Commentary on Plato's Symposium

divine beauty, men marvel at and love the beauty of bodies. This praise of love arises from the present excellence by which it is accompanied. Phaedrus praises it for past things when he asserts that love is the most ancient among the gods, in which its nobility shines forth, narrating its ancient origin. He praises it similarly in the third place for what follows, when its marvelous utility appears in the end. But first, we shall treat of its ancient and noble origin, then of the utility that follows from it. Orpheus, in the Argonautica original: "Argonautica", singing in the presence of Chiron and other worthy men of the beginning of things, and Mercury Trismegistus, following the theologians before the world, posited chaos, which means a world without form. Before Saturn, he posited Jupiter and the other gods, placing love in the bosom of the said chaos, praising it with these words:

A large ornamental drop cap 'H' at the beginning of the chapter.

Hesiod in the Theogony original: "origine de gli dei", and in the book on nature, Parmenides the Pythagorean, the poet Acusilaus with Orpheus, and Mercury affirmed that love is most ancient and perfect in itself. Above all other prudent men, Plato in his Timaeus original: "Timeo" describes chaos, where he places love. Phaedrus recounts the same in the Symposium original: "conuito". The Platonists call chaos the world without form, and the world without form, and the world a formed chaos. There are three worlds according to them; there will be three chaos-states similarly. The first of all is God, the author of the universe, which we say is the Good itself. This primarily creates the angelic mind; beyond this, the soul of