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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Symposium, by Plato
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Symposium
+
+Author: Plato
+
+Translator: B. Jowett
+
+Posting Date: November 7, 2008 [EBook #1600]
+Release Date: January, 1999
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SYMPOSIUM ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Sue Asscher
+
+
+
+
+
+SYMPOSIUM
+
+By Plato
+
+
+Translated by Benjamin Jowett
+
+
+
+
+INTRODUCTION.
+
+Of all the works of Plato the Symposium is the most perfect in form,
+and may be truly thought to contain more than any commentator has ever
+dreamed of; or, as Goethe said of one of his own writings, more than the
+author himself knew. For in philosophy as in prophecy glimpses of the
+future may often be conveyed in words which could hardly have been
+understood or interpreted at the time when they were uttered (compare
+Symp.)--which were wiser than the writer of them meant, and could not
+have been expressed by him if he had been interrogated about them.
+Yet Plato was not a mystic, nor in any degree affected by the Eastern
+influences which afterwards overspread the Alexandrian world. He was
+not an enthusiast or a sentimentalist, but one who aspired only to
+see reasoned truth, and whose thoughts are clearly explained in his
+language. There is no foreign element either of Egypt or of Asia to
+be found in his writings. And more than any other Platonic work the
+Symposium is Greek both in style and subject, having a beauty 'as of
+a statue,' while the companion Dialogue of the Phaedrus is marked by
+a sort of Gothic irregularity. More too than in any other of his
+Dialogues, Plato is emancipated from former philosophies. The genius of
+Greek art seems to triumph over the traditions of Pythagorean, Eleatic,
+or Megarian systems, and 'the old quarrel of poetry and philosophy' has
+at least a superficial reconcilement. (Rep.)
+
+An unknown person who had heard of the discourses in praise of love
+spoken by Socrates and others at the banquet of Agathon is desirous of
+having an authentic account of them, which he thinks that he can
+obtain from Apollodorus, the same excitable, or rather 'mad' friend of
+Socrates, who is afterwards introduced in the Phaedo. He had imagined
+that the discourses were recent. There he is mistaken: but they are
+still fresh in the memory of his informant, who had just been repeating
+them to Glaucon, and is quite prepared to have another rehearsal of them
+in a walk from the Piraeus to Athens. Although he had not been present
+himself, he had heard them from the best authority. Aristodemus, who
+is described as having been in past times a humble but inseparable
+attendant of Socrates, had reported them to him (compare Xen. Mem.).
+
+The narrative which he had heard was as follows:--
+
+Aristodemus meeting Socrates in holiday attire, is invited by him to
+a banquet at the house of Agathon, who had been sacrificing in
+thanksgiving for his tragic victory on the day previous. But no sooner
+has he entered the house than he finds that he is alone; Socrates has
+stayed behind in a fit of abstraction, and does not appear until the
+banquet is half over. On his appearing he and the host jest a little;
+the question is then asked by Pausanias, one of the guests, 'What shall
+they do about drinking? as they had been all well drunk on the day
+before, and drinking on two successive days is such a bad thing.' This
+is confirmed by the authority of Eryximachus the physician, who further
+proposes that instead of listening to the flute-girl and her 'noise'
+they shall make speeches in honour of love, one after another, going
+from left to right in the order in which they are reclining at the
+table. All of them agree to this proposal, and Phaedrus, who is
+the 'father' of the idea, which he has previously communicated to
+Eryximachus, begins as follows:--
+
+He descants first of all upon the antiquity of love, which is proved by
+the authority of the poets; secondly upon the benefits which love gives
+to man. The greatest of these is the sense of honour and dishonour.
+The lover is ashamed to be seen by the beloved doing or suffering any
+cowardly or mean act. And a state or army which was made up only of
+lovers and their loves would be invincible. For love will convert the
+veriest coward into an inspired hero.
+
+And there have been true loves not only of men but of women also. Such
+was the love of Alcestis, who dared to die for her husband, and in
+recompense of her virtue was allowed to come again from the dead. But
+Orpheus, the miserable harper, who went down to Hades alive, that he
+might bring back his wife, was mocked with an apparition only, and
+the gods afterwards contrived his death as the punishment of his
+cowardliness. The love of Achilles, like that of Alcestis, was
+courageous and true; for he was willing to avenge his lover Patroclus,
+although he knew that his own death would immediately follow: and
+the gods, who honour the love of the beloved above that of the lover,
+rewarded him, and sent him to the islands of the blest.
+
+Pausanias, who was sitting next, then takes up the tale:--He says that
+Phaedrus should have distinguished the heavenly love from the earthly,
+before he praised either. For there are two loves, as there are two
+Aphrodites--one the daughter of Uranus, who has no mother and is the
+elder and wiser goddess, and the other, the daughter of Zeus and Dione,
+who is popular and common. The first of the two loves has a noble
+purpose, and delights only in the intelligent nature of man, and is
+faithful to the end, and has no shadow of wantonness or lust. The second
+is the coarser kind of love, which is a love of the body rather than of
+the soul, and is of women and boys as well as of men. Now the actions of
+lovers vary, like every other sort of action, according to the manner of
+their performance. And in different countries there is a difference of
+opinion about male loves. Some, like the Boeotians, approve of them;
+others, like the Ionians, and most of the barbarians, disapprove of
+them; partly because they are aware of the political dangers which ensue
+from them, as may be seen in the instance of Harmodius and Aristogeiton.
+At Athens and Sparta there is an apparent contradiction about them. For
+at times they are encouraged, and then the lover is allowed to play all
+sorts of fantastic tricks; he may swear and forswear himself (and 'at
+lovers' perjuries they say Jove laughs'); he may be a servant, and lie
+on a mat at the door of his love, without any loss of character; but
+there are also times when elders look grave and guard their young
+relations, and personal remarks are made. The truth is that some of
+these loves are disgraceful and others honourable. The vulgar love of
+the body which takes wing and flies away when the bloom of youth is
+over, is disgraceful, and so is the interested love of power or wealth;
+but the love of the noble mind is lasting. The lover should be tested,
+and the beloved should not be too ready to yield. The rule in our
+country is that the beloved may do the same service to the lover in the
+way of virtue which the lover may do to him.
+
+A voluntary service to be rendered for the sake of virtue and wisdom is
+permitted among us; and when these two customs--one the love of youth,
+the other the practice of virtue and philosophy--meet in one, then the
+lovers may lawfully unite. Nor is there any disgrace to a disinterested
+lover in being deceived: but the interested lover is doubly disgraced,
+for if he loses his love he loses his character; whereas the noble
+love of the other remains the same, although the object of his love is
+unworthy: for nothing can be nobler than love for the sake of virtue.
+This is that love of the heavenly goddess which is of great price to
+individuals and cities, making them work together for their improvement.
+
+The turn of Aristophanes comes next; but he has the hiccough, and
+therefore proposes that Eryximachus the physician shall cure him
+or speak in his turn. Eryximachus is ready to do both, and after
+prescribing for the hiccough, speaks as follows:--
+
+He agrees with Pausanias in maintaining that there are two kinds of
+love; but his art has led him to the further conclusion that the empire
+of this double love extends over all things, and is to be found in
+animals and plants as well as in man. In the human body also there are
+two loves; and the art of medicine shows which is the good and which is
+the bad love, and persuades the body to accept the good and reject the
+bad, and reconciles conflicting elements and makes them friends. Every
+art, gymnastic and husbandry as well as medicine, is the reconciliation
+of opposites; and this is what Heracleitus meant, when he spoke of a
+harmony of opposites: but in strictness he should rather have spoken of
+a harmony which succeeds opposites, for an agreement of disagreements
+there cannot be. Music too is concerned with the principles of love in
+their application to harmony and rhythm. In the abstract, all is simple,
+and we are not troubled with the twofold love; but when they are applied
+in education with their accompaniments of song and metre, then the
+discord begins. Then the old tale has to be repeated of fair Urania and
+the coarse Polyhymnia, who must be indulged sparingly, just as in my
+own art of medicine care must be taken that the taste of the epicure be
+gratified without inflicting upon him the attendant penalty of disease.
+
+There is a similar harmony or disagreement in the course of the seasons
+and in the relations of moist and dry, hot and cold, hoar frost and
+blight; and diseases of all sorts spring from the excesses or disorders
+of the element of love. The knowledge of these elements of love and
+discord in the heavenly bodies is termed astronomy, in the relations of
+men towards gods and parents is called divination. For divination is the
+peacemaker of gods and men, and works by a knowledge of the tendencies
+of merely human loves to piety and impiety. Such is the power of love;
+and that love which is just and temperate has the greatest power, and
+is the source of all our happiness and friendship with the gods and with
+one another. I dare say that I have omitted to mention many things which
+you, Aristophanes, may supply, as I perceive that you are cured of the
+hiccough.
+
+Aristophanes is the next speaker:--
+
+He professes to open a new vein of discourse, in which he begins by
+treating of the origin of human nature. The sexes were originally three,
+men, women, and the union of the two; and they were made round--having
+four hands, four feet, two faces on a round neck, and the rest to
+correspond. Terrible was their strength and swiftness; and they were
+essaying to scale heaven and attack the gods. Doubt reigned in the
+celestial councils; the gods were divided between the desire of quelling
+the pride of man and the fear of losing the sacrifices. At last Zeus hit
+upon an expedient. Let us cut them in two, he said; then they will only
+have half their strength, and we shall have twice as many sacrifices. He
+spake, and split them as you might split an egg with an hair; and when
+this was done, he told Apollo to give their faces a twist and re-arrange
+their persons, taking out the wrinkles and tying the skin in a knot
+about the navel. The two halves went about looking for one another, and
+were ready to die of hunger in one another's arms. Then Zeus invented an
+adjustment of the sexes, which enabled them to marry and go their way
+to the business of life. Now the characters of men differ accordingly
+as they are derived from the original man or the original woman, or the
+original man-woman. Those who come from the man-woman are lascivious and
+adulterous; those who come from the woman form female attachments; those
+who are a section of the male follow the male and embrace him, and in
+him all their desires centre. The pair are inseparable and live together
+in pure and manly affection; yet they cannot tell what they want of one
+another. But if Hephaestus were to come to them with his instruments
+and propose that they should be melted into one and remain one here and
+hereafter, they would acknowledge that this was the very expression of
+their want. For love is the desire of the whole, and the pursuit of the
+whole is called love. There was a time when the two sexes were only one,
+but now God has halved them,--much as the Lacedaemonians have cut up
+the Arcadians,--and if they do not behave themselves he will divide
+them again, and they will hop about with half a nose and face in basso
+relievo. Wherefore let us exhort all men to piety, that we may obtain
+the goods of which love is the author, and be reconciled to God, and
+find our own true loves, which rarely happens in this world. And now I
+must beg you not to suppose that I am alluding to Pausanias and Agathon
+(compare Protag.), for my words refer to all mankind everywhere.
+
+Some raillery ensues first between Aristophanes and Eryximachus, and
+then between Agathon, who fears a few select friends more than any
+number of spectators at the theatre, and Socrates, who is disposed to
+begin an argument. This is speedily repressed by Phaedrus, who reminds
+the disputants of their tribute to the god. Agathon's speech follows:--
+
+He will speak of the god first and then of his gifts: He is the fairest
+and blessedest and best of the gods, and also the youngest, having had
+no existence in the old days of Iapetus and Cronos when the gods were
+at war. The things that were done then were done of necessity and not
+of love. For love is young and dwells in soft places,--not like Ate
+in Homer, walking on the skulls of men, but in their hearts and
+souls, which are soft enough. He is all flexibility and grace, and his
+habitation is among the flowers, and he cannot do or suffer wrong; for
+all men serve and obey him of their own free will, and where there is
+love there is obedience, and where obedience, there is justice; for
+none can be wronged of his own free will. And he is temperate as well as
+just, for he is the ruler of the desires, and if he rules them he must
+be temperate. Also he is courageous, for he is the conqueror of the lord
+of war. And he is wise too; for he is a poet, and the author of poesy in
+others. He created the animals; he is the inventor of the arts; all the
+gods are his subjects; he is the fairest and best himself, and the cause
+of what is fairest and best in others; he makes men to be of one mind
+at a banquet, filling them with affection and emptying them of
+disaffection; the pilot, helper, defender, saviour of men, in whose
+footsteps let every man follow, chanting a strain of love. Such is the
+discourse, half playful, half serious, which I dedicate to the god.
+
+The turn of Socrates comes next. He begins by remarking satirically
+that he has not understood the terms of the original agreement, for he
+fancied that they meant to speak the true praises of love, but now he
+finds that they only say what is good of him, whether true or false. He
+begs to be absolved from speaking falsely, but he is willing to speak
+the truth, and proposes to begin by questioning Agathon. The result of
+his questions may be summed up as follows:--
+
+Love is of something, and that which love desires is not that which love
+is or has; for no man desires that which he is or has. And love is of
+the beautiful, and therefore has not the beautiful. And the beautiful
+is the good, and therefore, in wanting and desiring the beautiful, love
+also wants and desires the good. Socrates professes to have asked the
+same questions and to have obtained the same answers from Diotima, a
+wise woman of Mantinea, who, like Agathon, had spoken first of love and
+then of his works. Socrates, like Agathon, had told her that Love is a
+mighty god and also fair, and she had shown him in return that Love was
+neither, but in a mean between fair and foul, good and evil, and not a
+god at all, but only a great demon or intermediate power (compare the
+speech of Eryximachus) who conveys to the gods the prayers of men, and
+to men the commands of the gods.
+
+Socrates asks: Who are his father and mother? To this Diotima replies
+that he is the son of Plenty and Poverty, and partakes of the nature of
+both, and is full and starved by turns. Like his mother he is poor and
+squalid, lying on mats at doors (compare the speech of Pausanias);
+like his father he is bold and strong, and full of arts and resources.
+Further, he is in a mean between ignorance and knowledge:--in this he
+resembles the philosopher who is also in a mean between the wise and the
+ignorant. Such is the nature of Love, who is not to be confused with the
+beloved.
+
+But Love desires the beautiful; and then arises the question, What does
+he desire of the beautiful? He desires, of course, the possession of
+the beautiful;--but what is given by that? For the beautiful let us
+substitute the good, and we have no difficulty in seeing the possession
+of the good to be happiness, and Love to be the desire of happiness,
+although the meaning of the word has been too often confined to one
+kind of love. And Love desires not only the good, but the everlasting
+possession of the good. Why then is there all this flutter and
+excitement about love? Because all men and women at a certain age are
+desirous of bringing to the birth. And love is not of beauty only, but
+of birth in beauty; this is the principle of immortality in a mortal
+creature. When beauty approaches, then the conceiving power is benign
+and diffuse; when foulness, she is averted and morose.
+
+But why again does this extend not only to men but also to animals?
+Because they too have an instinct of immortality. Even in the same
+individual there is a perpetual succession as well of the parts of the
+material body as of the thoughts and desires of the mind; nay, even
+knowledge comes and goes. There is no sameness of existence, but the new
+mortality is always taking the place of the old. This is the reason why
+parents love their children--for the sake of immortality; and this is
+why men love the immortality of fame. For the creative soul creates not
+children, but conceptions of wisdom and virtue, such as poets and other
+creators have invented. And the noblest creations of all are those of
+legislators, in honour of whom temples have been raised. Who would not
+sooner have these children of the mind than the ordinary human ones?
+(Compare Bacon's Essays, 8:--'Certainly the best works and of greatest
+merit for the public have proceeded from the unmarried or childless men;
+which both in affection and means have married and endowed the public.')
+
+I will now initiate you, she said, into the greater mysteries; for he
+who would proceed in due course should love first one fair form, and
+then many, and learn the connexion of them; and from beautiful bodies
+he should proceed to beautiful minds, and the beauty of laws and
+institutions, until he perceives that all beauty is of one kindred; and
+from institutions he should go on to the sciences, until at last the
+vision is revealed to him of a single science of universal beauty, and
+then he will behold the everlasting nature which is the cause of all,
+and will be near the end. In the contemplation of that supreme being of
+love he will be purified of earthly leaven, and will behold beauty, not
+with the bodily eye, but with the eye of the mind, and will bring forth
+true creations of virtue and wisdom, and be the friend of God and heir
+of immortality.
+
+Such, Phaedrus, is the tale which I heard from the stranger of Mantinea,
+and which you may call the encomium of love, or what you please.
+
+The company applaud the speech of Socrates, and Aristophanes is about to
+say something, when suddenly a band of revellers breaks into the court,
+and the voice of Alcibiades is heard asking for Agathon. He is led
+in drunk, and welcomed by Agathon, whom he has come to crown with
+a garland. He is placed on a couch at his side, but suddenly, on
+recognizing Socrates, he starts up, and a sort of conflict is carried
+on between them, which Agathon is requested to appease. Alcibiades then
+insists that they shall drink, and has a large wine-cooler filled,
+which he first empties himself, and then fills again and passes on to
+Socrates. He is informed of the nature of the entertainment; and is
+ready to join, if only in the character of a drunken and disappointed
+lover he may be allowed to sing the praises of Socrates:--
+
+He begins by comparing Socrates first to the busts of Silenus, which
+have images of the gods inside them; and, secondly, to Marsyas the
+flute-player. For Socrates produces the same effect with the voice which
+Marsyas did with the flute. He is the great speaker and enchanter
+who ravishes the souls of men; the convincer of hearts too, as he has
+convinced Alcibiades, and made him ashamed of his mean and miserable
+life. Socrates at one time seemed about to fall in love with him; and he
+thought that he would thereby gain a wonderful opportunity of receiving
+lessons of wisdom. He narrates the failure of his design. He has
+suffered agonies from him, and is at his wit's end. He then proceeds to
+mention some other particulars of the life of Socrates; how they were at
+Potidaea together, where Socrates showed his superior powers of enduring
+cold and fatigue; how on one occasion he had stood for an entire day and
+night absorbed in reflection amid the wonder of the spectators; how on
+another occasion he had saved Alcibiades' life; how at the battle
+of Delium, after the defeat, he might be seen stalking about like a
+pelican, rolling his eyes as Aristophanes had described him in the
+Clouds. He is the most wonderful of human beings, and absolutely unlike
+anyone but a satyr. Like the satyr in his language too; for he uses the
+commonest words as the outward mask of the divinest truths.
+
+When Alcibiades has done speaking, a dispute begins between him
+and Agathon and Socrates. Socrates piques Alcibiades by a pretended
+affection for Agathon. Presently a band of revellers appears, who
+introduce disorder into the feast; the sober part of the company,
+Eryximachus, Phaedrus, and others, withdraw; and Aristodemus, the
+follower of Socrates, sleeps during the whole of a long winter's night.
