Phaedrus — Plato
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p. 122to truth or falsehood — that was no matter; for the original proposal seems to have been not that you should praise, but only that you should appear to praise him.
And you attribute to Love every imaginable form of praise, and say that '* he is all this," *' the cause of all this '* in order that you may exhibit him as the fairest and best of all : and this of course imposes on the unwary, but not on 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 (as Euripides would say) was a promise of the lips and not of the mind. Farewell then to such a strain : for that is not my way of praising ; no, indeed, I cannot attain to that.
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 P^drus and the company bid him take his own course. [After his usual manner, Socrates avoided a long set speech in the outset. He pretended that he had once met a very wise woman by the name of Diotima^ who had taught him the nature of love. She led Socrates to the view that love is not as the former speakers had declared, beautiful or good or wise or divine. Love is child of the god Plenty and of Poverty.
Lpve is a mediator between the divine and human.] ** Love is a great spirit, and like all that is spiritual he is intenuediate between the divine and the mortal. ''And what i« the nature of this spiritual power?
" I said. *' This is the power," she said, ** which interprets and conveys to the gods the prayers and sacrifices of men, and to men the commands and rewards of the gods ; and this power spans the chasm which divides them, and in this all is bound together, and through this the arts of the prophet and the »« Diotima (di'o-ti'ma): spoken of below (211) as the stranger of Mantineia (m3n'tr-nl'a).
p. 123priest, their sacrifices and mysteries and charms, and all prophecy and incantation, find their way. For God mingles not with man ; and through this power all the intercourse and speech 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 or handicrafts, is mean and vulgar.
' ' [Love is not wise or good or beautiful, but is in passionate search for wisdom, goodness and beauty.] ** The truth of the matter is just this: No god is a philosopher or seeker after wisdom, for he is wise, already ; nor does any one else 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 : he feels no want, and has therefore no desire." ** 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, like Love, are in a mean between the two.
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 this again is a quality which Love inherits from his parents ; 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 — this made you think that love was all beautiful. For the beloved is the truly beautiful, delicate, and perfect and blessed ; but the principle of love is of another nature, and is such as I have described." [But love is not love of the beautiful and good only.
Love is essentially love of *' birth in beauty." **To the mortal creature, generation is a sort of eternity and immortality," and all true love is essentially love of immortality. Some beget earthly children, but some are more creative in their souls than in their bodies. *' Such creators are poets and all artists p. 124who are deserving the name inventor. But the greatest and fairest sort of wisdom by far is that which is concerned with the ordering of states and famihes, and which is called temperance and justice.
He who in youth has the seed of these implanted in him desires to implant them in others. ** When he finds a fair and noble and well-nurtured soul . he is full of fair speech about virtue and the nature and pursuits of a good man ; and he tries to educate him ; . . . and they are bound together 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.
' '] s ** 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 rightly in this matter should begin in youth to turn to beautiful forms ; and first, if his instructor guide him ngEtly, he should learn to love one such form only — out of that he should create fair thoughts ; and soon he will himself perceive that the beauty of one form is truly related to the beauty of another ; and then if beauty in general is his pursuit, how foolish would he be not to recognize that the beauty in every form is one 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; this will lead him on to consider that the beauty of the mind is more honorable 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 his beloved is compelled to contemplate and see the beauty of institutions and laws, and understand that all is of one kindred, and that personal beauty is only a trifle; and after laws and institutions he will lead him on to the sciences, that he may see their beauty, being not like a ser* vant in love with the beauty of one youth or man or institution^ himself a slave mean and calculating/ but looking at the
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