Phaedrus — Plato

Il6 PLATO THE TEACHER Other line of commendation ; as I perceive that you are cured of the hiccough. J. Yes, said Aristophanes, who followed, the hiccough is gone ; not, however, until I applied the sneezing ; and I wonder whether the principle of order in the human frame requires this sort of noises and ticklings, for I no sooner applied the sneezing than I was cured.

Eryximachus said : Take care, friend Aristophanes, you are beginning with a j6.ke, and I shgU haVe to watch if yo|i talk nonsense; and the int'erruptiQn will be occasioned by your own fault.

You are very right, said Aristophanes, laughing, and I will retract what I said ; and do you please not to watch me, as I fear that in what I am going to say, instead of making others laugh, which is to the manner born of our muse and would be all the better, I shall only be laughed at by them. [Aristophanes related another myth in which he represented that the principle of all human activity is desire to complete our deficiencies and attain wholeness and unity of life.

He concluded as follows :] And I believe that if all of us obtained our love, and each one had his particular beloved, thus returning to his original nature, then our race would be happy. And if this would be best of all, that which would be best under present circumstances would be the nearest approach to such a union ; and that will be the attainment of a congenial love.

Therefore Ave shall do well to praise the god Love, who is the author of this gift, and who is also our greatest benefactor, leading us in this life back to our own nature, and giving us high hopes for the future, 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 from 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

THE SYMPOSIUM II7 be really afraid that they would have nothing to say, after all the world of things which have been said already. But, for all that, I am not without hopes. Socrates said : You did 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, thinking of the anticipation which the theatre has of my fine speech.

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, coming upon the stage with the actors and facing the whole 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 one whom you thought wise, you would care for his 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 light upon a really wise man, you would be ashamed of disgracing yourself before him, — would you not ? Yes, said Agathon. But you would not be ashamed of disgracing yourself before the many ?

Here Phaedrus interrupted them, saying: Don't 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 every one. When you and he have paid the 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 other

Il8 PLATO THE TEACHER 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 ^, s ^^ ^^^ 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 express unblamed then, that of all the blessed gods he is the blessedest and the best ?

And also the fairest, which I prove in this way : for, in the first place, Phaedrus, he is the youngest, and of his youth he is himself the witness, fleeing out of the way of age, which is swift enough surely, swifter than most of us like : yet he cannot be overtaken by him ; he is not a bird of that feather; youth and love live and move together, — like to like, as the proverb says.

There are many things which Phaedrus said about Love in which I agree with him ; but I cannot agree that he is older than lapetus ^^ and Kronos^^ — that is not the truth; as I maintain, he is the youngest of the gods, and. youthful jever..

The ancient things of which Hesiod and Parmenides speak, if they were done at all, 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 : " which is an excellent proof of her tenderness, because 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 hard enough, but in the hearts and souls of men : in them he walks and dwells and has his home. Not in every soul without ex- " lapetus (i-3p'e-tus): an ancient Greek divinity, son of Uranus (Heaven), and Gaea (Earth). The Greeks regarded him as the ancestor of the human race.

" Kronos (kro'nos): brother of lapetus, and father of Zeus. »« Ate(ate): the goddess of infatuation; also the avenger of unrighteousness.