+When he wakes at cockcrow the revellers are nearly all asleep. Only
+Socrates, Aristophanes, and Agathon hold out; they are drinking from a
+large goblet, which they pass round, and Socrates is explaining to the
+two others, who are half-asleep, that the genius of tragedy is the same
+as that of comedy, and that the writer of tragedy ought to be a writer
+of comedy also. And first Aristophanes drops, and then, as the day is
+dawning, Agathon. Socrates, having laid them to rest, takes a bath and
+goes to his daily avocations until the evening. Aristodemus follows.
+
+...
+
+If it be true that there are more things in the Symposium of Plato than
+any commentator has dreamed of, it is also true that many things have
+been imagined which are not really to be found there. Some writings
+hardly admit of a more distinct interpretation than a musical
+composition; and every reader may form his own accompaniment of thought
+or feeling to the strain which he hears. The Symposium of Plato is a
+work of this character, and can with difficulty be rendered in any words
+but the writer's own. There are so many half-lights and cross-lights,
+so much of the colour of mythology, and of the manner of sophistry
+adhering--rhetoric and poetry, the playful and the serious, are so
+subtly intermingled in it, and vestiges of old philosophy so curiously
+blend with germs of future knowledge, that agreement among interpreters
+is not to be expected. The expression 'poema magis putandum quam
+comicorum poetarum,' which has been applied to all the writings of
+Plato, is especially applicable to the Symposium.
+
+The power of love is represented in the Symposium as running through all
+nature and all being: at one end descending to animals and plants, and
+attaining to the highest vision of truth at the other. In an age
+when man was seeking for an expression of the world around him, the
+conception of love greatly affected him. One of the first distinctions
+of language and of mythology was that of gender; and at a later period
+the ancient physicist, anticipating modern science, saw, or thought
+that he saw, a sex in plants; there were elective affinities among the
+elements, marriages of earth and heaven. (Aesch. Frag. Dan.) Love became
+a mythic personage whom philosophy, borrowing from poetry, converted
+into an efficient cause of creation. The traces of the existence of
+love, as of number and figure, were everywhere discerned; and in the
+Pythagorean list of opposites male and female were ranged side by side
+with odd and even, finite and infinite.
+
+But Plato seems also to be aware that there is a mystery of love in man
+as well as in nature, extending beyond the mere immediate relation of
+the sexes. He is conscious that the highest and noblest things in the
+world are not easily severed from the sensual desires, or may even be
+regarded as a spiritualized form of them. We may observe that Socrates
+himself is not represented as originally unimpassioned, but as one who
+has overcome his passions; the secret of his power over others partly
+lies in his passionate but self-controlled nature. In the Phaedrus and
+Symposium love is not merely the feeling usually so called, but the
+mystical contemplation of the beautiful and the good. The same passion
+which may wallow in the mire is capable of rising to the loftiest
+heights--of penetrating the inmost secret of philosophy. The highest
+love is the love not of a person, but of the highest and purest
+abstraction. This abstraction is the far-off heaven on which the eye of
+the mind is fixed in fond amazement. The unity of truth, the consistency
+of the warring elements of the world, the enthusiasm for knowledge when
+first beaming upon mankind, the relativity of ideas to the human
+mind, and of the human mind to ideas, the faith in the invisible,
+the adoration of the eternal nature, are all included, consciously or
+unconsciously, in Plato's doctrine of love.
+
+The successive speeches in praise of love are characteristic of the
+speakers, and contribute in various degrees to the final result; they
+are all designed to prepare the way for Socrates, who gathers up the
+threads anew, and skims the highest points of each of them. But they are
+not to be regarded as the stages of an idea, rising above one another
+to a climax. They are fanciful, partly facetious performances, 'yet also
+having a certain measure of seriousness,' which the successive speakers
+dedicate to the god. All of them are rhetorical and poetical rather than
+dialectical, but glimpses of truth appear in them. When Eryximachus says
+that the principles of music are simple in themselves, but confused
+in their application, he touches lightly upon a difficulty which has
+troubled the moderns as well as the ancients in music, and may be
+extended to the other applied sciences. That confusion begins in the
+concrete, was the natural feeling of a mind dwelling in the world of
+ideas. When Pausanias remarks that personal attachments are inimical
+to despots. The experience of Greek history confirms the truth of his
+remark. When Aristophanes declares that love is the desire of the whole,
+he expresses a feeling not unlike that of the German philosopher, who
+says that 'philosophy is home sickness.' When Agathon says that no man
+'can be wronged of his own free will,' he is alluding playfully to a
+serious problem of Greek philosophy (compare Arist. Nic. Ethics). So
+naturally does Plato mingle jest and earnest, truth and opinion in the
+same work.
+
+The characters--of Phaedrus, who has been the cause of more
+philosophical discussions than any other man, with the exception of
+Simmias the Theban (Phaedrus); of Aristophanes, who disguises under
+comic imagery a serious purpose; of Agathon, who in later life is
+satirized by Aristophanes in the Thesmophoriazusae, for his effeminate
+manners and the feeble rhythms of his verse; of Alcibiades, who is the
+same strange contrast of great powers and great vices, which meets us
+in history--are drawn to the life; and we may suppose the less-known
+characters of Pausanias and Eryximachus to be also true to the
+traditional recollection of them (compare Phaedr., Protag.; and compare
+Sympos. with Phaedr.). We may also remark that Aristodemus is called
+'the little' in Xenophon's Memorabilia (compare Symp.).
+
+The speeches have been said to follow each other in pairs: Phaedrus and
+Pausanias being the ethical, Eryximachus and Aristophanes the physical
+speakers, while in Agathon and Socrates poetry and philosophy blend
+together. The speech of Phaedrus is also described as the mythological,
+that of Pausanias as the political, that of Eryximachus as the
+scientific, that of Aristophanes as the artistic (!), that of Socrates
+as the philosophical. But these and similar distinctions are not found
+in Plato;--they are the points of view of his critics, and seem to
+impede rather than to assist us in understanding him.
+
+When the turn of Socrates comes round he cannot be allowed to disturb
+the arrangement made at first. With the leave of Phaedrus he asks a few
+questions, and then he throws his argument into the form of a speech
+(compare Gorg., Protag.). But his speech is really the narrative of a
+dialogue between himself and Diotima. And as at a banquet good manners
+would not allow him to win a victory either over his host or any of
+the guests, the superiority which he gains over Agathon is ingeniously
+represented as having been already gained over himself by her. The
+artifice has the further advantage of maintaining his accustomed
+profession of ignorance (compare Menex.). Even his knowledge of the
+mysteries of love, to which he lays claim here and elsewhere (Lys.), is
+given by Diotima.
+
+The speeches are attested to us by the very best authority. The madman
+Apollodorus, who for three years past has made a daily study of the
+actions of Socrates--to whom the world is summed up in the words 'Great
+is Socrates'--he has heard them from another 'madman,' Aristodemus,
+who was the 'shadow' of Socrates in days of old, like him going about
+barefooted, and who had been present at the time. 'Would you desire
+better witness?' The extraordinary narrative of Alcibiades is
+ingeniously represented as admitted by Socrates, whose silence when he
+is invited to contradict gives consent to the narrator. We may observe,
+by the way, (1) how the very appearance of Aristodemus by himself is
+a sufficient indication to Agathon that Socrates has been left behind;
+also, (2) how the courtesy of Agathon anticipates the excuse which
+Socrates was to have made on Aristodemus' behalf for coming uninvited;
+(3) how the story of the fit or trance of Socrates is confirmed by the
+mention which Alcibiades makes of a similar fit of abstraction occurring
+when he was serving with the army at Potidaea; like (4) the drinking
+powers of Socrates and his love of the fair, which receive a similar
+attestation in the concluding scene; or the attachment of Aristodemus,
+who is not forgotten when Socrates takes his departure. (5) We may
+notice the manner in which Socrates himself regards the first five
+speeches, not as true, but as fanciful and exaggerated encomiums of the
+god Love; (6) the satirical character of them, shown especially in
+the appeals to mythology, in the reasons which are given by Zeus for
+reconstructing the frame of man, or by the Boeotians and Eleans
+for encouraging male loves; (7) the ruling passion of Socrates for
+dialectics, who will argue with Agathon instead of making a speech, and
+will only speak at all upon the condition that he is allowed to speak
+the truth. We may note also the touch of Socratic irony, (8) which
+admits of a wide application and reveals a deep insight into the
+world:--that in speaking of holy things and persons there is a general
+understanding that you should praise them, not that you should speak the
+truth about them--this is the sort of praise which Socrates is unable to
+give. Lastly, (9) we may remark that the banquet is a real banquet after
+all, at which love is the theme of discourse, and huge quantities of
+wine are drunk.
+
+The discourse of Phaedrus is half-mythical, half-ethical; and he
+himself, true to the character which is given him in the Dialogue
+bearing his name, is half-sophist, half-enthusiast. He is the critic
+of poetry also, who compares Homer and Aeschylus in the insipid
+and irrational manner of the schools of the day, characteristically
+reasoning about the probability of matters which do not admit of
+reasoning. He starts from a noble text: 'That without the sense of
+honour and dishonour neither states nor individuals ever do any good
+or great work.' But he soon passes on to more common-place topics. The
+antiquity of love, the blessing of having a lover, the incentive which
+love offers to daring deeds, the examples of Alcestis and Achilles, are
+the chief themes of his discourse. The love of women is regarded by him
+as almost on an equality with that of men; and he makes the singular
+remark that the gods favour the return of love which is made by the
+beloved more than the original sentiment, because the lover is of a
+nobler and diviner nature.
+
+There is something of a sophistical ring in the speech of Phaedrus,
+which recalls the first speech in imitation of Lysias, occurring in the
+Dialogue called the Phaedrus. This is still more marked in the speech of
+Pausanias which follows; and which is at once hyperlogical in form and
+also extremely confused and pedantic. Plato is attacking the logical
+feebleness of the sophists and rhetoricians, through their pupils, not
+forgetting by the way to satirize the monotonous and unmeaning rhythms
+which Prodicus and others were introducing into Attic prose (compare
+Protag.). Of course, he is 'playing both sides of the game,' as in the
+Gorgias and Phaedrus; but it is not necessary in order to understand him
+that we should discuss the fairness of his mode of proceeding. The
+love of Pausanias for Agathon has already been touched upon in the
+Protagoras, and is alluded to by Aristophanes. Hence he is naturally the
+upholder of male loves, which, like all the other affections or
+actions of men, he regards as varying according to the manner of their
+performance. Like the sophists and like Plato himself, though in a
+different sense, he begins his discussion by an appeal to mythology,
+and distinguishes between the elder and younger love. The value which
+he attributes to such loves as motives to virtue and philosophy is at
+variance with modern and Christian notions, but is in accordance with
+Hellenic sentiment. The opinion of Christendom has not altogether
+condemned passionate friendships between persons of the same sex, but
+has certainly not encouraged them, because though innocent in themselves
+in a few temperaments they are liable to degenerate into fearful evil.
+Pausanias is very earnest in the defence of such loves; and he speaks of
+them as generally approved among Hellenes and disapproved by barbarians.
+His speech is 'more words than matter,' and might have been composed by
+a pupil of Lysias or of Prodicus, although there is no hint given that
+Plato is specially referring to them. As Eryximachus says, 'he makes a
+fair beginning, but a lame ending.'
+
+Plato transposes the two next speeches, as in the Republic he would
+transpose the virtues and the mathematical sciences. This is done partly
+to avoid monotony, partly for the sake of making Aristophanes 'the cause
+of wit in others,' and also in order to bring the comic and tragic
+poet into juxtaposition, as if by accident. A suitable 'expectation' of
+Aristophanes is raised by the ludicrous circumstance of his having the
+hiccough, which is appropriately cured by his substitute, the physician
+Eryximachus. To Eryximachus Love is the good physician; he sees
+everything as an intelligent physicist, and, like many professors of his
+art in modern times, attempts to reduce the moral to the physical; or
+recognises one law of love which pervades them both. There are loves
+and strifes of the body as well as of the mind. Like Hippocrates the
+Asclepiad, he is a disciple of Heracleitus, whose conception of the
+harmony of opposites he explains in a new way as the harmony after
+discord; to his common sense, as to that of many moderns as well as
+ancients, the identity of contradictories is an absurdity. His notion of
+love may be summed up as the harmony of man with himself in soul as well
+as body, and of all things in heaven and earth with one another.
+
+Aristophanes is ready to laugh and make laugh before he opens his mouth,
+just as Socrates, true to his character, is ready to argue before he
+begins to speak. He expresses the very genius of the old comedy, its
+coarse and forcible imagery, and the licence of its language in speaking
+about the gods. He has no sophistical notions about love, which
+is brought back by him to its common-sense meaning of love between
+intelligent beings. His account of the origin of the sexes has the
+greatest (comic) probability and verisimilitude. Nothing in Aristophanes
+is more truly Aristophanic than the description of the human monster
+whirling round on four arms and four legs, eight in all, with incredible
+rapidity. Yet there is a mixture of earnestness in this jest; three
+serious principles seem to be insinuated:--first, that man cannot exist
+in isolation; he must be reunited if he is to be perfected: secondly,
+that love is the mediator and reconciler of poor, divided human nature:
+thirdly, that the loves of this world are an indistinct anticipation of
+an ideal union which is not yet realized.
+
+The speech of Agathon is conceived in a higher strain, and receives the
+real, if half-ironical, approval of Socrates. It is the speech of the
+tragic poet and a sort of poem, like tragedy, moving among the gods of
+Olympus, and not among the elder or Orphic deities. In the idea of the
+antiquity of love he cannot agree; love is not of the olden time, but
+present and youthful ever. The speech may be compared with that speech
+of Socrates in the Phaedrus in which he describes himself as talking
+dithyrambs. It is at once a preparation for Socrates and a foil to him.
+The rhetoric of Agathon elevates the soul to 'sunlit heights,' but at
+the same time contrasts with the natural and necessary eloquence of
+Socrates. Agathon contributes the distinction between love and the works
+of love, and also hints incidentally that love is always of beauty,
+which Socrates afterwards raises into a principle. While the
+consciousness of discord is stronger in the comic poet Aristophanes,
+Agathon, the tragic poet, has a deeper sense of harmony and
+reconciliation, and speaks of Love as the creator and artist.
+
+All the earlier speeches embody common opinions coloured with a tinge of
+philosophy. They furnish the material out of which Socrates proceeds to
+form his discourse, starting, as in other places, from mythology and
+the opinions of men. From Phaedrus he takes the thought that love is
+stronger than death; from Pausanias, that the true love is akin to
+intellect and political activity; from Eryximachus, that love is a
+universal phenomenon and the great power of nature; from Aristophanes,
+that love is the child of want, and is not merely the love of the
+congenial or of the whole, but (as he adds) of the good; from Agathon,
+that love is of beauty, not however of beauty only, but of birth
+in beauty. As it would be out of character for Socrates to make a
+lengthened harangue, the speech takes the form of a dialogue between
+Socrates and a mysterious woman of foreign extraction. She elicits the
+final truth from one who knows nothing, and who, speaking by the lips
+of another, and himself a despiser of rhetoric, is proved also to be the
+most consummate of rhetoricians (compare Menexenus).
+
+The last of the six discourses begins with a short argument which
+overthrows not only Agathon but all the preceding speakers by the help
+of a distinction which has escaped them. Extravagant praises have been
+ascribed to Love as the author of every good; no sort of encomium was
+too high for him, whether deserved and true or not. But Socrates has no
+talent for speaking anything but the truth, and if he is to speak the
+truth of Love he must honestly confess that he is not a good at all: for
+love is of the good, and no man can desire that which he has. This
+piece of dialectics is ascribed to Diotima, who has already urged
+upon Socrates the argument which he urges against Agathon. That the
+distinction is a fallacy is obvious; it is almost acknowledged to be so
+by Socrates himself. For he who has beauty or good may desire more of
+them; and he who has beauty or good in himself may desire beauty and
+good in others. The fallacy seems to arise out of a confusion between
+the abstract ideas of good and beauty, which do not admit of degrees,
+and their partial realization in individuals.
+
+But Diotima, the prophetess of Mantineia, whose sacred and superhuman
+character raises her above the ordinary proprieties of women, has taught
+Socrates far more than this about the art and mystery of love. She has
+taught him that love is another aspect of philosophy. The same want in
+the human soul which is satisfied in the vulgar by the procreation of
+children, may become the highest aspiration of intellectual desire.
+As the Christian might speak of hungering and thirsting after
+righteousness; or of divine loves under the figure of human (compare
+Eph. 'This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the
+church'); as the mediaeval saint might speak of the 'fruitio Dei;' as
+Dante saw all things contained in his love of Beatrice, so Plato would
+have us absorb all other loves and desires in the love of knowledge.
+Here is the beginning of Neoplatonism, or rather, perhaps, a proof (of
+which there are many) that the so-called mysticism of the East was
+not strange to the Greek of the fifth century before Christ. The first
+tumult of the affections was not wholly subdued; there were longings of
+a creature moving about in worlds not realized, which no art could
+satisfy. To most men reason and passion appear to be antagonistic both
+in idea and fact. The union of the greatest comprehension of knowledge
+and the burning intensity of love is a contradiction in nature, which
+may have existed in a far-off primeval age in the mind of some Hebrew
+prophet or other Eastern sage, but has now become an imagination only.
+Yet this 'passion of the reason' is the theme of the Symposium of Plato.
+And as there is no impossibility in supposing that 'one king, or son of
+a king, may be a philosopher,' so also there is a probability that there
+may be some few--perhaps one or two in a whole generation--in whom the
+light of truth may not lack the warmth of desire. And if there be such
+natures, no one will be disposed to deny that 'from them flow most of
+the benefits of individuals and states;' and even from imperfect
+combinations of the two elements in teachers or statesmen great good may
+often arise.
+
+Yet there is a higher region in which love is not only felt, but
+satisfied, in the perfect beauty of eternal knowledge, beginning with
+the beauty of earthly things, and at last reaching a beauty in which
+all existence is seen to be harmonious and one. The limited affection
+is enlarged, and enabled to behold the ideal of all things. And here the
+highest summit which is reached in the Symposium is seen also to be the
+highest summit which is attained in the Republic, but approached from
+another side; and there is 'a way upwards and downwards,' which is the
+same and not the same in both. The ideal beauty of the one is the ideal
+good of the other; regarded not with the eye of knowledge, but of faith
+and desire; and they are respectively the source of beauty and the
+source of good in all other things. And by the steps of a 'ladder
+reaching to heaven' we pass from images of visible beauty (Greek), and
+from the hypotheses of the Mathematical sciences, which are not yet
+based upon the idea of good, through the concrete to the abstract, and,
+by different paths arriving, behold the vision of the eternal (compare
+Symp. (Greek) Republic (Greek) also Phaedrus). Under one aspect 'the
+idea is love'; under another, 'truth.' In both the lover of wisdom is
+the 'spectator of all time and of all existence.' This is a 'mystery'
+in which Plato also obscurely intimates the union of the spiritual and
+fleshly, the interpenetration of the moral and intellectual faculties.
