He love It is presented as a force which belongs neither to the divine nor to the human world, but lies between the two. It represents a continuous movement between lack and fullnessan impulse that arises from necessity and seeks the beautiful and the good. In this tension its double essence is revealed: never satisfied, but always creative, always in transit between desire and wisdom, between desire for union and search for permanence.
This way of understanding it, described as demon Born from Penia and Poros, he explains why love cannot be a perfect god, since he lives from the imbalance generated by desire and the ingenuity that pushes him to overcome it. With this, love becomes an ascending path toward immortal beauty, a movement that anticipates the idea of the vital impulse that, centuries later, would formulate the psychoanalysis.
Diotima of Mantinea explained to Socrates the aspiration to endure
Diotima of Mantineapriestess mentioned by Plato in the Feastwas the teacher who transmitted to Socrates this understanding of love as a desire for immortality. Plato presents it as a wise and prophetic character who would have delayed the plague of Athens thanks to ritual sacrifices, suggesting that he possessed knowledge considered divine.
In the dialogue, Socrates cites her as the source of his knowledge, granting philosophical authority to a woman at a time when almost none had a public voice. His teaching expresses the idea that the love pushes human beings to perpetuate themselves beyond themselveswhether by descent or by the works of the mind, which later inspired Freud in his formulation of Eros as a life drive.
The origin of Diotima has been debated for centuries. Some researchers believe that it was a symbolic character created by Plato to give voice to ideas that he did not want to attribute directly to Socrates. Others point out that her name, which means “she who honors Zeus”, and her origin from Mantinea, a term which evokes the word mantisthey designate a role of intermediary between men and the gods. It has also been suggested that she played real women such as Aspasia of Miletuscompanion of Pericles, known for her intelligence and for leading an intellectual circle in Athens. Although its existence has not been confirmed, the figure of Diotima serves as symbol of female authority in the transmission of philosophical knowledge.
The proposed route advances from bodily attraction towards a supreme notion
The doctrine attributed to him by Plato is organized into what he calls the scale of love. In it, the lover moves from admiring a beautiful body to recognizing the beauty in all bodies; then learn to value virtuous souls, knowledge and, finally, Absolute Beautyeternal and immutable. This ascent describes a process of purification of desirewhich rises from the physical to the intellectual.
Love, according to Diotima, does not renounce desire but transforms it, because the erotic impulse is oriented towards creation and eternity. This vision makes eroticism as a means of access to the divine and explains why Plato sees it as the engine of thought and spiritual life.
He Feast features Socrates recounting the teachings of Diotima to a group of Athenians reflecting on Eros. Unlike the other interlocutors, who consider him as a god or a beneficent force, she defines him as a lack in search of fulfillment. This story, transmitted by Socrates, marks a decisive change in the philosophy of love by placing it in the domain of mediation between men and the gods. In this context, the figure of Diotima acquires an almost legendary character, but her role in the structure of the dialogue demonstrates that her presence responds to a philosophical and not just literary intention, because she personifies the wisdom that unites the sensible and intelligible worlds.
THE Freud’s interpretation extends this conceptual heritage. For him, Eros represents the life drive which seeks to preserve, unite and reproduce, compared to the death drive, Thanatos. His definition of libido as the energy that drives artistic and scientific creation recalls the teaching of Diotima on the desire for immortality through children or works. Although there was no direct relationship between the two thinkers, the continuity is clear: Plato, through Diotima, transformed love into an ascending force towards the eternal, and Freud reinterpreted this aspiration as a vital energy that sustains culture. Thus, the philosopher of Mantinea was registered, indirectly, in the genealogy of one of the most enduring ideas about human desire and its search of permanence beyond death.
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