Diotima

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The learned female teacher from Mantinea who instructs Socrates about love in Plato's dialogue the Symposium
2. A wise priestess from Mantinea, portrayed in Plato's Symposium as the mentor who guides Socrates in understanding love
3. The Mantinean sage in Plato's Symposium, a woman credited with teaching Socrates the nature and purpose of love

Etymology: Diotima is a proper name, and its fame in English comes almost entirely from one figure: the wise woman from Mantinea who, in Plato's "Symposium," instructs Socrates on the nature of love. Plato never claims she was a real person, and most scholars think she was invented, perhaps as a vehicle for ideas Socrates is made to recite. The name itself is Greek, combining "Dios" (of Zeus) with "timē" (honour), so it means something like "honoured by Zeus" or "honour of Zeus," a compound typical of classical Greek personal names. English writers picked up the name as a byword for a learned, sage-like woman who guides a man toward higher understanding. Friedrich Hölderlin gave it a new life in the late eighteenth century when he named the heroine of his novel "Hyperion" Diotima, modelling her partly on the Symposium figure and partly on the woman he loved, Susette Gontard. Through German Romantic writing the name spread into English literary use, where it is now found mostly in discussions of philosophy, Romanticism, and idealised female characters.