phaedrus   

lover, and the initiation of which I speak into the mysteries of

true love, if he be captured by the lover and their purpose is

effected. Now the beloved is taken captive in the following manner:-

As I said at the beginning of this tale, I divided each soul into

three-two horses and a charioteer; and one of the horses was good

and the other bad: the division may remain, but I have not yet

explained in what the goodness or badness of either consists, and to

that I will proceed. The right-hand horse is upright and cleanly made;

he has a lofty neck and an aquiline nose; his colour is white, and his

eyes dark; he is a lover of honour and modesty and temperance, and the

follower of true glory; he needs no touch of the whip, but is guided

by word and admonition only. The other is a crooked lumbering

animal, put together anyhow; he has a short thick neck; he is

flat-faced and of a dark colour, with grey eyes and blood-red

complexion; the mate of insolence and pride, shag-eared and deaf,

hardly yielding to whip and spur. Now when the charioteer beholds

the vision of love, and has his whole soul warmed through sense, and

is full of the prickings and ticklings of desire, the obedient

steed, then as always under the government of shame, refrains from

leaping on the beloved; but the other, heedless of the pricks and of

the blows of the whip, plunges and runs away, giving all manner of

trouble to his companion and the charioteer, whom he forces to

approach the beloved and to remember the joys of love. They at first

indignantly oppose him and will not be urged on to do terrible and

unlawful deeds; but at last, when he persists in plaguing them, they

yield and agree to do as he bids them.

And now they are at the spot and behold the flashing beauty of the

beloved; which when the charioteer sees, his memory is carried to

the true beauty, whom he beholds in company with Modesty like an image

placed upon a holy pedestal. He sees her, but he is afraid and falls

backwards in adoration, and by his fall is compelled to pull back

the reins with such violence as to bring both the steeds on their