INTRODUCTION

armed (by his temperance) in "complete steel"; and I charge him now before you with the crime of hubris original: ὕβρις (wanton insolence or arrogance).. His hardihood was shown in the Potidaea campaign, where no one could stand the cold like him. His valour was displayed in the battle where he saved my life, and in the retreat from Delium. Especially amazing is his unique originality, which makes it impossible to find anyone else like him—except for Satyrs and Sileni.

IV.

His speeches too, I forgot to say, are like the Silenus-statuettes Small, grotesque statues that opened up to reveal beautiful images of gods inside.; they appear ridiculous on the outside, but their inner content is supremely rational and full of images of virtue and wisdom.

Epilogue: Such is my eulogy, half praise, half blame. Let my experience, and that of many another, be a warning to you, Agathon: court Socrates less as an "erastes" An older lover, typically in a mentorship role. than as an "anterastes" A reciprocal or rival lover.!

XVI. Concluding Scene: 222c—end.

The company laughed at the erotic candor of Alcibiades. Then ensued some banter between Socrates and Alcibiades as rival "erastae" of Agathon, which was interrupted by the entrance of a band of revelers who filled the room with uproar. Some of the guests left, and Aristodemus himself fell asleep. On waking, about dawn, he found only three of the party still present and awake—Agathon, Aristophanes, and Socrates. Socrates was trying to convince the others that the scientific tragedy-writer must be capable also of writing comedy. Presently Aristophanes, and then Agathon, dozed off; whereupon Socrates, still "shadowed" by Aristodemus, departed.

§ II. The Framework of the Dialogue.

(A) The Method of Narration and the Preface.

The Platonic dialogues, viewed from the perspective of literary form, may be divided into two chief classes. To the first class belong those in which the story of the discussion is told directly by one of the protagonists; to the second class belong those in which the story is told indirectly or at second-hand—a mode of narration which involves the further characteristic that dialogues of this class are necessarily prefaced (and concluded) by some explanatory paragraphs. This second class, moreover, falls into two subdivisions, depending on whether the narrator is or is not represented as being himself present at the discussion.