The Symposium of Plato

he said, “I must retract my rash promise to join in a eulogy of Eros, since I perceive that I was quite astray in my ideas about the art of praise: for I supposed that truth came first, and ornamental compliment second, whereas the contrary is evidently the fact. Such a speech is quite beyond my poor powers; but if you care for an unvarnished speech about Eros, I am ready to make one.” Phaedrus and the rest bade him proceed in his own fashion, and Socrates began by the following conversation with Agathon.

XII. Socrates’ preliminary Discussion with Agathon: 199 c—201 d.

(1) “Your opening on Method was admirable, Agathon. But tell me further, is Eros a relative notion, like ‘father’ or ‘brother’?”
“Certainly it is.”
(2) “Next, you agree that if Eros desires its object, it must lack it; and if a man wishes for some good he already possesses, what he really desires is what he lacks—namely, the future possession of that good.”
“True.”
(3) “Again, if Eros is (as you said) love for beauty, Eros must lack beauty, and therefore goodness too, and be neither beautiful nor good.”
“I cannot gainsay you.”

XIII. The Discourse of Socrates (Diotima): 201 d—212 c.

Prologue: I will now repeat the discourse on Eros which I once heard from my instructress in Erotics, Diotima the prophetess—assuming the conclusions formulated just now, and treating first of the character and secondly of the effects of Eros, according to Agathon’s own method.

A. The nature of Eros, 201 E—204 c.

(1) Diotima showed me that Eros, although (as we have seen) neither beautiful nor good, is not therefore ugly and bad, but rather a middle ground between these opposites.
(2) She argued also that Eros is not a god, since godhead involves the possession of just those goods which Eros desires and lacks. But neither is he a mortal; he stands midway between the two, being a great daemon A supernatural being of a nature between gods and humans, acting as an intermediary.; and the function of the daemon is to mediate between gods and men.