+
+The divine image of beauty which resides within Socrates has been
+revealed; the Silenus, or outward man, has now to be exhibited.
+The description of Socrates follows immediately after the speech of
+Socrates; one is the complement of the other. At the height of divine
+inspiration, when the force of nature can no further go, by way of
+contrast to this extreme idealism, Alcibiades, accompanied by a troop of
+revellers and a flute-girl, staggers in, and being drunk is able to tell
+of things which he would have been ashamed to make known if he had been
+sober. The state of his affections towards Socrates, unintelligible to
+us and perverted as they appear, affords an illustration of the power
+ascribed to the loves of man in the speech of Pausanias. He does not
+suppose his feelings to be peculiar to himself: there are several other
+persons in the company who have been equally in love with Socrates,
+and like himself have been deceived by him. The singular part of this
+confession is the combination of the most degrading passion with the
+desire of virtue and improvement. Such an union is not wholly untrue to
+human nature, which is capable of combining good and evil in a degree
+beyond what we can easily conceive. In imaginative persons, especially,
+the God and beast in man seem to part asunder more than is natural in
+a well-regulated mind. The Platonic Socrates (for of the real Socrates
+this may be doubted: compare his public rebuke of Critias for his
+shameful love of Euthydemus in Xenophon, Memorabilia) does not regard
+the greatest evil of Greek life as a thing not to be spoken of; but it
+has a ridiculous element (Plato's Symp.), and is a subject for irony, no
+less than for moral reprobation (compare Plato's Symp.). It is also used
+as a figure of speech which no one interpreted literally (compare Xen.
+Symp.). Nor does Plato feel any repugnance, such as would be felt in
+modern times, at bringing his great master and hero into connexion with
+nameless crimes. He is contented with representing him as a saint, who
+has won 'the Olympian victory' over the temptations of human nature. The
+fault of taste, which to us is so glaring and which was recognized
+by the Greeks of a later age (Athenaeus), was not perceived by Plato
+himself. We are still more surprised to find that the philosopher is
+incited to take the first step in his upward progress (Symp.) by the
+beauty of young men and boys, which was alone capable of inspiring the
+modern feeling of romance in the Greek mind. The passion of love took
+the spurious form of an enthusiasm for the ideal of beauty--a worship
+as of some godlike image of an Apollo or Antinous. But the love of youth
+when not depraved was a love of virtue and modesty as well as of beauty,
+the one being the expression of the other; and in certain Greek states,
+especially at Sparta and Thebes, the honourable attachment of a youth to
+an elder man was a part of his education. The 'army of lovers and their
+beloved who would be invincible if they could be united by such a tie'
+(Symp.), is not a mere fiction of Plato's, but seems actually to have
+existed at Thebes in the days of Epaminondas and Pelopidas, if we
+may believe writers cited anonymously by Plutarch, Pelop. Vit. It is
+observable that Plato never in the least degree excuses the depraved
+love of the body (compare Charm.; Rep.; Laws; Symp.; and once more
+Xenophon, Mem.), nor is there any Greek writer of mark who condones or
+approves such connexions. But owing partly to the puzzling nature of the
+subject these friendships are spoken of by Plato in a manner different
+from that customary among ourselves. To most of them we should hesitate
+to ascribe, any more than to the attachment of Achilles and Patroclus in
+Homer, an immoral or licentious character. There were many, doubtless,
+to whom the love of the fair mind was the noblest form of friendship
+(Rep.), and who deemed the friendship of man with man to be higher
+than the love of woman, because altogether separated from the bodily
+appetites. The existence of such attachments may be reasonably
+attributed to the inferiority and seclusion of woman, and the want of
+a real family or social life and parental influence in Hellenic cities;
+and they were encouraged by the practice of gymnastic exercises, by the
+meetings of political clubs, and by the tie of military companionship.
+They were also an educational institution: a young person was specially
+entrusted by his parents to some elder friend who was expected by them
+to train their son in manly exercises and in virtue. It is not likely
+that a Greek parent committed him to a lover, any more than we should
+to a schoolmaster, in the expectation that he would be corrupted by him,
+but rather in the hope that his morals would be better cared for than
+was possible in a great household of slaves.
+
+It is difficult to adduce the authority of Plato either for or against
+such practices or customs, because it is not always easy to determine
+whether he is speaking of 'the heavenly and philosophical love, or
+of the coarse Polyhymnia:' and he often refers to this (e.g. in the
+Symposium) half in jest, yet 'with a certain degree of seriousness.'
+We observe that they entered into one part of Greek literature, but not
+into another, and that the larger part is free from such associations.
+Indecency was an element of the ludicrous in the old Greek Comedy, as
+it has been in other ages and countries. But effeminate love was always
+condemned as well as ridiculed by the Comic poets; and in the New Comedy
+the allusions to such topics have disappeared. They seem to have been no
+longer tolerated by the greater refinement of the age. False sentiment
+is found in the Lyric and Elegiac poets; and in mythology 'the greatest
+of the Gods' (Rep.) is not exempt from evil imputations. But the morals
+of a nation are not to be judged of wholly by its literature. Hellas
+was not necessarily more corrupted in the days of the Persian and
+Peloponnesian wars, or of Plato and the Orators, than England in the
+time of Fielding and Smollett, or France in the nineteenth century. No
+one supposes certain French novels to be a representation of ordinary
+French life. And the greater part of Greek literature, beginning
+with Homer and including the tragedians, philosophers, and, with the
+exception of the Comic poets (whose business was to raise a laugh
+by whatever means), all the greater writers of Hellas who have been
+preserved to us, are free from the taint of indecency.
+
+Some general considerations occur to our mind when we begin to reflect
+on this subject. (1) That good and evil are linked together in human
+nature, and have often existed side by side in the world and in man to
+an extent hardly credible. We cannot distinguish them, and are therefore
+unable to part them; as in the parable 'they grow together unto the
+harvest:' it is only a rule of external decency by which society can
+divide them. Nor should we be right in inferring from the prevalence of
+any one vice or corruption that a state or individual was demoralized
+in their whole character. Not only has the corruption of the best been
+sometimes thought to be the worst, but it may be remarked that this very
+excess of evil has been the stimulus to good (compare Plato, Laws, where
+he says that in the most corrupt cities individuals are to be found
+beyond all praise). (2) It may be observed that evils which admit of
+degrees can seldom be rightly estimated, because under the same name
+actions of the most different degrees of culpability may be included. No
+charge is more easily set going than the imputation of secret wickedness
+(which cannot be either proved or disproved and often cannot be defined)
+when directed against a person of whom the world, or a section of it, is
+predisposed to think evil. And it is quite possible that the malignity
+of Greek scandal, aroused by some personal jealousy or party enmity, may
+have converted the innocent friendship of a great man for a noble youth
+into a connexion of another kind. Such accusations were brought against
+several of the leading men of Hellas, e.g. Cimon, Alcibiades, Critias,
+Demosthenes, Epaminondas: several of the Roman emperors were assailed
+by similar weapons which have been used even in our own day against
+statesmen of the highest character. (3) While we know that in this
+matter there is a great gulf fixed between Greek and Christian Ethics,
+yet, if we would do justice to the Greeks, we must also acknowledge that
+there was a greater outspokenness among them than among ourselves about
+the things which nature hides, and that the more frequent mention of
+such topics is not to be taken as the measure of the prevalence of
+offences, or as a proof of the general corruption of society. It is
+likely that every religion in the world has used words or practised
+rites in one age, which have become distasteful or repugnant to another.
+We cannot, though for different reasons, trust the representations
+either of Comedy or Satire; and still less of Christian Apologists.
+(4) We observe that at Thebes and Lacedemon the attachment of an
+elder friend to a beloved youth was often deemed to be a part of his
+education; and was encouraged by his parents--it was only shameful if
+it degenerated into licentiousness. Such we may believe to have been the
+tie which united Asophychus and Cephisodorus with the great Epaminondas
+in whose companionship they fell (Plutarch, Amat.; Athenaeus on the
+authority of Theopompus). (5) A small matter: there appears to be a
+difference of custom among the Greeks and among ourselves, as between
+ourselves and continental nations at the present time, in modes of
+salutation. We must not suspect evil in the hearty kiss or embrace of
+a male friend 'returning from the army at Potidaea' any more than in
+a similar salutation when practised by members of the same family. But
+those who make these admissions, and who regard, not without pity, the
+victims of such illusions in our own day, whose life has been blasted
+by them, may be none the less resolved that the natural and healthy
+instincts of mankind shall alone be tolerated (Greek); and that the
+lesson of manliness which we have inherited from our fathers shall not
+degenerate into sentimentalism or effeminacy. The possibility of an
+honourable connexion of this kind seems to have died out with Greek
+civilization. Among the Romans, and also among barbarians, such as the
+Celts and Persians, there is no trace of such attachments existing in
+any noble or virtuous form.
+
+(Compare Hoeck's Creta and the admirable and exhaustive article of Meier
+in Ersch and Grueber's Cyclopedia on this subject; Plutarch, Amatores;
+Athenaeus; Lysias contra Simonem; Aesch. c. Timarchum.)
+
+The character of Alcibiades in the Symposium is hardly less remarkable
+than that of Socrates, and agrees with the picture given of him in the
+first of the two Dialogues which are called by his name, and also with
+the slight sketch of him in the Protagoras. He is the impersonation of
+lawlessness--'the lion's whelp, who ought not to be reared in the
+city,' yet not without a certain generosity which gained the hearts of
+men,--strangely fascinated by Socrates, and possessed of a genius which
+might have been either the destruction or salvation of Athens. The
+dramatic interest of the character is heightened by the recollection of
+his after history. He seems to have been present to the mind of Plato
+in the description of the democratic man of the Republic (compare also
+Alcibiades 1).
+
+There is no criterion of the date of the Symposium, except that which
+is furnished by the allusion to the division of Arcadia after the
+destruction of Mantinea. This took place in the year B.C. 384, which is
+the forty-fourth year of Plato's life. The Symposium cannot therefore be
+regarded as a youthful work. As Mantinea was restored in the year 369,
+the composition of the Dialogue will probably fall between 384 and
+369. Whether the recollection of the event is more likely to have been
+renewed at the destruction or restoration of the city, rather than at
+some intermediate period, is a consideration not worth raising.
+
+The Symposium is connected with the Phaedrus both in style and subject;
+they are the only Dialogues of Plato in which the theme of love is
+discussed at length. In both of them philosophy is regarded as a sort of
+enthusiasm or madness; Socrates is himself 'a prophet new inspired' with
+Bacchanalian revelry, which, like his philosophy, he characteristically
+pretends to have derived not from himself but from others. The Phaedo
+also presents some points of comparison with the Symposium. For there,
+too, philosophy might be described as 'dying for love;' and there are
+not wanting many touches of humour and fancy, which remind us of the
+Symposium. But while the Phaedo and Phaedrus look backwards and forwards
+to past and future states of existence, in the Symposium there is no
+break between this world and another; and we rise from one to the other
+by a regular series of steps or stages, proceeding from the particulars
+of sense to the universal of reason, and from one universal to many,
+which are finally reunited in a single science (compare Rep.). At first
+immortality means only the succession of existences; even knowledge
+comes and goes. Then follows, in the language of the mysteries, a higher
+and a higher degree of initiation; at last we arrive at the perfect
+vision of beauty, not relative or changing, but eternal and absolute;
+not bounded by this world, or in or out of this world, but an aspect of
+the divine, extending over all things, and having no limit of space or
+time: this is the highest knowledge of which the human mind is capable.
+Plato does not go on to ask whether the individual is absorbed in the
+sea of light and beauty or retains his personality. Enough for him to
+have attained the true beauty or good, without enquiring precisely into
+the relation in which human beings stood to it. That the soul has such
+a reach of thought, and is capable of partaking of the eternal nature,
+seems to imply that she too is eternal (compare Phaedrus). But Plato
+does not distinguish the eternal in man from the eternal in the world or
+in God. He is willing to rest in the contemplation of the idea, which
+to him is the cause of all things (Rep.), and has no strength to go
+further.
+
+The Symposium of Xenophon, in which Socrates describes himself as
+a pander, and also discourses of the difference between sensual
+and sentimental love, likewise offers several interesting points
+of comparison. But the suspicion which hangs over other writings
+of Xenophon, and the numerous minute references to the Phaedrus and
+Symposium, as well as to some of the other writings of Plato, throw
+a doubt on the genuineness of the work. The Symposium of Xenophon, if
+written by him at all, would certainly show that he wrote against Plato,
+and was acquainted with his works. Of this hostility there is no trace
+in the Memorabilia. Such a rivalry is more characteristic of an imitator
+than of an original writer. The (so-called) Symposium of Xenophon
+may therefore have no more title to be regarded as genuine than the
+confessedly spurious Apology.
+
+There are no means of determining the relative order in time of the
+Phaedrus, Symposium, Phaedo. The order which has been adopted in
+this translation rests on no other principle than the desire to bring
+together in a series the memorials of the life of Socrates.
+
+
+
+
+SYMPOSIUM
+
+
+PERSONS OF THE DIALOGUE: Apollodorus, who repeats to his companion
+the dialogue which he had heard from Aristodemus, and had already once
+narrated to Glaucon. Phaedrus, Pausanias, Eryximachus, Aristophanes,
+Agathon, Socrates, Alcibiades, A Troop of Revellers.
+
+SCENE: The House of Agathon.
+
+
+Concerning the things about which you ask to be informed I believe that
+I am not ill-prepared with an answer. For the day before yesterday I
+was coming from my own home at Phalerum to the city, and one of my
+acquaintance, who had caught a sight of me from behind, calling out
+playfully in the distance, said: Apollodorus, O thou Phalerian (Probably
+a play of words on (Greek), 'bald-headed.') man, halt! So I did as I
+was bid; and then he said, I was looking for you, Apollodorus, only just
+now, that I might ask you about the speeches in praise of love, which
+were delivered by Socrates, Alcibiades, and others, at Agathon's supper.
+Phoenix, the son of Philip, told another person who told me of them;
+his narrative was very indistinct, but he said that you knew, and I wish
+that you would give me an account of them. Who, if not you, should be
+the reporter of the words of your friend? And first tell me, he said,
+were you present at this meeting?
+
+Your informant, Glaucon, I said, must have been very indistinct indeed,
+if you imagine that the occasion was recent; or that I could have been
+of the party.
+
+Why, yes, he replied, I thought so.
+
+Impossible: I said. Are you ignorant that for many years Agathon has not
+resided at Athens; and not three have elapsed since I became acquainted
+with Socrates, and have made it my daily business to know all that he
+says and does. There was a time when I was running about the world,
+fancying myself to be well employed, but I was really a most wretched
+being, no better than you are now. I thought that I ought to do anything
+rather than be a philosopher.
+
+Well, he said, jesting apart, tell me when the meeting occurred.
+
+In our boyhood, I replied, when Agathon won the prize with his first
+tragedy, on the day after that on which he and his chorus offered the
+sacrifice of victory.
+
+Then it must have been a long while ago, he said; and who told you--did
+Socrates?
+
+No indeed, I replied, but the same person who told Phoenix;--he was a
+little fellow, who never wore any shoes, Aristodemus, of the deme of
+Cydathenaeum. He had been at Agathon's feast; and I think that in
+those days there was no one who was a more devoted admirer of Socrates.
+Moreover, I have asked Socrates about the truth of some parts of his
+narrative, and he confirmed them. Then, said Glaucon, let us have the
+tale over again; is not the road to Athens just made for conversation?
+And so we walked, and talked of the discourses on love; and therefore,
+as I said at first, I am not ill-prepared to comply with your request,
+and will have another rehearsal of them if you like. For to speak or to
+hear others speak of philosophy always gives me the greatest pleasure,
+to say nothing of the profit. But when I hear another strain, especially
+that of you rich men and traders, such conversation displeases me; and
+I pity you who are my companions, because you think that you are doing
+something when in reality you are doing nothing. And I dare say that
+you pity me in return, whom you regard as an unhappy creature, and very
+probably you are right. But I certainly know of you what you only think
+of me--there is the difference.
+
+COMPANION: I see, Apollodorus, that you are just the same--always
+speaking evil of yourself, and of others; and I do believe that you pity
+all mankind, with the exception of Socrates, yourself first of all, true
+in this to your old name, which, however deserved, I know not how you
+acquired, of Apollodorus the madman; for you are always raging against
+yourself and everybody but Socrates.
+
+APOLLODORUS: Yes, friend, and the reason why I am said to be mad, and
+out of my wits, is just because I have these notions of myself and you;
+no other evidence is required.
+
+COMPANION: No more of that, Apollodorus; but let me renew my request
+that you would repeat the conversation.
+
+APOLLODORUS: Well, the tale of love was on this wise:--But perhaps I had
+better begin at the beginning, and endeavour to give you the exact words
+of Aristodemus:
+
+He said that he met Socrates fresh from the bath and sandalled; and as
+the sight of the sandals was unusual, he asked him whither he was going
+that he had been converted into such a beau:--
+
+To a banquet at Agathon's, he replied, whose invitation to his sacrifice
+of victory I refused yesterday, fearing a crowd, but promising that I
+would come to-day instead; and so I have put on my finery, because he is
+such a fine man. What say you to going with me unasked?
+
+I will do as you bid me, I replied.
+
+Follow then, he said, and let us demolish the proverb:--
+
+'To the feasts of inferior men the good unbidden go;'
+
+instead of which our proverb will run:--
+
+'To the feasts of the good the good unbidden go;'
+
+and this alteration may be supported by the authority of Homer himself,
+who not only demolishes but literally outrages the proverb. For, after
+picturing Agamemnon as the most valiant of men, he makes Menelaus, who
+is but a fainthearted warrior, come unbidden (Iliad) to the banquet of
+Agamemnon, who is feasting and offering sacrifices, not the better to
+the worse, but the worse to the better.
+
+I rather fear, Socrates, said Aristodemus, lest this may still be my
+case; and that, like Menelaus in Homer, I shall be the inferior person,
+who
+
+'To the feasts of the wise unbidden goes.'
+
+But I shall say that I was bidden of you, and then you will have to make
+an excuse.
+
+'Two going together,'
+
+he replied, in Homeric fashion, one or other of them may invent an
+excuse by the way (Iliad).
+
+This was the style of their conversation as they went along. Socrates
+dropped behind in a fit of abstraction, and desired Aristodemus, who was
+waiting, to go on before him. When he reached the house of Agathon
+he found the doors wide open, and a comical thing happened. A servant
+coming out met him, and led him at once into the banqueting-hall in
+which the guests were reclining, for the banquet was about to begin.
+Welcome, Aristodemus, said Agathon, as soon as he appeared--you are just
+in time to sup with us; if you come on any other matter put it off, and
+make one of us, as I was looking for you yesterday and meant to have
+asked you, if I could have found you. But what have you done with
+Socrates?
