poetic
performances that prepare the way for Socrates and contain glimpses of truth.
figure_refs:
- fig:3
- fig:5
- fig:8
- fig:10
- fig:11
- fig:12
symbol_refs:
- sym:3
evidence_refs:
- ev:8
- ev:9
candidate_motifs:
- id: motif:1
label: Love as cosmic creative principle
taxonomy_refs:
- divine_beloved
basis: Love is described as running through nature and being and as a mythic personage
converted by philosophy into an efficient cause of creation.
evidence_refs:
- ev:4
- ev:5
confidence: medium
cautions: The taxonomy reference is approximate; the passage treats Love as a personified
and philosophical principle rather than narrating a divine beloved episode.
- id: motif:2
label: Ascent from sensual passion to contemplation of truth
taxonomy_refs:
- ascent
- mystical_quest
- wisdom
basis: The passage says love can rise to the loftiest heights, penetrate philosophy's
inmost secret, and become mystical contemplation of the beautiful and good.
evidence_refs:
- ev:6
- ev:7
confidence: high
cautions: This is presented in an introductory philosophical summary, not as a discrete
mythic journey narrative.
- id: motif:3
label: Union or desire for wholeness
taxonomy_refs:
- annihilation_union
basis: The passage reports Aristophanes' declaration that love is the desire of
the whole.
evidence_refs:
- ev:9
confidence: medium
cautions: Only a brief paraphrase is given here; the passage does not include the
full Aristophanic myth.
- id: motif:4
label: Sacred marriage of earth and heaven
taxonomy_refs:
- sacred_marriage
basis: The passage refers to marriages of earth and heaven while discussing gender,
mythology, natural philosophy, and love.
evidence_refs:
- ev:5
confidence: medium
cautions: The phrase is cited as part of an interpretive survey, not narrated as
a full myth.
- id: motif:5
label: Cosmic duality through opposites
taxonomy_refs:
- duality
basis: Male and female are set alongside odd and even and finite and infinite in
the Pythagorean list of opposites.
evidence_refs:
- ev:5
confidence: high
cautions: The passage gives a philosophical classification, not a mythic conflict
between paired beings.
- id: motif:6
label: Dawn after revelry and philosophical endurance
taxonomy_refs:
- wisdom
basis: At dawn, most revellers sleep while Socrates remains active, explains tragedy
and comedy, tends to the sleepers, bathes, and resumes daily duties.
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
- ev:2
confidence: medium
cautions: The wisdom motif is inferred from Socrates' endurance and philosophical
speech within the summary; the passage itself is not a mythic trial narrative.
comparison_claims:
- id: claim:1
claim: The passage itself compares Aristophanes' statement that love is desire for
the whole to a German philosopher's saying that philosophy is homesickness.
claim_level: same_function
target: A German philosopher's saying that philosophy is 'home sickness'
evidence_refs:
- ev:9
counter_evidence_refs: []
confidence: medium
limitations: The German philosopher is not named in the passage, and the comparison
is limited to a stated resemblance of feeling rather than historical contact or
shared origin.
evidence:
- id: ev:1
type: summary
locator: lines 411-418
quote_or_summary: After Alcibiades' speech, a dispute begins with Agathon and Socrates;
revellers create disorder; sober participants withdraw; Aristodemus sleeps through
a long winter night and wakes at cockcrow.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/greek/project-gutenberg/symposium-jowett.md
rights_note: Public domain source; summarized.
- id: ev:2
type: summary
locator: lines 418-424
quote_or_summary: Near dawn, Socrates, Aristophanes, and Agathon drink from a large
goblet; Socrates explains that tragedy and comedy have the same genius; Aristophanes
and then Agathon sleep; Socrates bathes and resumes daily activities.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/greek/project-gutenberg/symposium-jowett.md
rights_note: Public domain source; summarized.
- id: ev:3
type: summary
locator: lines 427-442
quote_or_summary: The Symposium is described as difficult to interpret, with mythological
color, sophistic manner, rhetoric, poetry, playfulness, seriousness, old philosophy,
and future knowledge intermingled.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/greek/project-gutenberg/symposium-jowett.md
rights_note: Public domain source; summarized.
- id: ev:4
type: quote
locator: lines 444-448
quote_or_summary: '"The power of love is represented in the Symposium as running
through all nature and all being" and extending from animals and plants to the
highest vision of truth.'
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/greek/project-gutenberg/symposium-jowett.md
rights_note: Public domain source; short quotation.
- id: ev:5
type: summary
locator: lines 448-461
quote_or_summary: The passage discusses gender, sex in plants, elemental affinities,
marriages of earth and heaven, Love as a mythic personage and cause of creation,
and male/female among Pythagorean opposites.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/greek/project-gutenberg/symposium-jowett.md
rights_note: Public domain source; summarized.
- id: ev:6
type: summary
locator: lines 463-475
quote_or_summary: The passage describes a mystery of love in man beyond immediate
sex; Socrates is passionate but self-controlled; love in Phaedrus and Symposium
is mystical contemplation of the beautiful and good and can rise to philosophy's
highest secret.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/greek/project-gutenberg/symposium-jowett.md
rights_note: Public domain source; summarized.
- id: ev:7
type: summary
locator: lines 475-484
quote_or_summary: The highest love is described as love of the highest and purest
abstraction, figured as a far-off heaven for the eye of the mind, and associated
with truth, knowledge, the invisible, and the eternal.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/greek/project-gutenberg/symposium-jowett.md
rights_note: Public domain source; summarized.
- id: ev:8
type: summary
locator: lines 486-494
quote_or_summary: The successive speeches in praise of love are said to characterize
their speakers, prepare the way for Socrates, and dedicate rhetorical and poetic
performances to the god.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/greek/project-gutenberg/symposium-jowett.md
rights_note: Public domain source; summarized.
- id: ev:9
type: summary
locator: lines 494-502
quote_or_summary: The passage summarizes remarks by Eryximachus, Pausanias, Aristophanes,
and Agathon, including Aristophanes' claim that love is the desire of the whole
and a comparison to philosophy as homesickness.
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 extraction is based on an English public-domain introduction rather than
the dramatic dialogue itself. Motif labels are cautious because much of the passage
is interpretive philosophical commentary.
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: |-
Only the supplied passage and metadata were used. Taxonomy references are limited to the provided available taxonomy list.
batch_run_id=motif-extraction-2026-04-28-high-priority
custom_id=motif_extract:greek-plato-symposium-jowett-gutenberg__l411-l502
passage_sha256=bb82f5df18de164d2d54a14ac5440e22b7c112065f637eae82fd47726d05e25d