SYMPOSIUM.

The speeches have been said to follow each other in pairs: Phaedrus and Pausanias being the ethical speakers, Eryximachus and Aristophanes the physical, while in Agathon and Socrates, poetry and philosophy blend together. The speech of Phaedrus is also described as the mythological, Pausanias's as the political, Eryximachus's as the scientific, Aristophanes's as the artistic, and Socrates's as the philosophical. But these and similar distinctions are not found in Plato; they are the points of view of his critics and seem rather too general to assist us in understanding him.

When the turn of Socrates comes round, he cannot be allowed to disturb the initial arrangement. With the permission of Phaedrus, he asks a few questions and then throws his argument into the form of a speech (compare Gorgias 505 E, Protagoras 353 B). However, his speech is really the narrative of a dialogue between himself and Diotima. And because good manners at a banquet would not allow him to win a victory over his host or any of the guests, the superiority he gains over Agathon is ingeniously represented as having been already gained over himself by her. This artifice has the further advantage of maintaining his accustomed profession of ignorance (compare Menexenus 236 following). Even his knowledge of the mysteries of love, to which he lays claim here and elsewhere, is attributed to Diotima.

The speeches are attested to us by the very best authority. The "madman" Apollodorus, who for three years past has made a daily study of the actions of Socrates—to whom the world is summed up in the words "Great is Socrates"—has heard them from another "madman" who was the shadow of Socrates in days of old, walking about barefooted like him, and who was present at the time. Would you desire a better witness? The extraordinary narrative of Alcibiades is ingeniously represented as admitted by Socrates, whose silence when invited to contradict gives consent to the narrator. We may observe, by the way: (1) how the very appearance of Aristodemus by himself is sufficient indication to Agathon that Socrates has been left behind; (2) how the courtesy of Agathon anticipates the excuse Socrates was to have made on Aristodemus's behalf for coming uninvited; (3) how the story of the fit or trance of Socrates is confirmed by the mention Alcibiades makes of a similar fit of abstraction occurring while he was serving with the army at Potidaea; (4) and how the drinking powers of Socrates and his love for the fair sex receive similar attestation in the concluding scene.