+
+I turned round, but Socrates was nowhere to be seen; and I had to
+explain that he had been with me a moment before, and that I came by his
+invitation to the supper.
+
+You were quite right in coming, said Agathon; but where is he himself?
+
+He was behind me just now, as I entered, he said, and I cannot think
+what has become of him.
+
+Go and look for him, boy, said Agathon, and bring him in; and do you,
+Aristodemus, meanwhile take the place by Eryximachus.
+
+The servant then assisted him to wash, and he lay down, and presently
+another servant came in and reported that our friend Socrates had
+retired into the portico of the neighbouring house. 'There he is fixed,'
+said he, 'and when I call to him he will not stir.'
+
+How strange, said Agathon; then you must call him again, and keep
+calling him.
+
+Let him alone, said my informant; he has a way of stopping anywhere and
+losing himself without any reason. I believe that he will soon appear;
+do not therefore disturb him.
+
+Well, if you think so, I will leave him, said Agathon. And then, turning
+to the servants, he added, 'Let us have supper without waiting for him.
+Serve up whatever you please, for there is no one to give you orders;
+hitherto I have never left you to yourselves. But on this occasion
+imagine that you are our hosts, and that I and the company are your
+guests; treat us well, and then we shall commend you.' After this,
+supper was served, but still no Socrates; and during the meal Agathon
+several times expressed a wish to send for him, but Aristodemus
+objected; and at last when the feast was about half over--for the fit,
+as usual, was not of long duration--Socrates entered. Agathon, who was
+reclining alone at the end of the table, begged that he would take
+the place next to him; that 'I may touch you,' he said, 'and have the
+benefit of that wise thought which came into your mind in the portico,
+and is now in your possession; for I am certain that you would not have
+come away until you had found what you sought.'
+
+How I wish, said Socrates, taking his place as he was desired, that
+wisdom could be infused by touch, out of the fuller into the emptier
+man, as water runs through wool out of a fuller cup into an emptier one;
+if that were so, how greatly should I value the privilege of reclining
+at your side! For you would have filled me full with a stream of wisdom
+plenteous and fair; whereas my own is of a very mean and questionable
+sort, no better than a dream. But yours is bright and full of promise,
+and was manifested forth in all the splendour of youth the day before
+yesterday, in the presence of more than thirty thousand Hellenes.
+
+You are mocking, Socrates, said Agathon, and ere long you and I will
+have to determine who bears off the palm of wisdom--of this Dionysus
+shall be the judge; but at present you are better occupied with supper.
+
+Socrates took his place on the couch, and supped with the rest; and then
+libations were offered, and after a hymn had been sung to the god,
+and there had been the usual ceremonies, they were about to commence
+drinking, when Pausanias said, And now, my friends, how can we drink
+with least injury to ourselves? I can assure you that I feel severely
+the effect of yesterday's potations, and must have time to recover; and
+I suspect that most of you are in the same predicament, for you were
+of the party yesterday. Consider then: How can the drinking be made
+easiest?
+
+I entirely agree, said Aristophanes, that we should, by all means, avoid
+hard drinking, for I was myself one of those who were yesterday drowned
+in drink.
+
+I think that you are right, said Eryximachus, the son of Acumenus; but
+I should still like to hear one other person speak: Is Agathon able to
+drink hard?
+
+I am not equal to it, said Agathon.
+
+Then, said Eryximachus, the weak heads like myself, Aristodemus,
+Phaedrus, and others who never can drink, are fortunate in finding
+that the stronger ones are not in a drinking mood. (I do not include
+Socrates, who is able either to drink or to abstain, and will not mind,
+whichever we do.) Well, as of none of the company seem disposed to drink
+much, I may be forgiven for saying, as a physician, that drinking deep
+is a bad practice, which I never follow, if I can help, and certainly
+do not recommend to another, least of all to any one who still feels the
+effects of yesterday's carouse.
+
+I always do what you advise, and especially what you prescribe as a
+physician, rejoined Phaedrus the Myrrhinusian, and the rest of the
+company, if they are wise, will do the same.
+
+It was agreed that drinking was not to be the order of the day, but that
+they were all to drink only so much as they pleased.
+
+Then, said Eryximachus, as you are all agreed that drinking is to be
+voluntary, and that there is to be no compulsion, I move, in the next
+place, that the flute-girl, who has just made her appearance, be told
+to go away and play to herself, or, if she likes, to the women who are
+within (compare Prot.). To-day let us have conversation instead; and,
+if you will allow me, I will tell you what sort of conversation. This
+proposal having been accepted, Eryximachus proceeded as follows:--
+
+I will begin, he said, after the manner of Melanippe in Euripides,
+
+'Not mine the word'
+
+which I am about to speak, but that of Phaedrus. For often he says to me
+in an indignant tone:--'What a strange thing it is, Eryximachus, that,
+whereas other gods have poems and hymns made in their honour, the great
+and glorious god, Love, has no encomiast among all the poets who are
+so many. There are the worthy sophists too--the excellent Prodicus for
+example, who have descanted in prose on the virtues of Heracles and
+other heroes; and, what is still more extraordinary, I have met with a
+philosophical work in which the utility of salt has been made the theme
+of an eloquent discourse; and many other like things have had a like
+honour bestowed upon them. And only to think that there should have been
+an eager interest created about them, and yet that to this day no one
+has ever dared worthily to hymn Love's praises! So entirely has this
+great deity been neglected.' Now in this Phaedrus seems to me to be
+quite right, and therefore I want to offer him a contribution; also I
+think that at the present moment we who are here assembled cannot do
+better than honour the god Love. If you agree with me, there will be
+no lack of conversation; for I mean to propose that each of us in turn,
+going from left to right, shall make a speech in honour of Love. Let him
+give us the best which he can; and Phaedrus, because he is sitting first
+on the left hand, and because he is the father of the thought, shall
+begin.
+
+No one will vote against you, Eryximachus, said Socrates. How can I
+oppose your motion, who profess to understand nothing but matters of
+love; nor, I presume, will Agathon and Pausanias; and there can be
+no doubt of Aristophanes, whose whole concern is with Dionysus and
+Aphrodite; nor will any one disagree of those whom I see around me. The
+proposal, as I am aware, may seem rather hard upon us whose place is
+last; but we shall be contented if we hear some good speeches first. Let
+Phaedrus begin the praise of Love, and good luck to him. All the company
+expressed their assent, and desired him to do as Socrates bade him.
+
+Aristodemus did not recollect all that was said, nor do I recollect all
+that he related to me; but I will tell you what I thought most worthy of
+remembrance, and what the chief speakers said.
+
+Phaedrus began by affirming that Love is a mighty god, and wonderful
+among gods and men, but especially wonderful in his birth. For he is the
+eldest of the gods, which is an honour to him; and a proof of his claim
+to this honour is, that of his parents there is no memorial; neither
+poet nor prose-writer has ever affirmed that he had any. As Hesiod
+says:--
+
+'First Chaos came, and then broad-bosomed Earth, The everlasting seat of
+all that is, And Love.'
+
+In other words, after Chaos, the Earth and Love, these two, came into
+being. Also Parmenides sings of Generation:
+
+'First in the train of gods, he fashioned Love.'
+
+And Acusilaus agrees with Hesiod. Thus numerous are the witnesses who
+acknowledge Love to be the eldest of the gods. And not only is he the
+eldest, he is also the source of the greatest benefits to us. For I know
+not any greater blessing to a young man who is beginning life than a
+virtuous lover, or to the lover than a beloved youth. For the principle
+which ought to be the guide of men who would nobly live--that principle,
+I say, neither kindred, nor honour, nor wealth, nor any other motive is
+able to implant so well as love. Of what am I speaking? Of the sense of
+honour and dishonour, without which neither states nor individuals ever
+do any good or great work. And I say that a lover who is detected in
+doing any dishonourable act, or submitting through cowardice when
+any dishonour is done to him by another, will be more pained at being
+detected by his beloved than at being seen by his father, or by his
+companions, or by any one else. The beloved too, when he is found in
+any disgraceful situation, has the same feeling about his lover. And if
+there were only some way of contriving that a state or an army should be
+made up of lovers and their loves (compare Rep.), they would be the very
+best governors of their own city, abstaining from all dishonour, and
+emulating one another in honour; and when fighting at each other's side,
+although a mere handful, they would overcome the world. For what lover
+would not choose rather to be seen by all mankind than by his beloved,
+either when abandoning his post or throwing away his arms? He would be
+ready to die a thousand deaths rather than endure this. Or who would
+desert his beloved or fail him in the hour of danger? The veriest coward
+would become an inspired hero, equal to the bravest, at such a time;
+Love would inspire him. That courage which, as Homer says, the god
+breathes into the souls of some heroes, Love of his own nature infuses
+into the lover.
+
+Love will make men dare to die for their beloved--love alone; and women
+as well as men. Of this, Alcestis, the daughter of Pelias, is a monument
+to all Hellas; for she was willing to lay down her life on behalf of her
+husband, when no one else would, although he had a father and mother;
+but the tenderness of her love so far exceeded theirs, that she made
+them seem to be strangers in blood to their own son, and in name only
+related to him; and so noble did this action of hers appear to the gods,
+as well as to men, that among the many who have done virtuously she is
+one of the very few to whom, in admiration of her noble action, they
+have granted the privilege of returning alive to earth; such exceeding
+honour is paid by the gods to the devotion and virtue of love. But
+Orpheus, the son of Oeagrus, the harper, they sent empty away, and
+presented to him an apparition only of her whom he sought, but herself
+they would not give up, because he showed no spirit; he was only a
+harp-player, and did not dare like Alcestis to die for love, but was
+contriving how he might enter Hades alive; moreover, they afterwards
+caused him to suffer death at the hands of women, as the punishment
+of his cowardliness. Very different was the reward of the true love of
+Achilles towards his lover Patroclus--his lover and not his love (the
+notion that Patroclus was the beloved one is a foolish error into which
+Aeschylus has fallen, for Achilles was surely the fairer of the two,
+fairer also than all the other heroes; and, as Homer informs us, he was
+still beardless, and younger far). And greatly as the gods honour the
+virtue of love, still the return of love on the part of the beloved to
+the lover is more admired and valued and rewarded by them, for the lover
+is more divine; because he is inspired by God. Now Achilles was quite
+aware, for he had been told by his mother, that he might avoid death and
+return home, and live to a good old age, if he abstained from slaying
+Hector. Nevertheless he gave his life to revenge his friend, and dared
+to die, not only in his defence, but after he was dead. Wherefore the
+gods honoured him even above Alcestis, and sent him to the Islands of
+the Blest. These are my reasons for affirming that Love is the eldest
+and noblest and mightiest of the gods; and the chiefest author and giver
+of virtue in life, and of happiness after death.
+
+This, or something like this, was the speech of Phaedrus; and some other
+speeches followed which Aristodemus did not remember; the next which he
+repeated was that of Pausanias. Phaedrus, he said, the argument has not
+been set before us, I think, quite in the right form;--we should not be
+called upon to praise Love in such an indiscriminate manner. If there
+were only one Love, then what you said would be well enough; but since
+there are more Loves than one,--should have begun by determining which
+of them was to be the theme of our praises. I will amend this defect;
+and first of all I will tell you which Love is deserving of praise, and
+then try to hymn the praiseworthy one in a manner worthy of him. For we
+all know that Love is inseparable from Aphrodite, and if there were
+only one Aphrodite there would be only one Love; but as there are two
+goddesses there must be two Loves. And am I not right in asserting that
+there are two goddesses? The elder one, having no mother, who is called
+the heavenly Aphrodite--she is the daughter of Uranus; the younger, who
+is the daughter of Zeus and Dione--her we call common; and the Love
+who is her fellow-worker is rightly named common, as the other love is
+called heavenly. All the gods ought to have praise given to them, but
+not without distinction of their natures; and therefore I must try to
+distinguish the characters of the two Loves. Now actions vary according
+to the manner of their performance. Take, for example, that which we
+are now doing, drinking, singing and talking--these actions are not in
+themselves either good or evil, but they turn out in this or that way
+according to the mode of performing them; and when well done they are
+good, and when wrongly done they are evil; and in like manner not every
+love, but only that which has a noble purpose, is noble and worthy
+of praise. The Love who is the offspring of the common Aphrodite is
+essentially common, and has no discrimination, being such as the meaner
+sort of men feel, and is apt to be of women as well as of youths, and
+is of the body rather than of the soul--the most foolish beings are the
+objects of this love which desires only to gain an end, but never thinks
+of accomplishing the end nobly, and therefore does good and evil quite
+indiscriminately. The goddess who is his mother is far younger than
+the other, and she was born of the union of the male and female, and
+partakes of both. But the offspring of the heavenly Aphrodite is derived
+from a mother in whose birth the female has no part,--she is from the
+male only; this is that love which is of youths, and the goddess being
+older, there is nothing of wantonness in her. Those who are inspired by
+this love turn to the male, and delight in him who is the more valiant
+and intelligent nature; any one may recognise the pure enthusiasts in
+the very character of their attachments. For they love not boys, but
+intelligent beings whose reason is beginning to be developed, much about
+the time at which their beards begin to grow. And in choosing young men
+to be their companions, they mean to be faithful to them, and pass their
+whole life in company with them, not to take them in their inexperience,
+and deceive them, and play the fool with them, or run away from one to
+another of them. But the love of young boys should be forbidden by law,
+because their future is uncertain; they may turn out good or bad, either
+in body or soul, and much noble enthusiasm may be thrown away upon them;
+in this matter the good are a law to themselves, and the coarser sort
+of lovers ought to be restrained by force; as we restrain or attempt to
+restrain them from fixing their affections on women of free birth. These
+are the persons who bring a reproach on love; and some have been led to
+deny the lawfulness of such attachments because they see the impropriety
+and evil of them; for surely nothing that is decorously and lawfully
+done can justly be censured. Now here and in Lacedaemon the rules about
+love are perplexing, but in most cities they are simple and easily
+intelligible; in Elis and Boeotia, and in countries having no gifts of
+eloquence, they are very straightforward; the law is simply in favour of
+these connexions, and no one, whether young or old, has anything to say
+to their discredit; the reason being, as I suppose, that they are men
+of few words in those parts, and therefore the lovers do not like the
+trouble of pleading their suit. In Ionia and other places, and generally
+in countries which are subject to the barbarians, the custom is held
+to be dishonourable; loves of youths share the evil repute in which
+philosophy and gymnastics are held, because they are inimical to
+tyranny; for the interests of rulers require that their subjects should
+be poor in spirit (compare Arist. Politics), and that there should be no
+strong bond of friendship or society among them, which love, above all
+other motives, is likely to inspire, as our Athenian tyrants learned by
+experience; for the love of Aristogeiton and the constancy of Harmodius
+had a strength which undid their power. And, therefore, the ill-repute
+into which these attachments have fallen is to be ascribed to the evil
+condition of those who make them to be ill-reputed; that is to say, to
+the self-seeking of the governors and the cowardice of the governed; on
+the other hand, the indiscriminate honour which is given to them in some
+countries is attributable to the laziness of those who hold this opinion
+of them. In our own country a far better principle prevails, but, as
+I was saying, the explanation of it is rather perplexing. For, observe
+that open loves are held to be more honourable than secret ones, and
+that the love of the noblest and highest, even if their persons are
+less beautiful than others, is especially honourable. Consider, too,
+how great is the encouragement which all the world gives to the lover;
+neither is he supposed to be doing anything dishonourable; but if he
+succeeds he is praised, and if he fail he is blamed. And in the pursuit
+of his love the custom of mankind allows him to do many strange things,
+which philosophy would bitterly censure if they were done from any
+motive of interest, or wish for office or power. He may pray, and
+entreat, and supplicate, and swear, and lie on a mat at the door, and
+endure a slavery worse than that of any slave--in any other case friends
+and enemies would be equally ready to prevent him, but now there is no
+friend who will be ashamed of him and admonish him, and no enemy will
+charge him with meanness or flattery; the actions of a lover have a
+grace which ennobles them; and custom has decided that they are highly
+commendable and that there no loss of character in them; and, what is
+strangest of all, he only may swear and forswear himself (so men say),
+and the gods will forgive his transgression, for there is no such thing
+as a lover's oath. Such is the entire liberty which gods and men have
+allowed the lover, according to the custom which prevails in our part of
+the world. From this point of view a man fairly argues that in Athens
+to love and to be loved is held to be a very honourable thing. But when
+parents forbid their sons to talk with their lovers, and place them
+under a tutor's care, who is appointed to see to these things, and their
+companions and equals cast in their teeth anything of the sort which
+they may observe, and their elders refuse to silence the reprovers
+and do not rebuke them--any one who reflects on all this will, on the
+contrary, think that we hold these practices to be most disgraceful.
+But, as I was saying at first, the truth as I imagine is, that whether
+such practices are honourable or whether they are dishonourable is not a
+simple question; they are honourable to him who follows them honourably,
+dishonourable to him who follows them dishonourably. There is dishonour
+in yielding to the evil, or in an evil manner; but there is honour in
+yielding to the good, or in an honourable manner. Evil is the vulgar
+lover who loves the body rather than the soul, inasmuch as he is not
+even stable, because he loves a thing which is in itself unstable, and
+therefore when the bloom of youth which he was desiring is over, he
+takes wing and flies away, in spite of all his words and promises;
+whereas the love of the noble disposition is life-long, for it becomes
+one with the everlasting. The custom of our country would have both of
+them proven well and truly, and would have us yield to the one sort of
+lover and avoid the other, and therefore encourages some to pursue,
+and others to fly; testing both the lover and beloved in contests and
+trials, until they show to which of the two classes they respectively
+belong. And this is the reason why, in the first place, a hasty
+attachment is held to be dishonourable, because time is the true test of
+this as of most other things; and secondly there is a dishonour in being
+overcome by the love of money, or of wealth, or of political power,
+whether a man is frightened into surrender by the loss of them, or,
+having experienced the benefits of money and political corruption, is
+unable to rise above the seductions of them. For none of these things
+are of a permanent or lasting nature; not to mention that no generous
+friendship ever sprang from them. There remains, then, only one way of
+honourable attachment which custom allows in the beloved, and this is
+the way of virtue; for as we admitted that any service which the lover
+does to him is not to be accounted flattery or a dishonour to himself,
+so the beloved has one way only of voluntary service which is not
+dishonourable, and this is virtuous service.
