Phaedrus — Plato

I02 PLATO THE TEACHER your Prometheus to your Epimetheus: of him I make use whenever I am busy about these questions in Promethean care of my own life. And if you have no objection, as I said at first, I should like to have your help in the inquiry. Protagoras replied : Socrates, I am not of a base nature, and I am the last man in the world to be envious. I cannot but applaud your enthusiasm in the conduct of an argument. As I have often said, I admire you above all men whom I know, certainly above all men of your age; and I believe that you will become very eminent in philosophy. Let us come back to the subject at some future time ; at present we had better turn to something else. By all means, I said, if that is your wish ; for I too ought long since to have kept the engagement of which I spoke before, and only tarried because I could not refuse the request of the noble CaUias. This finished the conversation, and we went our way.

THE SYMPOSIUM

INTRODUCTION The subject of the Symposium is love. Five set speeches are made upon this theme besides that of Alcibiades, which, though professedly about Socrates, is also really about love. Phaedrus dwells especially upon love as an incentive to courageous deeds. Pausanias distinguishes between the heavenly and the earthly love. Eryximachus, the physician, seeks to show a common principle in the love of the body and the love of the mind.

Aristophanes, the writer of comedy, under the guise of an extravagant myth, suggests that man cannot live in isolation, that love is the necessary mediator between men, and that the love of the world is a type of the higher love. Agathon, as becomes the master of tragedy, makes a noble poem in eloquent praise of love the divine. The earthly love is repeatedly discussed in these speeches with a frankness which seems to our ears very gross.

Each of the speeches, however, makes some contribution to the theme, which Plato considers of value. Socrates pretends to have been instructed as to the sober truth about love by a wise woman, Diotima.

In a word, he believes that love is a principle which ranges all the way from animal desire to the hunger and thirst after wisdom, and that in the highest as well as in the lowest form of love, the soul longs to beget the likeness of itself in others. True love is not love of the beautiful for itself or for oneself alone, but it is love of the " birth in beauty '* in others. In such fashion does Plato realize the idea of love for God and for man, los

I06 PLATO THE TEACHER But the Symposium is not simply a series of arguments. It is perhaps more evidently than any other of Plato's writings, a dramatic portrayal of the theme and of the varied views of men about the theme. The five speeches preceding that of Socrates are doubtless to be regarded as dramatic in this sense. Besides this, many incidents of the story illustrate the theme.

In a variety of ways it is suggested that Socrates is so wholly a lover of truth that the things of this world are nothing to him. He stands in the snow without feeling it. He conducts himself in battle without fear. He drinks and is not made drunk. He is assailed with temptation to vice, but is not really tempted.

Above all he passes at times (two instances are mentioned in the dialogue) into an ecstatic state where the search of his soul after truth makes him for hours completely oblivious to all earthly things.

The best illustration of the nature and power of true love is given in the speech of Alcibiades.^ Here is shown in the most perfect way that strong and genuine love of wisdom and holiness is, inevitably, also strong and genuine desire and power to allure others toward wisdom and holiness. A word of warning should be given.

As Jowett says, " if it be true th?.t there are more things in the Symposium than any commentator has dreamed of, it is also true that many things have been imagined which are not really to be found there. Do not pigeon-hole the Symposium after one reading. It is " full of divine and golden images," with which a life-time is not too long to make full acquaintance. 1 See General Introduction, page xxx.