A Woman to Know: Diotima of Mantinea

This, my dear Socrates, is that life above all others which man should live, in contemplation of beauty absolute. — Diotima

(image via The University of Western Australia)

What little we know of Diotima, a seer and philosopher living in ancient Athens, we know from Plato. In "Symposium," one of his seminal works, he calls Diotima his "instructress in lov…