On the “Hiccuping Episode” in Plato’s Symposium

This article argues for a design in the famous episode of Aristophanes’s hiccups in the Symposium; its purpose is, via the interactions it causes, to contrive the skipping of Aristodemus in the order of speeches. A careful reading of these interactions reveals a different order of seating than that usually assumed, which shows us how Aristodemus comes to be overlooked. We further enquire as to the implications of this ‘missing’ of the person who obviously conforms to the image of philosophical Eros in Socrates’s speech; and conclude that it points us toward a shortcoming in the adequacy of philosophical investigation.