+
+For we have a custom, and according to our custom any one who does
+service to another under the idea that he will be improved by him either
+in wisdom, or in some other particular of virtue--such a voluntary
+service, I say, is not to be regarded as a dishonour, and is not open
+to the charge of flattery. And these two customs, one the love of youth,
+and the other the practice of philosophy and virtue in general, ought to
+meet in one, and then the beloved may honourably indulge the lover. For
+when the lover and beloved come together, having each of them a law, and
+the lover thinks that he is right in doing any service which he can to
+his gracious loving one; and the other that he is right in showing any
+kindness which he can to him who is making him wise and good; the one
+capable of communicating wisdom and virtue, the other seeking to acquire
+them with a view to education and wisdom, when the two laws of love are
+fulfilled and meet in one--then, and then only, may the beloved yield
+with honour to the lover. Nor when love is of this disinterested sort is
+there any disgrace in being deceived, but in every other case there is
+equal disgrace in being or not being deceived. For he who is gracious to
+his lover under the impression that he is rich, and is disappointed of
+his gains because he turns out to be poor, is disgraced all the same:
+for he has done his best to show that he would give himself up to any
+one's 'uses base' for the sake of money; but this is not honourable. And
+on the same principle he who gives himself to a lover because he is a
+good man, and in the hope that he will be improved by his company, shows
+himself to be virtuous, even though the object of his affection turn
+out to be a villain, and to have no virtue; and if he is deceived he has
+committed a noble error. For he has proved that for his part he will do
+anything for anybody with a view to virtue and improvement, than which
+there can be nothing nobler. Thus noble in every case is the acceptance
+of another for the sake of virtue. This is that love which is the
+love of the heavenly godess, and is heavenly, and of great price to
+individuals and cities, making the lover and the beloved alike eager in
+the work of their own improvement. But all other loves are the offspring
+of the other, who is the common goddess. To you, Phaedrus, I offer this
+my contribution in praise of love, which is as good as I could make
+extempore.
+
+Pausanias came to a pause--this is the balanced way in which I have
+been taught by the wise to speak; and Aristodemus said that the turn of
+Aristophanes was next, but either he had eaten too much, or from some
+other cause he had the hiccough, and was obliged to change turns with
+Eryximachus the physician, who was reclining on the couch below him.
+Eryximachus, he said, you ought either to stop my hiccough, or to speak
+in my turn until I have left off.
+
+I will do both, said Eryximachus: I will speak in your turn, and do you
+speak in mine; and while I am speaking let me recommend you to hold your
+breath, and if after you have done so for some time the hiccough is
+no better, then gargle with a little water; and if it still continues,
+tickle your nose with something and sneeze; and if you sneeze once or
+twice, even the most violent hiccough is sure to go. I will do as you
+prescribe, said Aristophanes, and now get on.
+
+Eryximachus spoke as follows: Seeing that Pausanias made a fair
+beginning, and but a lame ending, I must endeavour to supply his
+deficiency. I think that he has rightly distinguished two kinds of love.
+But my art further informs me that the double love is not merely an
+affection of the soul of man towards the fair, or towards anything, but
+is to be found in the bodies of all animals and in productions of the
+earth, and I may say in all that is; such is the conclusion which I seem
+to have gathered from my own art of medicine, whence I learn how great
+and wonderful and universal is the deity of love, whose empire extends
+over all things, divine as well as human. And from medicine I will begin
+that I may do honour to my art. There are in the human body these two
+kinds of love, which are confessedly different and unlike, and being
+unlike, they have loves and desires which are unlike; and the desire of
+the healthy is one, and the desire of the diseased is another; and as
+Pausanias was just now saying that to indulge good men is honourable,
+and bad men dishonourable:--so too in the body the good and healthy
+elements are to be indulged, and the bad elements and the elements of
+disease are not to be indulged, but discouraged. And this is what the
+physician has to do, and in this the art of medicine consists: for
+medicine may be regarded generally as the knowledge of the loves and
+desires of the body, and how to satisfy them or not; and the best
+physician is he who is able to separate fair love from foul, or to
+convert one into the other; and he who knows how to eradicate and how to
+implant love, whichever is required, and can reconcile the most hostile
+elements in the constitution and make them loving friends, is a skilful
+practitioner. Now the most hostile are the most opposite, such as
+hot and cold, bitter and sweet, moist and dry, and the like. And my
+ancestor, Asclepius, knowing how to implant friendship and accord in
+these elements, was the creator of our art, as our friends the poets
+here tell us, and I believe them; and not only medicine in every branch
+but the arts of gymnastic and husbandry are under his dominion. Any one
+who pays the least attention to the subject will also perceive that in
+music there is the same reconciliation of opposites; and I suppose that
+this must have been the meaning of Heracleitus, although his words are
+not accurate; for he says that The One is united by disunion, like the
+harmony of the bow and the lyre. Now there is an absurdity saying that
+harmony is discord or is composed of elements which are still in a state
+of discord. But what he probably meant was, that harmony is composed of
+differing notes of higher or lower pitch which disagreed once, but are
+now reconciled by the art of music; for if the higher and lower notes
+still disagreed, there could be no harmony,--clearly not. For harmony
+is a symphony, and symphony is an agreement; but an agreement of
+disagreements while they disagree there cannot be; you cannot harmonize
+that which disagrees. In like manner rhythm is compounded of elements
+short and long, once differing and now in accord; which accordance, as
+in the former instance, medicine, so in all these other cases, music
+implants, making love and unison to grow up among them; and thus music,
+too, is concerned with the principles of love in their application to
+harmony and rhythm. Again, in the essential nature of harmony and rhythm
+there is no difficulty in discerning love which has not yet become
+double. But when you want to use them in actual life, either in the
+composition of songs or in the correct performance of airs or metres
+composed already, which latter is called education, then the difficulty
+begins, and the good artist is needed. Then the old tale has to be
+repeated of fair and heavenly love--the love of Urania the fair and
+heavenly muse, and of the duty of accepting the temperate, and those
+who are as yet intemperate only that they may become temperate, and of
+preserving their love; and again, of the vulgar Polyhymnia, who must
+be used with circumspection that the pleasure be enjoyed, but may not
+generate licentiousness; just as in my own art it is a great matter so
+to regulate the desires of the epicure that he may gratify his tastes
+without the attendant evil of disease. Whence I infer that in music, in
+medicine, in all other things human as well as divine, both loves ought
+to be noted as far as may be, for they are both present.
+
+The course of the seasons is also full of both these principles; and
+when, as I was saying, the elements of hot and cold, moist and dry,
+attain the harmonious love of one another and blend in temperance and
+harmony, they bring to men, animals, and plants health and plenty, and
+do them no harm; whereas the wanton love, getting the upper hand and
+affecting the seasons of the year, is very destructive and injurious,
+being the source of pestilence, and bringing many other kinds of
+diseases on animals and plants; for hoar-frost and hail and blight
+spring from the excesses and disorders of these elements of love, which
+to know in relation to the revolutions of the heavenly bodies and the
+seasons of the year is termed astronomy. Furthermore all sacrifices and
+the whole province of divination, which is the art of communion between
+gods and men--these, I say, are concerned only with the preservation
+of the good and the cure of the evil love. For all manner of impiety is
+likely to ensue if, instead of accepting and honouring and reverencing
+the harmonious love in all his actions, a man honours the other love,
+whether in his feelings towards gods or parents, towards the living or
+the dead. Wherefore the business of divination is to see to these loves
+and to heal them, and divination is the peacemaker of gods and men,
+working by a knowledge of the religious or irreligious tendencies which
+exist in human loves. Such is the great and mighty, or rather omnipotent
+force of love in general. And the love, more especially, which is
+concerned with the good, and which is perfected in company with
+temperance and justice, whether among gods or men, has the greatest
+power, and is the source of all our happiness and harmony, and makes us
+friends with the gods who are above us, and with one another. I dare say
+that I too have omitted several things which might be said in praise
+of Love, but this was not intentional, and you, Aristophanes, may now
+supply the omission or take some other line of commendation; for I
+perceive that you are rid of the hiccough.
+
+Yes, said Aristophanes, who followed, the hiccough is gone; not,
+however, until I applied the sneezing; and I wonder whether the harmony
+of the body has a love of such noises and ticklings, for I no sooner
+applied the sneezing than I was cured.
+
+Eryximachus said: Beware, friend Aristophanes, although you are going
+to speak, you are making fun of me; and I shall have to watch and see
+whether I cannot have a laugh at your expense, when you might speak in
+peace.
+
+You are right, said Aristophanes, laughing. I will unsay my words; but
+do you please not to watch me, as I fear that in the speech which I
+am about to make, instead of others laughing with me, which is to the
+manner born of our muse and would be all the better, I shall only be
+laughed at by them.
+
+Do you expect to shoot your bolt and escape, Aristophanes? Well, perhaps
+if you are very careful and bear in mind that you will be called to
+account, I may be induced to let you off.
+
+Aristophanes professed to open another vein of discourse; he had a
+mind to praise Love in another way, unlike that either of Pausanias or
+Eryximachus. Mankind, he said, judging by their neglect of him, have
+never, as I think, at all understood the power of Love. For if they had
+understood him they would surely have built noble temples and altars,
+and offered solemn sacrifices in his honour; but this is not done, and
+most certainly ought to be done: since of all the gods he is the best
+friend of men, the helper and the healer of the ills which are the great
+impediment to the happiness of the race. I will try to describe his
+power to you, and you shall teach the rest of the world what I am
+teaching you. In the first place, let me treat of the nature of man and
+what has happened to it; for the original human nature was not like
+the present, but different. The sexes were not two as they are now, but
+originally three in number; there was man, woman, and the union of the
+two, having a name corresponding to this double nature, which had once
+a real existence, but is now lost, and the word 'Androgynous' is only
+preserved as a term of reproach. In the second place, the primeval man
+was round, his back and sides forming a circle; and he had four hands
+and four feet, one head with two faces, looking opposite ways, set on a
+round neck and precisely alike; also four ears, two privy members,
+and the remainder to correspond. He could walk upright as men now do,
+backwards or forwards as he pleased, and he could also roll over and
+over at a great pace, turning on his four hands and four feet, eight in
+all, like tumblers going over and over with their legs in the air; this
+was when he wanted to run fast. Now the sexes were three, and such as I
+have described them; because the sun, moon, and earth are three; and the
+man was originally the child of the sun, the woman of the earth, and the
+man-woman of the moon, which is made up of sun and earth, and they were
+all round and moved round and round like their parents. Terrible was
+their might and strength, and the thoughts of their hearts were great,
+and they made an attack upon the gods; of them is told the tale of Otys
+and Ephialtes who, as Homer says, dared to scale heaven, and would
+have laid hands upon the gods. Doubt reigned in the celestial councils.
+Should they kill them and annihilate the race with thunderbolts, as they
+had done the giants, then there would be an end of the sacrifices and
+worship which men offered to them; but, on the other hand, the gods
+could not suffer their insolence to be unrestrained. At last, after a
+good deal of reflection, Zeus discovered a way. He said: 'Methinks I
+have a plan which will humble their pride and improve their manners; men
+shall continue to exist, but I will cut them in two and then they will
+be diminished in strength and increased in numbers; this will have the
+advantage of making them more profitable to us. They shall walk upright
+on two legs, and if they continue insolent and will not be quiet, I will
+split them again and they shall hop about on a single leg.' He spoke and
+cut men in two, like a sorb-apple which is halved for pickling, or
+as you might divide an egg with a hair; and as he cut them one after
+another, he bade Apollo give the face and the half of the neck a turn
+in order that the man might contemplate the section of himself: he would
+thus learn a lesson of humility. Apollo was also bidden to heal their
+wounds and compose their forms. So he gave a turn to the face and pulled
+the skin from the sides all over that which in our language is called
+the belly, like the purses which draw in, and he made one mouth at
+the centre, which he fastened in a knot (the same which is called the
+navel); he also moulded the breast and took out most of the wrinkles,
+much as a shoemaker might smooth leather upon a last; he left a few,
+however, in the region of the belly and navel, as a memorial of the
+primeval state. After the division the two parts of man, each desiring
+his other half, came together, and throwing their arms about one
+another, entwined in mutual embraces, longing to grow into one, they
+were on the point of dying from hunger and self-neglect, because they
+did not like to do anything apart; and when one of the halves died and
+the other survived, the survivor sought another mate, man or woman as
+we call them,--being the sections of entire men or women,--and clung to
+that. They were being destroyed, when Zeus in pity of them invented a
+new plan: he turned the parts of generation round to the front, for this
+had not been always their position, and they sowed the seed no longer as
+hitherto like grasshoppers in the ground, but in one another; and after
+the transposition the male generated in the female in order that by the
+mutual embraces of man and woman they might breed, and the race might
+continue; or if man came to man they might be satisfied, and rest, and
+go their ways to the business of life: so ancient is the desire of one
+another which is implanted in us, reuniting our original nature, making
+one of two, and healing the state of man. Each of us when separated,
+having one side only, like a flat fish, is but the indenture of a man,
+and he is always looking for his other half. Men who are a section
+of that double nature which was once called Androgynous are lovers of
+women; adulterers are generally of this breed, and also adulterous women
+who lust after men: the women who are a section of the woman do not care
+for men, but have female attachments; the female companions are of this
+sort. But they who are a section of the male follow the male, and while
+they are young, being slices of the original man, they hang about men
+and embrace them, and they are themselves the best of boys and youths,
+because they have the most manly nature. Some indeed assert that they
+are shameless, but this is not true; for they do not act thus from any
+want of shame, but because they are valiant and manly, and have a manly
+countenance, and they embrace that which is like them. And these when
+they grow up become our statesmen, and these only, which is a great
+proof of the truth of what I am saving. When they reach manhood they
+are lovers of youth, and are not naturally inclined to marry or beget
+children,--if at all, they do so only in obedience to the law; but they
+are satisfied if they may be allowed to live with one another unwedded;
+and such a nature is prone to love and ready to return love, always
+embracing that which is akin to him. And when one of them meets with his
+other half, the actual half of himself, whether he be a lover of youth
+or a lover of another sort, the pair are lost in an amazement of love
+and friendship and intimacy, and one will not be out of the other's
+sight, as I may say, even for a moment: these are the people who pass
+their whole lives together; yet they could not explain what they desire
+of one another. For the intense yearning which each of them has towards
+the other does not appear to be the desire of lover's intercourse, but
+of something else which the soul of either evidently desires and cannot
+tell, and of which she has only a dark and doubtful presentiment.
+Suppose Hephaestus, with his instruments, to come to the pair who are
+lying side by side and to say to them, 'What do you people want of one
+another?' they would be unable to explain. And suppose further, that
+when he saw their perplexity he said: 'Do you desire to be wholly one;
+always day and night to be in one another's company? for if this is what
+you desire, I am ready to melt you into one and let you grow together,
+so that being two you shall become one, and while you live live a common
+life as if you were a single man, and after your death in the world
+below still be one departed soul instead of two--I ask whether this
+is what you lovingly desire, and whether you are satisfied to attain
+this?'--there is not a man of them who when he heard the proposal would
+deny or would not acknowledge that this meeting and melting into one
+another, this becoming one instead of two, was the very expression of
+his ancient need (compare Arist. Pol.). And the reason is that human
+nature was originally one and we were a whole, and the desire and
+pursuit of the whole is called love. There was a time, I say, when we
+were one, but now because of the wickedness of mankind God has dispersed
+us, as the Arcadians were dispersed into villages by the Lacedaemonians
+(compare Arist. Pol.). And if we are not obedient to the gods, there is
+a danger that we shall be split up again and go about in basso-relievo,
+like the profile figures having only half a nose which are sculptured
+on monuments, and that we shall be like tallies. Wherefore let us exhort
+all men to piety, that we may avoid evil, and obtain the good, of which
+Love is to us the lord and minister; and let no one oppose him--he is
+the enemy of the gods who opposes him. For if we are friends of the God
+and at peace with him we shall find our own true loves, which rarely
+happens in this world at present. I am serious, and therefore I must beg
+Eryximachus not to make fun or to find any allusion in what I am saying
+to Pausanias and Agathon, who, as I suspect, are both of the manly
+nature, and belong to the class which I have been describing. But my
+words have a wider application--they include men and women everywhere;
+and I believe that if our loves were perfectly accomplished, and each
+one returning to his primeval nature had his original true love, then
+our race would be happy. And if this would be best of all, the best
+in the next degree and under present circumstances must be the nearest
+approach to such an union; and that will be the attainment of a
+congenial love. Wherefore, if we would praise him who has given to
+us the benefit, we must praise the god Love, who is our greatest
+benefactor, both leading us in this life back to our own nature, and
+giving us high hopes for the future, for he promises that if we are
+pious, he will restore us to our original state, and heal us and make
+us happy and blessed. This, Eryximachus, is my discourse of love, which,
+although different to yours, I must beg you to leave unassailed by the
+shafts of your ridicule, in order that each may have his turn; each, or
+rather either, for Agathon and Socrates are the only ones left.
+
+Indeed, I am not going to attack you, said Eryximachus, for I thought
+your speech charming, and did I not know that Agathon and Socrates are
+masters in the art of love, I should be really afraid that they would
+have nothing to say, after the world of things which have been said
+already. But, for all that, I am not without hopes.
+
+Socrates said: You played your part well, Eryximachus; but if you were
+as I am now, or rather as I shall be when Agathon has spoken, you would,
+indeed, be in a great strait.
+
+You want to cast a spell over me, Socrates, said Agathon, in the hope
+that I may be disconcerted at the expectation raised among the audience
+that I shall speak well.
+
+I should be strangely forgetful, Agathon replied Socrates, of the
+courage and magnanimity which you showed when your own compositions were
+about to be exhibited, and you came upon the stage with the actors and
+faced the vast theatre altogether undismayed, if I thought that your
+nerves could be fluttered at a small party of friends.
+
+Do you think, Socrates, said Agathon, that my head is so full of the
+theatre as not to know how much more formidable to a man of sense a few
+good judges are than many fools?
+
+Nay, replied Socrates, I should be very wrong in attributing to you,
+Agathon, that or any other want of refinement. And I am quite aware that
+if you happened to meet with any whom you thought wise, you would care
+for their opinion much more than for that of the many. But then we,
+having been a part of the foolish many in the theatre, cannot be
+regarded as the select wise; though I know that if you chanced to be in
+the presence, not of one of ourselves, but of some really wise man, you
+would be ashamed of disgracing yourself before him--would you not?
+
+Yes, said Agathon.
+
+But before the many you would not be ashamed, if you thought that you
+were doing something disgraceful in their presence?
+
+Here Phaedrus interrupted them, saying: not answer him, my dear Agathon;
+for if he can only get a partner with whom he can talk, especially a
+good-looking one, he will no longer care about the completion of our
+plan. Now I love to hear him talk; but just at present I must not forget
+the encomium on Love which I ought to receive from him and from every
+one. When you and he have paid your tribute to the god, then you may
+talk.
+
+Very good, Phaedrus, said Agathon; I see no reason why I should not
+proceed with my speech, as I shall have many other opportunities of
+conversing with Socrates. Let me say first how I ought to speak, and
+then speak:--
+
+The previous speakers, instead of praising the god Love, or unfolding
+his nature, appear to have congratulated mankind on the benefits which
+he confers upon them. But I would rather praise the god first, and then
+speak of his gifts; this is always the right way of praising everything.
