The suggestion that Diotima in the "Symposium"* is based on a real historical figure tickled my curiosity, but what matters more for me is going back to the Plato with this commentary:
>>The ‘truth about love’ that emerges is neither purely abstract nor entirely concrete, but rather a recognition that love operates as a transformative force across multiple domains – physical, ethical and intellectual. Diotima’s ladder represents not a rejection of physical love in favour of abstract contemplation, but a developmental account of how erotic energy can be progressively refined and redirected toward increasingly comprehensive objects of desire, culminating in wisdom. <<
*How I wish Mastodon allowed italics, bold, and underlining!
https://aeon.co/essays/meet-the-woman-who-initiated-socrates-in-the-philosophy-of-love
Ba Dang 
or online 
from anywhere around the 
