When in a prologue Socrates retreats into a porch he dedicates his time to a
dialogue, with an interlocutor (in the prologue of Protagoras) or with himself
(in the prologue of Symposium, an anticipation of the analogous incident
of Potidea related by Alcibiades). In the case of Symposium, Socrates is at
a loss and is searching a way of escape, a poros out of aporia (and Poros is
notoriously the father of Eros – the subject later chosen by the diners – in the
discourse of Diotima related by Socrates). On the basis of structural elements
and linguistic signs, the aporia seems to be dwelling on the relationship
between beauty and goodness, main point at 204e (“imagine that the object
is changed, and the inquiry is made about the good instead of the beautiful”).
Plato, the author who has planned the dialogue, and Socrates, the character
who wouldn’t know the argument and the development of the dialogue, in
the prologue are perfectly melded together. Besides, it’s proposed a platonic
exegesis on Theognis (vv. 769-772).
Keywords: Plato, prologues, Symposium, Protagoras, aporia