+May I say without impiety or offence, that of all the blessed gods he
+is the most blessed because he is the fairest and best? And he is the
+fairest: for, in the first place, he is the youngest, and of his youth
+he is himself the witness, fleeing out of the way of age, who is swift
+enough, swifter truly than most of us like:--Love hates him and will not
+come near him; but youth and love live and move together--like to like,
+as the proverb says. Many things were said by Phaedrus about Love in
+which I agree with him; but I cannot agree that he is older than Iapetus
+and Kronos:--not so; I maintain him to be the youngest of the gods, and
+youthful ever. The ancient doings among the gods of which Hesiod
+and Parmenides spoke, if the tradition of them be true, were done of
+Necessity and not of Love; had Love been in those days, there would have
+been no chaining or mutilation of the gods, or other violence, but peace
+and sweetness, as there is now in heaven, since the rule of Love began.
+Love is young and also tender; he ought to have a poet like Homer to
+describe his tenderness, as Homer says of Ate, that she is a goddess and
+tender:--
+
+'Her feet are tender, for she sets her steps, Not on the ground but on
+the heads of men:'
+
+herein is an excellent proof of her tenderness,--that she walks not
+upon the hard but upon the soft. Let us adduce a similar proof of the
+tenderness of Love; for he walks not upon the earth, nor yet upon the
+skulls of men, which are not so very soft, but in the hearts and souls
+of both gods and men, which are of all things the softest: in them
+he walks and dwells and makes his home. Not in every soul without
+exception, for where there is hardness he departs, where there is
+softness there he dwells; and nestling always with his feet and in all
+manner of ways in the softest of soft places, how can he be other than
+the softest of all things? Of a truth he is the tenderest as well as
+the youngest, and also he is of flexile form; for if he were hard and
+without flexure he could not enfold all things, or wind his way into and
+out of every soul of man undiscovered. And a proof of his flexibility
+and symmetry of form is his grace, which is universally admitted to be
+in an especial manner the attribute of Love; ungrace and love are always
+at war with one another. The fairness of his complexion is revealed by
+his habitation among the flowers; for he dwells not amid bloomless or
+fading beauties, whether of body or soul or aught else, but in the place
+of flowers and scents, there he sits and abides. Concerning the beauty
+of the god I have said enough; and yet there remains much more which I
+might say. Of his virtue I have now to speak: his greatest glory is that
+he can neither do nor suffer wrong to or from any god or any man; for
+he suffers not by force if he suffers; force comes not near him, neither
+when he acts does he act by force. For all men in all things serve him
+of their own free will, and where there is voluntary agreement, there,
+as the laws which are the lords of the city say, is justice. And
+not only is he just but exceedingly temperate, for Temperance is the
+acknowledged ruler of the pleasures and desires, and no pleasure ever
+masters Love; he is their master and they are his servants; and if he
+conquers them he must be temperate indeed. As to courage, even the God
+of War is no match for him; he is the captive and Love is the lord,
+for love, the love of Aphrodite, masters him, as the tale runs; and the
+master is stronger than the servant. And if he conquers the bravest of
+all others, he must be himself the bravest. Of his courage and justice
+and temperance I have spoken, but I have yet to speak of his wisdom; and
+according to the measure of my ability I must try to do my best. In the
+first place he is a poet (and here, like Eryximachus, I magnify my art),
+and he is also the source of poesy in others, which he could not be if
+he were not himself a poet. And at the touch of him every one becomes
+a poet, even though he had no music in him before (A fragment of the
+Sthenoaoea of Euripides.); this also is a proof that Love is a good poet
+and accomplished in all the fine arts; for no one can give to another
+that which he has not himself, or teach that of which he has no
+knowledge. Who will deny that the creation of the animals is his doing?
+Are they not all the works of his wisdom, born and begotten of him?
+And as to the artists, do we not know that he only of them whom love
+inspires has the light of fame?--he whom Love touches not walks
+in darkness. The arts of medicine and archery and divination were
+discovered by Apollo, under the guidance of love and desire; so that he
+too is a disciple of Love. Also the melody of the Muses, the metallurgy
+of Hephaestus, the weaving of Athene, the empire of Zeus over gods and
+men, are all due to Love, who was the inventor of them. And so Love set
+in order the empire of the gods--the love of beauty, as is evident, for
+with deformity Love has no concern. In the days of old, as I began by
+saying, dreadful deeds were done among the gods, for they were ruled
+by Necessity; but now since the birth of Love, and from the Love of
+the beautiful, has sprung every good in heaven and earth. Therefore,
+Phaedrus, I say of Love that he is the fairest and best in himself, and
+the cause of what is fairest and best in all other things. And there
+comes into my mind a line of poetry in which he is said to be the god
+who
+
+'Gives peace on earth and calms the stormy deep, Who stills the winds
+and bids the sufferer sleep.'
+
+This is he who empties men of disaffection and fills them with
+affection, who makes them to meet together at banquets such as these: in
+sacrifices, feasts, dances, he is our lord--who sends courtesy and sends
+away discourtesy, who gives kindness ever and never gives unkindness;
+the friend of the good, the wonder of the wise, the amazement of the
+gods; desired by those who have no part in him, and precious to those
+who have the better part in him; parent of delicacy, luxury, desire,
+fondness, softness, grace; regardful of the good, regardless of the
+evil: in every word, work, wish, fear--saviour, pilot, comrade, helper;
+glory of gods and men, leader best and brightest: in whose footsteps
+let every man follow, sweetly singing in his honour and joining in that
+sweet strain with which love charms the souls of gods and men. Such
+is the speech, Phaedrus, half-playful, yet having a certain measure of
+seriousness, which, according to my ability, I dedicate to the god.
+
+When Agathon had done speaking, Aristodemus said that there was a
+general cheer; the young man was thought to have spoken in a manner
+worthy of himself, and of the god. And Socrates, looking at Eryximachus,
+said: Tell me, son of Acumenus, was there not reason in my fears? and
+was I not a true prophet when I said that Agathon would make a wonderful
+oration, and that I should be in a strait?
+
+The part of the prophecy which concerns Agathon, replied Eryximachus,
+appears to me to be true; but not the other part--that you will be in a
+strait.
+
+Why, my dear friend, said Socrates, must not I or any one be in a strait
+who has to speak after he has heard such a rich and varied discourse? I
+am especially struck with the beauty of the concluding words--who could
+listen to them without amazement? When I reflected on the immeasurable
+inferiority of my own powers, I was ready to run away for shame, if
+there had been a possibility of escape. For I was reminded of Gorgias,
+and at the end of his speech I fancied that Agathon was shaking at me
+the Gorginian or Gorgonian head of the great master of rhetoric, which
+was simply to turn me and my speech into stone, as Homer says (Odyssey),
+and strike me dumb. And then I perceived how foolish I had been in
+consenting to take my turn with you in praising love, and saying that
+I too was a master of the art, when I really had no conception how
+anything ought to be praised. For in my simplicity I imagined that the
+topics of praise should be true, and that this being presupposed, out
+of the true the speaker was to choose the best and set them forth in the
+best manner. And I felt quite proud, thinking that I knew the nature of
+true praise, and should speak well. Whereas I now see that the intention
+was to attribute to Love every species of greatness and glory,
+whether really belonging to him or not, without regard to truth or
+falsehood--that was no matter; for the original proposal seems to have
+been not that each of you should really praise Love, but only that
+you should appear to praise him. And so you attribute to Love every
+imaginable form of praise which can be gathered anywhere; and you say
+that 'he is all this,' and 'the cause of all that,' making him appear
+the fairest and best of all to those who know him not, for you cannot
+impose upon those who know him. And a noble and solemn hymn of praise
+have you rehearsed. But as I misunderstood the nature of the praise when
+I said that I would take my turn, I must beg to be absolved from the
+promise which I made in ignorance, and which (as Euripides would say
+(Eurip. Hyppolytus)) was a promise of the lips and not of the mind.
+Farewell then to such a strain: for I do not praise in that way; no,
+indeed, I cannot. But if you like to hear the truth about love, I
+am ready to speak in my own manner, though I will not make myself
+ridiculous by entering into any rivalry with you. Say then, Phaedrus,
+whether you would like to have the truth about love, spoken in any words
+and in any order which may happen to come into my mind at the time. Will
+that be agreeable to you?
+
+Aristodemus said that Phaedrus and the company bid him speak in
+any manner which he thought best. Then, he added, let me have your
+permission first to ask Agathon a few more questions, in order that I
+may take his admissions as the premisses of my discourse.
+
+I grant the permission, said Phaedrus: put your questions. Socrates then
+proceeded as follows:--
+
+In the magnificent oration which you have just uttered, I think that you
+were right, my dear Agathon, in proposing to speak of the nature of Love
+first and afterwards of his works--that is a way of beginning which I
+very much approve. And as you have spoken so eloquently of his nature,
+may I ask you further, Whether love is the love of something or of
+nothing? And here I must explain myself: I do not want you to say that
+love is the love of a father or the love of a mother--that would be
+ridiculous; but to answer as you would, if I asked is a father a father
+of something? to which you would find no difficulty in replying, of a
+son or daughter: and the answer would be right.
+
+Very true, said Agathon.
+
+And you would say the same of a mother?
+
+He assented.
+
+Yet let me ask you one more question in order to illustrate my meaning:
+Is not a brother to be regarded essentially as a brother of something?
+
+Certainly, he replied.
+
+That is, of a brother or sister?
+
+Yes, he said.
+
+And now, said Socrates, I will ask about Love:--Is Love of something or
+of nothing?
+
+Of something, surely, he replied.
+
+Keep in mind what this is, and tell me what I want to know--whether Love
+desires that of which love is.
+
+Yes, surely.
+
+And does he possess, or does he not possess, that which he loves and
+desires?
+
+Probably not, I should say.
+
+Nay, replied Socrates, I would have you consider whether 'necessarily'
+is not rather the word. The inference that he who desires something
+is in want of something, and that he who desires nothing is in want of
+nothing, is in my judgment, Agathon, absolutely and necessarily true.
+What do you think?
+
+I agree with you, said Agathon.
+
+Very good. Would he who is great, desire to be great, or he who is
+strong, desire to be strong?
+
+That would be inconsistent with our previous admissions.
+
+True. For he who is anything cannot want to be that which he is?
+
+Very true.
+
+And yet, added Socrates, if a man being strong desired to be strong, or
+being swift desired to be swift, or being healthy desired to be healthy,
+in that case he might be thought to desire something which he already
+has or is. I give the example in order that we may avoid misconception.
+For the possessors of these qualities, Agathon, must be supposed to have
+their respective advantages at the time, whether they choose or not; and
+who can desire that which he has? Therefore, when a person says, I am
+well and wish to be well, or I am rich and wish to be rich, and I desire
+simply to have what I have--to him we shall reply: 'You, my friend,
+having wealth and health and strength, want to have the continuance of
+them; for at this moment, whether you choose or no, you have them. And
+when you say, I desire that which I have and nothing else, is not your
+meaning that you want to have what you now have in the future?' He must
+agree with us--must he not?
+
+He must, replied Agathon.
+
+Then, said Socrates, he desires that what he has at present may be
+preserved to him in the future, which is equivalent to saying that he
+desires something which is non-existent to him, and which as yet he has
+not got:
+
+Very true, he said.
+
+Then he and every one who desires, desires that which he has not
+already, and which is future and not present, and which he has not, and
+is not, and of which he is in want;--these are the sort of things which
+love and desire seek?
+
+Very true, he said.
+
+Then now, said Socrates, let us recapitulate the argument. First, is not
+love of something, and of something too which is wanting to a man?
+
+Yes, he replied.
+
+Remember further what you said in your speech, or if you do not remember
+I will remind you: you said that the love of the beautiful set in
+order the empire of the gods, for that of deformed things there is no
+love--did you not say something of that kind?
+
+Yes, said Agathon.
+
+Yes, my friend, and the remark was a just one. And if this is true, Love
+is the love of beauty and not of deformity?
+
+He assented.
+
+And the admission has been already made that Love is of something which
+a man wants and has not?
+
+True, he said.
+
+Then Love wants and has not beauty?
+
+Certainly, he replied.
+
+And would you call that beautiful which wants and does not possess
+beauty?
+
+Certainly not.
+
+Then would you still say that love is beautiful?
+
+Agathon replied: I fear that I did not understand what I was saying.
+
+You made a very good speech, Agathon, replied Socrates; but there is
+yet one small question which I would fain ask:--Is not the good also the
+beautiful?
+
+Yes.
+
+Then in wanting the beautiful, love wants also the good?
+
+I cannot refute you, Socrates, said Agathon:--Let us assume that what
+you say is true.
+
+Say rather, beloved Agathon, that you cannot refute the truth; for
+Socrates is easily refuted.
+
+And now, taking my leave of you, I would rehearse a tale of love which I
+heard from Diotima of Mantineia (compare 1 Alcibiades), a woman wise in
+this and in many other kinds of knowledge, who in the days of old, when
+the Athenians offered sacrifice before the coming of the plague, delayed
+the disease ten years. She was my instructress in the art of love, and
+I shall repeat to you what she said to me, beginning with the admissions
+made by Agathon, which are nearly if not quite the same which I made
+to the wise woman when she questioned me: I think that this will be
+the easiest way, and I shall take both parts myself as well as I can
+(compare Gorgias). As you, Agathon, suggested (supra), I must speak
+first of the being and nature of Love, and then of his works. First I
+said to her in nearly the same words which he used to me, that Love was
+a mighty god, and likewise fair; and she proved to me as I proved to him
+that, by my own showing, Love was neither fair nor good. 'What do you
+mean, Diotima,' I said, 'is love then evil and foul?' 'Hush,' she cried;
+'must that be foul which is not fair?' 'Certainly,' I said. 'And is that
+which is not wise, ignorant? do you not see that there is a mean between
+wisdom and ignorance?' 'And what may that be?' I said. 'Right opinion,'
+she replied; 'which, as you know, being incapable of giving a reason,
+is not knowledge (for how can knowledge be devoid of reason? nor again,
+ignorance, for neither can ignorance attain the truth), but is clearly
+something which is a mean between ignorance and wisdom.' 'Quite true,'
+I replied. 'Do not then insist,' she said, 'that what is not fair is of
+necessity foul, or what is not good evil; or infer that because love
+is not fair and good he is therefore foul and evil; for he is in a mean
+between them.' 'Well,' I said, 'Love is surely admitted by all to be a
+great god.' 'By those who know or by those who do not know?' 'By all.'
+'And how, Socrates,' she said with a smile, 'can Love be acknowledged to
+be a great god by those who say that he is not a god at all?' 'And who
+are they?' I said. 'You and I are two of them,' she replied. 'How can
+that be?' I said. 'It is quite intelligible,' she replied; 'for you
+yourself would acknowledge that the gods are happy and fair--of course
+you would--would you dare to say that any god was not?' 'Certainly not,'
+I replied. 'And you mean by the happy, those who are the possessors of
+things good or fair?' 'Yes.' 'And you admitted that Love, because he
+was in want, desires those good and fair things of which he is in want?'
+'Yes, I did.' 'But how can he be a god who has no portion in what is
+either good or fair?' 'Impossible.' 'Then you see that you also deny the
+divinity of Love.'
+
+'What then is Love?' I asked; 'Is he mortal?' 'No.' 'What then?' 'As in
+the former instance, he is neither mortal nor immortal, but in a mean
+between the two.' 'What is he, Diotima?' 'He is a great spirit (daimon),
+and like all spirits he is intermediate between the divine and the
+mortal.' 'And what,' I said, 'is his power?' 'He interprets,' she
+replied, 'between gods and men, conveying and taking across to the gods
+the prayers and sacrifices of men, and to men the commands and replies
+of the gods; he is the mediator who spans the chasm which divides them,
+and therefore in him all is bound together, and through him the arts of
+the prophet and the priest, their sacrifices and mysteries and charms,
+and all prophecy and incantation, find their way. For God mingles not
+with man; but through Love all the intercourse and converse of God
+with man, whether awake or asleep, is carried on. The wisdom which
+understands this is spiritual; all other wisdom, such as that of arts
+and handicrafts, is mean and vulgar. Now these spirits or intermediate
+powers are many and diverse, and one of them is Love.' 'And who,' I
+said, 'was his father, and who his mother?' 'The tale,' she said, 'will
+take time; nevertheless I will tell you. On the birthday of Aphrodite
+there was a feast of the gods, at which the god Poros or Plenty, who is
+the son of Metis or Discretion, was one of the guests. When the feast
+was over, Penia or Poverty, as the manner is on such occasions, came
+about the doors to beg. Now Plenty who was the worse for nectar (there
+was no wine in those days), went into the garden of Zeus and fell into
+a heavy sleep, and Poverty considering her own straitened circumstances,
+plotted to have a child by him, and accordingly she lay down at his side
+and conceived Love, who partly because he is naturally a lover of the
+beautiful, and because Aphrodite is herself beautiful, and also because
+he was born on her birthday, is her follower and attendant. And as his
+parentage is, so also are his fortunes. In the first place he is always
+poor, and anything but tender and fair, as the many imagine him; and he
+is rough and squalid, and has no shoes, nor a house to dwell in; on the
+bare earth exposed he lies under the open heaven, in the streets, or at
+the doors of houses, taking his rest; and like his mother he is always
+in distress. Like his father too, whom he also partly resembles, he is
+always plotting against the fair and good; he is bold, enterprising,
+strong, a mighty hunter, always weaving some intrigue or other, keen in
+the pursuit of wisdom, fertile in resources; a philosopher at all times,
+terrible as an enchanter, sorcerer, sophist. He is by nature neither
+mortal nor immortal, but alive and flourishing at one moment when he is
+in plenty, and dead at another moment, and again alive by reason of his
+father's nature. But that which is always flowing in is always flowing
+out, and so he is never in want and never in wealth; and, further, he
+is in a mean between ignorance and knowledge. The truth of the matter
+is this: No god is a philosopher or seeker after wisdom, for he is wise
+already; nor does any man who is wise seek after wisdom. Neither do the
+ignorant seek after wisdom. For herein is the evil of ignorance, that he
+who is neither good nor wise is nevertheless satisfied with himself:
+he has no desire for that of which he feels no want.' 'But who then,
+Diotima,' I said, 'are the lovers of wisdom, if they are neither the
+wise nor the foolish?' 'A child may answer that question,' she replied;
+'they are those who are in a mean between the two; Love is one of them.
+For wisdom is a most beautiful thing, and Love is of the beautiful; and
+therefore Love is also a philosopher or lover of wisdom, and being a
+lover of wisdom is in a mean between the wise and the ignorant. And of
+this too his birth is the cause; for his father is wealthy and wise, and
+his mother poor and foolish. Such, my dear Socrates, is the nature of
+the spirit Love. The error in your conception of him was very natural,
+and as I imagine from what you say, has arisen out of a confusion of
+love and the beloved, which made you think that love was all beautiful.
