symposium   

best and brightest: in whose footsteps let every man follow, sweetly

singing in his honour and joining in that sweet strain with which love

charms the souls of gods and men. Such is the speech, Phaedrus,

half-playful, yet having a certain measure of seriousness, which,

according to my ability, I dedicate to the god.

When Agathon had done speaking, Aristodemus said that there was a

general cheer; the young man was thought to have spoken in a manner

worthy of himself, and of the god. And Socrates, looking at

Eryximachus, said: Tell me, son of Acumenus, was there not reason in

my fears? and was I not a true prophet when I said that Agathon

would make a wonderful oration, and that I should be in a strait?

The part of the prophecy which concerns Agathon, replied

Eryximachus, appears to me to be true; but, not the other part-that

you will be in a strait.

Why, my dear friend, said Socrates, must not I or any one be in a

strait who has to speak after he has heard such a rich and varied

discourse? I am especially struck with the beauty of the concluding

words-who could listen to them without amazement? When I reflected

on the immeasurable inferiority of my own powers, I was ready to run

away for shame, if there had been a possibility of escape. For I was

reminded of Gorgias, and at the end of his speech I fancied that

Agathon was shaking at me the Gorginian or Gorgonian head of the great

master of rhetoric, which was simply to turn me and my speech, into

stone, as Homer says, and strike me dumb. And then I perceived how

foolish I had been in consenting to take my turn with you in

praising love, and saying that I too was a master of the art, when I

really had no conception how anything ought to be praised. For in my

simplicity I imagined that the topics of praise should be true, and

that this being presupposed, out of the true the speaker was to choose

the best and set them forth in the best manner. And I felt quite

proud, thinking that I knew the nature of true praise, and should

speak well. Whereas I now see that the intention was to attribute to