INTRODUCTION.

Socrates, like Agathon, had told her that love is a mighty god and also fair, and she had shown him in return that love was neither, but existed in a mean between fair and foul, good and evil. He is not a god at all, but only a great dæmon dæmon: in this context, an intermediate spirit or messenger between gods and men—an intermediate power (compare the speech of Eryximachus, 186 D) who conveys to the gods the prayers of men, and to men the commands of the gods.

Socrates asks: Who are his father and mother? To this Diotima replies that he is the son of Plenty and Poverty, and partakes of the nature of both, being full and starved by turns. Like his mother he is poor and squalid, lying on mats at doors (compare the speech of Pausanias, 183 A); like his father he is full of arts and resources, and is in a mean between ignorance and knowledge. In this he resembles the philosopher, who is also in a mean between the wise and the ignorant. Such is the nature of love, who is not to be confused with the beloved.

But love desires the beautiful; and then arises the question, What does he desire of the beautiful? He desires, of course, the possession of the beautiful—but what is given by that? If we substitute the "good" for the "beautiful," we have no difficulty in seeing that the possession of the good is happiness, and that love is the desire of happiness, although the meaning of the word has been too often confined to one kind of love. Love desires not only the good, but the everlasting possession of the good. Why then is there all this flutter and excitement about love? Because all men and women at a certain age are desirous of bringing to birth. Love is not of beauty only, but of birth in beauty; this is the principle of immortality in a mortal creature. When beauty approaches, the conceiving power is benign and diffuse; when foulness approaches, she is averted and morose.

Why does this extend not only to men but also to animals? Because they too have an instinct of immortality. Even in the same individual there is a perpetual succession of the parts of the material body as well as the thoughts and desires of the mind; even knowledge comes and goes. There is no sameness of existence, but the new mortality is always taking the place of the old. This is the reason why parents love their children—for the sake of immortality; this is also why men love the immortality of fame. The creative soul creates not children, but conceptions of wisdom and virtue, such as poets and other creators have invented. The noblest creations of all are those of legislators, in honor of whom temples have been raised.