symposium   

voluntary, and that there is to be no compulsion, I move, in the

next place, that the flute-girl, who has just made her appearance,

be told to go away and play to herself, or, if she likes, to the women

who are within. To-day let us have conversation instead; and, if you

will allow me, I will tell you what sort of conversation. This

proposal having been accepted, Eryximachus proceeded as follows:-

I will begin, he said, after the manner of Melanippe in Euripides,



Not mine the word



which I am about to speak, but that of Phaedrus. For often he says

to me in an indignant tone: "What a strange thing it is,

Eryximachus, that, whereas other gods have poems and hymns made in

their honour, the great and glorious god, Love, has no encomiast among

all the poets who are so many. There are the worthy sophists too-the

excellent Prodicus for example, who have descanted in prose on the

virtues of Heracles and other heroes; and, what is still more

extraordinary, I have met with a philosophical work in which the

utility of salt has been made the theme of an eloquent discourse;

and many other like things have had a like honour bestowed upon

them. And only to think that there should have been an eager

interest created about them, and yet that to this day no one has

ever dared worthily to hymn Love's praises! So entirely has this great

deity been neglected." Now in this Phaedrus seems to me to be quite

right, and therefore I want to offer him a contribution; also I

think that at the present moment we who are here assembled cannot do

better than honour the. god Love. If you agree with me, there will

be no lack of conversation; for I mean to propose that each of us in

turn, going from left to right, shall make a speech in honour of Love.

Let him give us the best which he can; and Phaedrus, because he is

sitting first on the left hand, and because he is the father of the

thought, shall begin.