Diotima and kuèsis in the light of the myths of the god’s annexation of pregnancy (Symposium 201d-212b)

Abstract

Reported by a male, one of Diotima’s thesis seems rather surprising: men’ desire is to become pregnant. Scholars have pretended that kuèsis applied to males must be interpreted in a metaphorical sense, but this prohibits understanding why Diotima chooses this metaphor rather than another. In the light of the mythological traditions going back to Hesiod, Orpheus, and the New Musicians who emphasize the novelty of their music while considering themselves as begetting a newborn child, it seems reasonable to assume that Diotima means that creation can’t reduce itself to the begetting of novelty, but takes time as does a maternal gestation.