+For the beloved is the truly beautiful, and delicate, and perfect, and
+blessed; but the principle of love is of another nature, and is such as
+I have described.'
+
+I said, 'O thou stranger woman, thou sayest well; but, assuming Love to
+be such as you say, what is the use of him to men?' 'That, Socrates,'
+she replied, 'I will attempt to unfold: of his nature and birth I have
+already spoken; and you acknowledge that love is of the beautiful. But
+some one will say: Of the beautiful in what, Socrates and Diotima?--or
+rather let me put the question more clearly, and ask: When a man loves
+the beautiful, what does he desire?' I answered her 'That the beautiful
+may be his.' 'Still,' she said, 'the answer suggests a further question:
+What is given by the possession of beauty?' 'To what you have asked,'
+I replied, 'I have no answer ready.' 'Then,' she said, 'let me put the
+word "good" in the place of the beautiful, and repeat the question once
+more: If he who loves loves the good, what is it then that he loves?'
+'The possession of the good,' I said. 'And what does he gain who
+possesses the good?' 'Happiness,' I replied; 'there is less difficulty
+in answering that question.' 'Yes,' she said, 'the happy are made happy
+by the acquisition of good things. Nor is there any need to ask why a
+man desires happiness; the answer is already final.' 'You are right.'
+I said. 'And is this wish and this desire common to all? and do all men
+always desire their own good, or only some men?--what say you?' 'All
+men,' I replied; 'the desire is common to all.' 'Why, then,' she
+rejoined, 'are not all men, Socrates, said to love, but only some of
+them? whereas you say that all men are always loving the same things.'
+'I myself wonder,' I said, 'why this is.' 'There is nothing to wonder
+at,' she replied; 'the reason is that one part of love is separated
+off and receives the name of the whole, but the other parts have other
+names.' 'Give an illustration,' I said. She answered me as follows:
+'There is poetry, which, as you know, is complex and manifold. All
+creation or passage of non-being into being is poetry or making, and the
+processes of all art are creative; and the masters of arts are all poets
+or makers.' 'Very true.' 'Still,' she said, 'you know that they are not
+called poets, but have other names; only that portion of the art which
+is separated off from the rest, and is concerned with music and metre,
+is termed poetry, and they who possess poetry in this sense of the word
+are called poets.' 'Very true,' I said. 'And the same holds of love. For
+you may say generally that all desire of good and happiness is only the
+great and subtle power of love; but they who are drawn towards him
+by any other path, whether the path of money-making or gymnastics or
+philosophy, are not called lovers--the name of the whole is appropriated
+to those whose affection takes one form only--they alone are said to
+love, or to be lovers.' 'I dare say,' I replied, 'that you are right.'
+'Yes,' she added, 'and you hear people say that lovers are seeking for
+their other half; but I say that they are seeking neither for the half
+of themselves, nor for the whole, unless the half or the whole be also a
+good. And they will cut off their own hands and feet and cast them away,
+if they are evil; for they love not what is their own, unless perchance
+there be some one who calls what belongs to him the good, and what
+belongs to another the evil. For there is nothing which men love but
+the good. Is there anything?' 'Certainly, I should say, that there is
+nothing.' 'Then,' she said, 'the simple truth is, that men love the
+good.' 'Yes,' I said. 'To which must be added that they love the
+possession of the good?' 'Yes, that must be added.' 'And not only the
+possession, but the everlasting possession of the good?' 'That must be
+added too.' 'Then love,' she said, 'may be described generally as the
+love of the everlasting possession of the good?' 'That is most true.'
+
+'Then if this be the nature of love, can you tell me further,' she said,
+'what is the manner of the pursuit? what are they doing who show all
+this eagerness and heat which is called love? and what is the object
+which they have in view? Answer me.' 'Nay, Diotima,' I replied, 'if I
+had known, I should not have wondered at your wisdom, neither should I
+have come to learn from you about this very matter.' 'Well,' she said,
+'I will teach you:--The object which they have in view is birth in
+beauty, whether of body or soul.' 'I do not understand you,' I said;
+'the oracle requires an explanation.' 'I will make my meaning clearer,'
+she replied. 'I mean to say, that all men are bringing to the birth in
+their bodies and in their souls. There is a certain age at which human
+nature is desirous of procreation--procreation which must be in beauty
+and not in deformity; and this procreation is the union of man and
+woman, and is a divine thing; for conception and generation are an
+immortal principle in the mortal creature, and in the inharmonious they
+can never be. But the deformed is always inharmonious with the divine,
+and the beautiful harmonious. Beauty, then, is the destiny or goddess
+of parturition who presides at birth, and therefore, when approaching
+beauty, the conceiving power is propitious, and diffusive, and benign,
+and begets and bears fruit: at the sight of ugliness she frowns and
+contracts and has a sense of pain, and turns away, and shrivels up, and
+not without a pang refrains from conception. And this is the reason why,
+when the hour of conception arrives, and the teeming nature is full,
+there is such a flutter and ecstasy about beauty whose approach is the
+alleviation of the pain of travail. For love, Socrates, is not, as you
+imagine, the love of the beautiful only.' 'What then?' 'The love of
+generation and of birth in beauty.' 'Yes,' I said. 'Yes, indeed,' she
+replied. 'But why of generation?' 'Because to the mortal creature,
+generation is a sort of eternity and immortality,' she replied; 'and if,
+as has been already admitted, love is of the everlasting possession
+of the good, all men will necessarily desire immortality together with
+good: Wherefore love is of immortality.'
+
+All this she taught me at various times when she spoke of love. And I
+remember her once saying to me, 'What is the cause, Socrates, of love,
+and the attendant desire? See you not how all animals, birds, as well as
+beasts, in their desire of procreation, are in agony when they take the
+infection of love, which begins with the desire of union; whereto is
+added the care of offspring, on whose behalf the weakest are ready to
+battle against the strongest even to the uttermost, and to die for them,
+and will let themselves be tormented with hunger or suffer anything
+in order to maintain their young. Man may be supposed to act thus from
+reason; but why should animals have these passionate feelings? Can you
+tell me why?' Again I replied that I did not know. She said to me: 'And
+do you expect ever to become a master in the art of love, if you do not
+know this?' 'But I have told you already, Diotima, that my ignorance is
+the reason why I come to you; for I am conscious that I want a teacher;
+tell me then the cause of this and of the other mysteries of love.'
+'Marvel not,' she said, 'if you believe that love is of the immortal,
+as we have several times acknowledged; for here again, and on the same
+principle too, the mortal nature is seeking as far as is possible to be
+everlasting and immortal: and this is only to be attained by generation,
+because generation always leaves behind a new existence in the place of
+the old. Nay even in the life of the same individual there is succession
+and not absolute unity: a man is called the same, and yet in the short
+interval which elapses between youth and age, and in which every animal
+is said to have life and identity, he is undergoing a perpetual process
+of loss and reparation--hair, flesh, bones, blood, and the whole body
+are always changing. Which is true not only of the body, but also of the
+soul, whose habits, tempers, opinions, desires, pleasures, pains, fears,
+never remain the same in any one of us, but are always coming and going;
+and equally true of knowledge, and what is still more surprising to us
+mortals, not only do the sciences in general spring up and decay,
+so that in respect of them we are never the same; but each of them
+individually experiences a like change. For what is implied in the word
+"recollection," but the departure of knowledge, which is ever being
+forgotten, and is renewed and preserved by recollection, and appears to
+be the same although in reality new, according to that law of succession
+by which all mortal things are preserved, not absolutely the same, but
+by substitution, the old worn-out mortality leaving another new and
+similar existence behind--unlike the divine, which is always the same
+and not another? And in this way, Socrates, the mortal body, or mortal
+anything, partakes of immortality; but the immortal in another way.
+Marvel not then at the love which all men have of their offspring; for
+that universal love and interest is for the sake of immortality.'
+
+I was astonished at her words, and said: 'Is this really true, O
+thou wise Diotima?' And she answered with all the authority of an
+accomplished sophist: 'Of that, Socrates, you may be assured;--think
+only of the ambition of men, and you will wonder at the senselessness of
+their ways, unless you consider how they are stirred by the love of an
+immortality of fame. They are ready to run all risks greater far than
+they would have run for their children, and to spend money and undergo
+any sort of toil, and even to die, for the sake of leaving behind them
+a name which shall be eternal. Do you imagine that Alcestis would have
+died to save Admetus, or Achilles to avenge Patroclus, or your own
+Codrus in order to preserve the kingdom for his sons, if they had not
+imagined that the memory of their virtues, which still survives among
+us, would be immortal? Nay,' she said, 'I am persuaded that all men do
+all things, and the better they are the more they do them, in hope of
+the glorious fame of immortal virtue; for they desire the immortal.
+
+'Those who are pregnant in the body only, betake themselves to women and
+beget children--this is the character of their love; their offspring,
+as they hope, will preserve their memory and giving them the blessedness
+and immortality which they desire in the future. But souls which are
+pregnant--for there certainly are men who are more creative in their
+souls than in their bodies--conceive that which is proper for the soul
+to conceive or contain. And what are these conceptions?--wisdom and
+virtue in general. And such creators are poets and all artists who are
+deserving of the name inventor. But the greatest and fairest sort of
+wisdom by far is that which is concerned with the ordering of states
+and families, and which is called temperance and justice. And he who in
+youth has the seed of these implanted in him and is himself inspired,
+when he comes to maturity desires to beget and generate. He wanders
+about seeking beauty that he may beget offspring--for in deformity he
+will beget nothing--and naturally embraces the beautiful rather than
+the deformed body; above all when he finds a fair and noble and
+well-nurtured soul, he embraces the two in one person, and to such an
+one he is full of speech about virtue and the nature and pursuits of a
+good man; and he tries to educate him; and at the touch of the beautiful
+which is ever present to his memory, even when absent, he brings forth
+that which he had conceived long before, and in company with him tends
+that which he brings forth; and they are married by a far nearer tie and
+have a closer friendship than those who beget mortal children, for the
+children who are their common offspring are fairer and more immortal.
+Who, when he thinks of Homer and Hesiod and other great poets, would
+not rather have their children than ordinary human ones? Who would not
+emulate them in the creation of children such as theirs, which have
+preserved their memory and given them everlasting glory? Or who would
+not have such children as Lycurgus left behind him to be the saviours,
+not only of Lacedaemon, but of Hellas, as one may say? There is Solon,
+too, who is the revered father of Athenian laws; and many others there
+are in many other places, both among Hellenes and barbarians, who have
+given to the world many noble works, and have been the parents of virtue
+of every kind; and many temples have been raised in their honour for the
+sake of children such as theirs; which were never raised in honour of
+any one, for the sake of his mortal children.
+
+'These are the lesser mysteries of love, into which even you, Socrates,
+may enter; to the greater and more hidden ones which are the crown of
+these, and to which, if you pursue them in a right spirit, they will
+lead, I know not whether you will be able to attain. But I will do my
+utmost to inform you, and do you follow if you can. For he who would
+proceed aright in this matter should begin in youth to visit beautiful
+forms; and first, if he be guided by his instructor aright, to love one
+such form only--out of that he should create fair thoughts; and soon
+he will of himself perceive that the beauty of one form is akin to the
+beauty of another; and then if beauty of form in general is his pursuit,
+how foolish would he be not to recognize that the beauty in every form
+is and the same! And when he perceives this he will abate his violent
+love of the one, which he will despise and deem a small thing, and
+will become a lover of all beautiful forms; in the next stage he will
+consider that the beauty of the mind is more honourable than the beauty
+of the outward form. So that if a virtuous soul have but a little
+comeliness, he will be content to love and tend him, and will search out
+and bring to the birth thoughts which may improve the young, until he
+is compelled to contemplate and see the beauty of institutions and laws,
+and to understand that the beauty of them all is of one family, and that
+personal beauty is a trifle; and after laws and institutions he will
+go on to the sciences, that he may see their beauty, being not like
+a servant in love with the beauty of one youth or man or institution,
+himself a slave mean and narrow-minded, but drawing towards and
+contemplating the vast sea of beauty, he will create many fair and noble
+thoughts and notions in boundless love of wisdom; until on that shore he
+grows and waxes strong, and at last the vision is revealed to him of
+a single science, which is the science of beauty everywhere. To this I
+will proceed; please to give me your very best attention:
+
+'He who has been instructed thus far in the things of love, and who has
+learned to see the beautiful in due order and succession, when he comes
+toward the end will suddenly perceive a nature of wondrous beauty (and
+this, Socrates, is the final cause of all our former toils)--a nature
+which in the first place is everlasting, not growing and decaying, or
+waxing and waning; secondly, not fair in one point of view and foul
+in another, or at one time or in one relation or at one place fair, at
+another time or in another relation or at another place foul, as if fair
+to some and foul to others, or in the likeness of a face or hands or any
+other part of the bodily frame, or in any form of speech or knowledge,
+or existing in any other being, as for example, in an animal, or
+in heaven, or in earth, or in any other place; but beauty absolute,
+separate, simple, and everlasting, which without diminution and without
+increase, or any change, is imparted to the ever-growing and perishing
+beauties of all other things. He who from these ascending under the
+influence of true love, begins to perceive that beauty, is not far from
+the end. And the true order of going, or being led by another, to the
+things of love, is to begin from the beauties of earth and mount upwards
+for the sake of that other beauty, using these as steps only, and from
+one going on to two, and from two to all fair forms, and from fair forms
+to fair practices, and from fair practices to fair notions, until from
+fair notions he arrives at the notion of absolute beauty, and at last
+knows what the essence of beauty is. This, my dear Socrates,' said the
+stranger of Mantineia, 'is that life above all others which man should
+live, in the contemplation of beauty absolute; a beauty which if you
+once beheld, you would see not to be after the measure of gold, and
+garments, and fair boys and youths, whose presence now entrances you;
+and you and many a one would be content to live seeing them only and
+conversing with them without meat or drink, if that were possible--you
+only want to look at them and to be with them. But what if man had eyes
+to see the true beauty--the divine beauty, I mean, pure and clear and
+unalloyed, not clogged with the pollutions of mortality and all the
+colours and vanities of human life--thither looking, and holding
+converse with the true beauty simple and divine? Remember how in that
+communion only, beholding beauty with the eye of the mind, he will be
+enabled to bring forth, not images of beauty, but realities (for he
+has hold not of an image but of a reality), and bringing forth and
+nourishing true virtue to become the friend of God and be immortal, if
+mortal man may. Would that be an ignoble life?'
+
+Such, Phaedrus--and I speak not only to you, but to all of you--were the
+words of Diotima; and I am persuaded of their truth. And being persuaded
+of them, I try to persuade others, that in the attainment of this
+end human nature will not easily find a helper better than love: And
+therefore, also, I say that every man ought to honour him as I myself
+honour him, and walk in his ways, and exhort others to do the same,
+and praise the power and spirit of love according to the measure of my
+ability now and ever.
+
+The words which I have spoken, you, Phaedrus, may call an encomium of
+love, or anything else which you please.
+
+When Socrates had done speaking, the company applauded, and Aristophanes
+was beginning to say something in answer to the allusion which Socrates
+had made to his own speech, when suddenly there was a great knocking at
+the door of the house, as of revellers, and the sound of a flute-girl
+was heard. Agathon told the attendants to go and see who were the
+intruders. 'If they are friends of ours,' he said, 'invite them in, but
+if not, say that the drinking is over.' A little while afterwards they
+heard the voice of Alcibiades resounding in the court; he was in a great
+state of intoxication, and kept roaring and shouting 'Where is Agathon?
+Lead me to Agathon,' and at length, supported by the flute-girl and some
+of his attendants, he found his way to them. 'Hail, friends,' he said,
+appearing at the door crowned with a massive garland of ivy and violets,
+his head flowing with ribands. 'Will you have a very drunken man as
+a companion of your revels? Or shall I crown Agathon, which was my
+intention in coming, and go away? For I was unable to come yesterday,
+and therefore I am here to-day, carrying on my head these ribands, that
+taking them from my own head, I may crown the head of this fairest and
+wisest of men, as I may be allowed to call him. Will you laugh at me
+because I am drunk? Yet I know very well that I am speaking the truth,
+although you may laugh. But first tell me; if I come in shall we have
+the understanding of which I spoke (supra Will you have a very drunken
+man? etc.)? Will you drink with me or not?'
+
+The company were vociferous in begging that he would take his place
+among them, and Agathon specially invited him. Thereupon he was led in
+by the people who were with him; and as he was being led, intending to
+crown Agathon, he took the ribands from his own head and held them in
+front of his eyes; he was thus prevented from seeing Socrates, who made
+way for him, and Alcibiades took the vacant place between Agathon and
+Socrates, and in taking the place he embraced Agathon and crowned him.
+Take off his sandals, said Agathon, and let him make a third on the same
+couch.
+
+By all means; but who makes the third partner in our revels? said
+Alcibiades, turning round and starting up as he caught sight of
+Socrates. By Heracles, he said, what is this? here is Socrates always
+lying in wait for me, and always, as his way is, coming out at all sorts
+of unsuspected places: and now, what have you to say for yourself, and
+why are you lying here, where I perceive that you have contrived to find
+a place, not by a joker or lover of jokes, like Aristophanes, but by the
+fairest of the company?
+
+Socrates turned to Agathon and said: I must ask you to protect me,
+Agathon; for the passion of this man has grown quite a serious matter to
+me. Since I became his admirer I have never been allowed to speak to
+any other fair one, or so much as to look at them. If I do, he goes wild
+with envy and jealousy, and not only abuses me but can hardly keep his
+hands off me, and at this moment he may do me some harm. Please to see
+to this, and either reconcile me to him, or, if he attempts violence,
+protect me, as I am in bodily fear of his mad and passionate attempts.
+
+There can never be reconciliation between you and me, said Alcibiades;
+but for the present I will defer your chastisement. And I must beg
+you, Agathon, to give me back some of the ribands that I may crown the
+marvellous head of this universal despot--I would not have him complain
+of me for crowning you, and neglecting him, who in conversation is the
+conqueror of all mankind; and this not only once, as you were the day
+before yesterday, but always. Whereupon, taking some of the ribands, he
+crowned Socrates, and again reclined.
+
+Then he said: You seem, my friends, to be sober, which is a thing not to
+be endured; you must drink--for that was the agreement under which I
+was admitted--and I elect myself master of the feast until you are
+well drunk. Let us have a large goblet, Agathon, or rather, he said,
+addressing the attendant, bring me that wine-cooler. The wine-cooler
+which had caught his eye was a vessel holding more than two quarts--this
+he filled and emptied, and bade the attendant fill it again for
+Socrates. Observe, my friends, said Alcibiades, that this ingenious
+trick of mine will have no effect on Socrates, for he can drink any
+quantity of wine and not be at all nearer being drunk. Socrates drank
+the cup which the attendant filled for him.
