De la Delie de Scève en Diotima rediuiua, ou l’image d’un mentor sans le son
Made an exceptional mentor by her sex, her foreignness and her status as Socrates’ teacher, Diotima was a key figure of reference in Renaissance discussions about Love in revivals of Plato’s Symposium. The waters become muddied when Scève, following the examples of Castiglione and Speroni, uses the character of Diotima as a metaphor for the beloved woman in Delie (1544): the competition with other female characters, the finality of the metaphor, the ambiguous structure of the dizain, and the fact that the redeeming speech is absolutely silent combine to imply a certain irony, for here Diotima is supposed to teach Hatred as well as Love, and the mischievous side of a poetic composition that favours inscription over expression.