Regarding Exhibit B: Diotima. In your poll of women, context is really important! It’s widely held that this character resembling a historical woman was a rhetorical invention for Socrates by Plato to illustrate the discourse on love. Sure, many scholars debate this, but your take is quite literal. It makes sense that Plato’s characterizations in this speech follow his typical topic setups.

“Socrates invents the fiction of Diotima as a way to express his views on Eros while preserving the stance of Socratic irony and ignorance.” -from the reader’s guide to the Symposium by Thomas Cooksey