+
+Eryximachus said: What is this, Alcibiades? Are we to have neither
+conversation nor singing over our cups; but simply to drink as if we
+were thirsty?
+
+Alcibiades replied: Hail, worthy son of a most wise and worthy sire!
+
+The same to you, said Eryximachus; but what shall we do?
+
+That I leave to you, said Alcibiades.
+
+'The wise physician skilled our wounds to heal (from Pope's Homer, Il.)'
+
+shall prescribe and we will obey. What do you want?
+
+Well, said Eryximachus, before you appeared we had passed a resolution
+that each one of us in turn should make a speech in praise of love, and
+as good a one as he could: the turn was passed round from left to right;
+and as all of us have spoken, and you have not spoken but have well
+drunken, you ought to speak, and then impose upon Socrates any task
+which you please, and he on his right hand neighbour, and so on.
+
+That is good, Eryximachus, said Alcibiades; and yet the comparison of
+a drunken man's speech with those of sober men is hardly fair; and
+I should like to know, sweet friend, whether you really believe what
+Socrates was just now saying; for I can assure you that the very reverse
+is the fact, and that if I praise any one but himself in his presence,
+whether God or man, he will hardly keep his hands off me.
+
+For shame, said Socrates.
+
+Hold your tongue, said Alcibiades, for by Poseidon, there is no one else
+whom I will praise when you are of the company.
+
+Well then, said Eryximachus, if you like praise Socrates.
+
+What do you think, Eryximachus? said Alcibiades: shall I attack him and
+inflict the punishment before you all?
+
+What are you about? said Socrates; are you going to raise a laugh at my
+expense? Is that the meaning of your praise?
+
+I am going to speak the truth, if you will permit me.
+
+I not only permit, but exhort you to speak the truth.
+
+Then I will begin at once, said Alcibiades, and if I say anything which
+is not true, you may interrupt me if you will, and say 'that is a lie,'
+though my intention is to speak the truth. But you must not wonder if
+I speak any how as things come into my mind; for the fluent and orderly
+enumeration of all your singularities is not a task which is easy to a
+man in my condition.
+
+And now, my boys, I shall praise Socrates in a figure which will appear
+to him to be a caricature, and yet I speak, not to make fun of him, but
+only for the truth's sake. I say, that he is exactly like the busts of
+Silenus, which are set up in the statuaries' shops, holding pipes and
+flutes in their mouths; and they are made to open in the middle, and
+have images of gods inside them. I say also that he is like Marsyas the
+satyr. You yourself will not deny, Socrates, that your face is like that
+of a satyr. Aye, and there is a resemblance in other points too. For
+example, you are a bully, as I can prove by witnesses, if you will not
+confess. And are you not a flute-player? That you are, and a performer
+far more wonderful than Marsyas. He indeed with instruments used to
+charm the souls of men by the power of his breath, and the players of
+his music do so still: for the melodies of Olympus (compare Arist. Pol.)
+are derived from Marsyas who taught them, and these, whether they are
+played by a great master or by a miserable flute-girl, have a power
+which no others have; they alone possess the soul and reveal the wants
+of those who have need of gods and mysteries, because they are divine.
+But you produce the same effect with your words only, and do not require
+the flute: that is the difference between you and him. When we hear any
+other speaker, even a very good one, he produces absolutely no effect
+upon us, or not much, whereas the mere fragments of you and your words,
+even at second-hand, and however imperfectly repeated, amaze and possess
+the souls of every man, woman, and child who comes within hearing of
+them. And if I were not afraid that you would think me hopelessly drunk,
+I would have sworn as well as spoken to the influence which they have
+always had and still have over me. For my heart leaps within me more
+than that of any Corybantian reveller, and my eyes rain tears when
+I hear them. And I observe that many others are affected in the same
+manner. I have heard Pericles and other great orators, and I thought
+that they spoke well, but I never had any similar feeling; my soul was
+not stirred by them, nor was I angry at the thought of my own slavish
+state. But this Marsyas has often brought me to such a pass, that I
+have felt as if I could hardly endure the life which I am leading (this,
+Socrates, you will admit); and I am conscious that if I did not shut my
+ears against him, and fly as from the voice of the siren, my fate would
+be like that of others,--he would transfix me, and I should grow old
+sitting at his feet. For he makes me confess that I ought not to live as
+I do, neglecting the wants of my own soul, and busying myself with the
+concerns of the Athenians; therefore I hold my ears and tear myself away
+from him. And he is the only person who ever made me ashamed, which you
+might think not to be in my nature, and there is no one else who does
+the same. For I know that I cannot answer him or say that I ought not to
+do as he bids, but when I leave his presence the love of popularity gets
+the better of me. And therefore I run away and fly from him, and when I
+see him I am ashamed of what I have confessed to him. Many a time have
+I wished that he were dead, and yet I know that I should be much more
+sorry than glad, if he were to die: so that I am at my wit's end.
+
+And this is what I and many others have suffered from the flute-playing
+of this satyr. Yet hear me once more while I show you how exact the
+image is, and how marvellous his power. For let me tell you; none of you
+know him; but I will reveal him to you; having begun, I must go on. See
+you how fond he is of the fair? He is always with them and is always
+being smitten by them, and then again he knows nothing and is ignorant
+of all things--such is the appearance which he puts on. Is he not like a
+Silenus in this? To be sure he is: his outer mask is the carved head
+of the Silenus; but, O my companions in drink, when he is opened, what
+temperance there is residing within! Know you that beauty and wealth and
+honour, at which the many wonder, are of no account with him, and are
+utterly despised by him: he regards not at all the persons who are
+gifted with them; mankind are nothing to him; all his life is spent in
+mocking and flouting at them. But when I opened him, and looked within
+at his serious purpose, I saw in him divine and golden images of such
+fascinating beauty that I was ready to do in a moment whatever Socrates
+commanded: they may have escaped the observation of others, but I saw
+them. Now I fancied that he was seriously enamoured of my beauty, and I
+thought that I should therefore have a grand opportunity of hearing him
+tell what he knew, for I had a wonderful opinion of the attractions of
+my youth. In the prosecution of this design, when I next went to him, I
+sent away the attendant who usually accompanied me (I will confess the
+whole truth, and beg you to listen; and if I speak falsely, do you,
+Socrates, expose the falsehood). Well, he and I were alone together, and
+I thought that when there was nobody with us, I should hear him
+speak the language which lovers use to their loves when they are by
+themselves, and I was delighted. Nothing of the sort; he conversed
+as usual, and spent the day with me and then went away. Afterwards I
+challenged him to the palaestra; and he wrestled and closed with me
+several times when there was no one present; I fancied that I might
+succeed in this manner. Not a bit; I made no way with him. Lastly, as
+I had failed hitherto, I thought that I must take stronger measures and
+attack him boldly, and, as I had begun, not give him up, but see how
+matters stood between him and me. So I invited him to sup with me, just
+as if he were a fair youth, and I a designing lover. He was not easily
+persuaded to come; he did, however, after a while accept the invitation,
+and when he came the first time, he wanted to go away at once as soon as
+supper was over, and I had not the face to detain him. The second
+time, still in pursuance of my design, after we had supped, I went
+on conversing far into the night, and when he wanted to go away, I
+pretended that the hour was late and that he had much better remain. So
+he lay down on the couch next to me, the same on which he had supped,
+and there was no one but ourselves sleeping in the apartment. All this
+may be told without shame to any one. But what follows I could hardly
+tell you if I were sober. Yet as the proverb says, 'In vino veritas,'
+whether with boys, or without them (In allusion to two proverbs.); and
+therefore I must speak. Nor, again, should I be justified in concealing
+the lofty actions of Socrates when I come to praise him. Moreover I
+have felt the serpent's sting; and he who has suffered, as they say, is
+willing to tell his fellow-sufferers only, as they alone will be likely
+to understand him, and will not be extreme in judging of the sayings or
+doings which have been wrung from his agony. For I have been bitten by a
+more than viper's tooth; I have known in my soul, or in my heart, or in
+some other part, that worst of pangs, more violent in ingenuous youth
+than any serpent's tooth, the pang of philosophy, which will make a man
+say or do anything. And you whom I see around me, Phaedrus and Agathon
+and Eryximachus and Pausanias and Aristodemus and Aristophanes, all of
+you, and I need not say Socrates himself, have had experience of the
+same madness and passion in your longing after wisdom. Therefore listen
+and excuse my doings then and my sayings now. But let the attendants and
+other profane and unmannered persons close up the doors of their ears.
+
+When the lamp was put out and the servants had gone away, I thought that
+I must be plain with him and have no more ambiguity. So I gave him a
+shake, and I said: 'Socrates, are you asleep?' 'No,' he said. 'Do
+you know what I am meditating? 'What are you meditating?' he said. 'I
+think,' I replied, 'that of all the lovers whom I have ever had you are
+the only one who is worthy of me, and you appear to be too modest to
+speak. Now I feel that I should be a fool to refuse you this or any
+other favour, and therefore I come to lay at your feet all that I have
+and all that my friends have, in the hope that you will assist me in the
+way of virtue, which I desire above all things, and in which I believe
+that you can help me better than any one else. And I should certainly
+have more reason to be ashamed of what wise men would say if I were to
+refuse a favour to such as you, than of what the world, who are mostly
+fools, would say of me if I granted it.' To these words he replied in
+the ironical manner which is so characteristic of him:--'Alcibiades, my
+friend, you have indeed an elevated aim if what you say is true, and if
+there really is in me any power by which you may become better; truly
+you must see in me some rare beauty of a kind infinitely higher than any
+which I see in you. And therefore, if you mean to share with me and to
+exchange beauty for beauty, you will have greatly the advantage of me;
+you will gain true beauty in return for appearance--like Diomede, gold
+in exchange for brass. But look again, sweet friend, and see whether you
+are not deceived in me. The mind begins to grow critical when the bodily
+eye fails, and it will be a long time before you get old.' Hearing this,
+I said: 'I have told you my purpose, which is quite serious, and do you
+consider what you think best for you and me.' 'That is good,' he said;
+'at some other time then we will consider and act as seems best about
+this and about other matters.' Whereupon, I fancied that he was smitten,
+and that the words which I had uttered like arrows had wounded him, and
+so without waiting to hear more I got up, and throwing my coat about him
+crept under his threadbare cloak, as the time of year was winter, and
+there I lay during the whole night having this wonderful monster in
+my arms. This again, Socrates, will not be denied by you. And yet,
+notwithstanding all, he was so superior to my solicitations, so
+contemptuous and derisive and disdainful of my beauty--which really, as
+I fancied, had some attractions--hear, O judges; for judges you shall
+be of the haughty virtue of Socrates--nothing more happened, but in the
+morning when I awoke (let all the gods and goddesses be my witnesses) I
+arose as from the couch of a father or an elder brother.
+
+What do you suppose must have been my feelings, after this rejection, at
+the thought of my own dishonour? And yet I could not help wondering
+at his natural temperance and self-restraint and manliness. I never
+imagined that I could have met with a man such as he is in wisdom and
+endurance. And therefore I could not be angry with him or renounce his
+company, any more than I could hope to win him. For I well knew that if
+Ajax could not be wounded by steel, much less he by money; and my only
+chance of captivating him by my personal attractions had failed. So
+I was at my wit's end; no one was ever more hopelessly enslaved by
+another. All this happened before he and I went on the expedition
+to Potidaea; there we messed together, and I had the opportunity of
+observing his extraordinary power of sustaining fatigue. His endurance
+was simply marvellous when, being cut off from our supplies, we were
+compelled to go without food--on such occasions, which often happen in
+time of war, he was superior not only to me but to everybody; there was
+no one to be compared to him. Yet at a festival he was the only person
+who had any real powers of enjoyment; though not willing to drink, he
+could if compelled beat us all at that,--wonderful to relate! no
+human being had ever seen Socrates drunk; and his powers, if I am not
+mistaken, will be tested before long. His fortitude in enduring cold was
+also surprising. There was a severe frost, for the winter in that region
+is really tremendous, and everybody else either remained indoors, or if
+they went out had on an amazing quantity of clothes, and were well shod,
+and had their feet swathed in felt and fleeces: in the midst of this,
+Socrates with his bare feet on the ice and in his ordinary dress marched
+better than the other soldiers who had shoes, and they looked daggers at
+him because he seemed to despise them.
+
+I have told you one tale, and now I must tell you another, which is
+worth hearing,
+
+'Of the doings and sufferings of the enduring man'
+
+while he was on the expedition. One morning he was thinking about
+something which he could not resolve; he would not give it up, but
+continued thinking from early dawn until noon--there he stood fixed
+in thought; and at noon attention was drawn to him, and the rumour ran
+through the wondering crowd that Socrates had been standing and thinking
+about something ever since the break of day. At last, in the evening
+after supper, some Ionians out of curiosity (I should explain that this
+was not in winter but in summer), brought out their mats and slept in
+the open air that they might watch him and see whether he would stand
+all night. There he stood until the following morning; and with the
+return of light he offered up a prayer to the sun, and went his way
+(compare supra). I will also tell, if you please--and indeed I am bound
+to tell--of his courage in battle; for who but he saved my life? Now
+this was the engagement in which I received the prize of valour: for I
+was wounded and he would not leave me, but he rescued me and my arms;
+and he ought to have received the prize of valour which the generals
+wanted to confer on me partly on account of my rank, and I told them so,
+(this, again, Socrates will not impeach or deny), but he was more eager
+than the generals that I and not he should have the prize. There was
+another occasion on which his behaviour was very remarkable--in the
+flight of the army after the battle of Delium, where he served among the
+heavy-armed,--I had a better opportunity of seeing him than at Potidaea,
+for I was myself on horseback, and therefore comparatively out of
+danger. He and Laches were retreating, for the troops were in flight,
+and I met them and told them not to be discouraged, and promised to
+remain with them; and there you might see him, Aristophanes, as you
+describe (Aristoph. Clouds), just as he is in the streets of Athens,
+stalking like a pelican, and rolling his eyes, calmly contemplating
+enemies as well as friends, and making very intelligible to anybody,
+even from a distance, that whoever attacked him would be likely to
+meet with a stout resistance; and in this way he and his companion
+escaped--for this is the sort of man who is never touched in war; those
+only are pursued who are running away headlong. I particularly observed
+how superior he was to Laches in presence of mind. Many are the marvels
+which I might narrate in praise of Socrates; most of his ways might
+perhaps be paralleled in another man, but his absolute unlikeness to any
+human being that is or ever has been is perfectly astonishing. You
+may imagine Brasidas and others to have been like Achilles; or you may
+imagine Nestor and Antenor to have been like Pericles; and the same may
+be said of other famous men, but of this strange being you will never be
+able to find any likeness, however remote, either among men who now are
+or who ever have been--other than that which I have already suggested of
+Silenus and the satyrs; and they represent in a figure not only himself,
+but his words. For, although I forgot to mention this to you before,
+his words are like the images of Silenus which open; they are ridiculous
+when you first hear them; he clothes himself in language that is like
+the skin of the wanton satyr--for his talk is of pack-asses and smiths
+and cobblers and curriers, and he is always repeating the same things
+in the same words (compare Gorg.), so that any ignorant or inexperienced
+person might feel disposed to laugh at him; but he who opens the bust
+and sees what is within will find that they are the only words which
+have a meaning in them, and also the most divine, abounding in fair
+images of virtue, and of the widest comprehension, or rather extending
+to the whole duty of a good and honourable man.
+
+This, friends, is my praise of Socrates. I have added my blame of him
+for his ill-treatment of me; and he has ill-treated not only me, but
+Charmides the son of Glaucon, and Euthydemus the son of Diocles, and
+many others in the same way--beginning as their lover he has ended by
+making them pay their addresses to him. Wherefore I say to you, Agathon,
+'Be not deceived by him; learn from me and take warning, and do not be a
+fool and learn by experience, as the proverb says.'
+
+When Alcibiades had finished, there was a laugh at his outspokenness;
+for he seemed to be still in love with Socrates. You are sober,
+Alcibiades, said Socrates, or you would never have gone so far about
+to hide the purpose of your satyr's praises, for all this long story is
+only an ingenious circumlocution, of which the point comes in by the
+way at the end; you want to get up a quarrel between me and Agathon, and
+your notion is that I ought to love you and nobody else, and that you
+and you only ought to love Agathon. But the plot of this Satyric or
+Silenic drama has been detected, and you must not allow him, Agathon, to
+set us at variance.
+
+I believe you are right, said Agathon, and I am disposed to think that
+his intention in placing himself between you and me was only to divide
+us; but he shall gain nothing by that move; for I will go and lie on the
+couch next to you.
+
+Yes, yes, replied Socrates, by all means come here and lie on the couch
+below me.
+
+Alas, said Alcibiades, how I am fooled by this man; he is determined to
+get the better of me at every turn. I do beseech you, allow Agathon to
+lie between us.
+
+Certainly not, said Socrates, as you praised me, and I in turn ought to
+praise my neighbour on the right, he will be out of order in praising me
+again when he ought rather to be praised by me, and I must entreat you
+to consent to this, and not be jealous, for I have a great desire to
+praise the youth.
+
+Hurrah! cried Agathon, I will rise instantly, that I may be praised by
+Socrates.
+
+The usual way, said Alcibiades; where Socrates is, no one else has any
+chance with the fair; and now how readily has he invented a specious
+reason for attracting Agathon to himself.
+
+Agathon arose in order that he might take his place on the couch by
+Socrates, when suddenly a band of revellers entered, and spoiled the
+order of the banquet. Some one who was going out having left the door
+open, they had found their way in, and made themselves at home; great
+confusion ensued, and every one was compelled to drink large quantities
+of wine. Aristodemus said that Eryximachus, Phaedrus, and others went
+away--he himself fell asleep, and as the nights were long took a good
+rest: he was awakened towards daybreak by a crowing of cocks, and
+when he awoke, the others were either asleep, or had gone away; there
+remained only Socrates, Aristophanes, and Agathon, who were drinking out
+of a large goblet which they passed round, and Socrates was discoursing
+to them. Aristodemus was only half awake, and he did not hear the
+beginning of the discourse; the chief thing which he remembered was
+Socrates compelling the other two to acknowledge that the genius of
+comedy was the same with that of tragedy, and that the true artist in
+tragedy was an artist in comedy also. To this they were constrained to
+assent, being drowsy, and not quite following the argument. And first
+of all Aristophanes dropped off, then, when the day was already
+dawning, Agathon. Socrates, having laid them to sleep, rose to depart;
+Aristodemus, as his manner was, following him. At the Lyceum he took a
+bath, and passed the day as usual. In the evening he retired to rest at
+his own home.
+
+
+
+
+
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