Commentary on Plato's Symposium

Admetus, who wished to die for love of her husband; the second of the love of a man toward a woman, as was that of Orpheus toward Eurydice; the third, that love of man toward man, which was that of Patroclus toward Achilles, where he clearly shows that nothing gives greater strength to men than love. I do not have the intention of seeking the allegory of Alcestis or of Orpheus for now, because the force and power of love are shown more by showing its deeds as histories than by telling them allegorically. Let us confess, therefore, without other dispute, that love is a great and marvelous God: beyond that, noble and greatly useful. And let us caress it in such a way that we rest content with its end, which is beauty itself, and enjoy it with that part with which we know it. It is known with the mind, with hearing, and with sight. With these, therefore, we enjoy it; with the other senses, we do not seek the beauty that love desires, but a certain "I know not what" else, which our body has need of. We enjoy it with those three, therefore; we seek beauty, and through that which shines in voices and in bodies, as through certain tracks, we will find the beauty of the soul. This we will praise, this we will approve, and we will always strive to observe it in such a way that love is equal to beauty. And where there is a beautiful body and the soul is not, let us love it lightly, almost as a fleeting image and shadow of beauty. When the soul is beautiful, then let us ardently love this stable beauty. Where both meet, we marvel at it even more, and thus we can truly testify that we are of the noble family of Plato, which knows nothing else except that which is joyful, celestial, and divine. And this will be enough regarding the oration of Phaedrus; we shall come to Pausanias. Second Oration.

God is good, beautiful, and just, the beginning, the middle, and the end. Chap. I.

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The Pythagorean philosophers want the measure of all things to be ternary; I think for this reason, because God governs them with the number three, and the things themselves are completed in this number. Moved by this, Virgil said, "God rejoices in an odd number." And certainly the supreme God firstly creates all things, secondly draws them to Himself, and lastly makes them perfect. Primarily all things emerge from this eternal fountain while they are born; then they return to it while they seek their first origin; lastly, they are made perfect after they have returned to their principle. Orpheus guessed this by calling Jove the beginning, middle, and end of the universe: the beginning in that he creates; the middle, because he draws the created things to himself; the end for the perfection he gives to things returned to him. From this we can call the great King of all, as one often reads in Plato, good, beautiful, and just: good, I say, in creating; beautiful, in luring; just, in giving perfection according to the merits of each. Beauty, whose property is to lure, is placed between the good and the just: it emerges from goodness and runs to justice.

In what way divine beauty gives birth to love. Chap. II.