SYMPOSIUM.

The narrative he had heard was as follows:

Aristodemus, meeting Socrates dressed in his holiday best, is invited by him to a banquet at the house of Agathon, who had been offering sacrifices in thanksgiving for his tragic victory the previous day. But no sooner has Aristodemus entered the house than he finds he is alone; Socrates has stayed behind in a fit of abstraction and does not appear until the banquet is half over. Upon his arrival, he and his host exchange lighthearted jests. The question is then raised by Pausanias, one of the guests: “What shall we do about drinking? Since we were all well-drunk yesterday, drinking for two successive days is a bad idea.”

This is confirmed by the authority of Eryximachus the physician, who proposes that instead of listening to the flute-girl and her “noise,” they should instead make speeches in honor of Love, one after another, moving from left to right around the table. All agree to this proposal, and Phaedrus, who is the “father” of the idea—having previously communicated it to Eryximachus—begins as follows:

He first speaks of the antiquity of Love, which is proved by the authority of the poets, and then of the benefits that Love bestows upon humanity. The greatest of these is the sense of honor and dishonor. A lover is ashamed to be seen by his beloved performing or enduring any cowardly or mean act. A state or an army composed entirely of lovers and their beloveds would be invincible, for Love converts even the greatest coward into an inspired hero.

There have been true loves not only among men but among women as well. Such was the love of Alcestis, who dared to die for her husband and, in recompense for her virtue, was allowed to return from the dead. But Orpheus, the miserable harper who descended to Hades while still alive in order to bring back his wife, was mocked with a mere apparition, and the gods later contrived his death as punishment for his cowardliness. The love of Achilles, like that of Alcestis, was courageous and true, for he was willing to avenge his beloved Patroclus, even knowing that his own death would immediately follow. The gods, who honor the love of the beloved above that of the lover, rewarded him and sent him to the islands of the blessed.

Pausanias, who was sitting next, then takes up the story. He argues that Phaedrus should have distinguished between heavenly love and earthly love before praising either. For there are two loves, just as there are two Aphrodites—the one, the daughter of Uranus, who has no mother and is the elder and wiser goddess; and the other, the daughter of Zeus and Dione, who is popular and common.