symposium   

Love every species of greatness and glory, whether really belonging to

him not, without regard to truth or falsehood-that was no matter;

for the original, proposal seems to have been not that each of you

should really praise Love, but only that you should appear to praise

him. And so you attribute to Love every imaginable form of praise

which can be gathered anywhere; and you say that "he is all this," and

"the cause of all that," making him appear the fairest and best of all

to those who know him not, for you cannot impose upon those who know

him. And a noble and solemn hymn of praise have you rehearsed. But

as I misunderstood the nature of the praise when I said that I would

take my turn, I must beg to be absolved from the promise which I

made in ignorance, and which (as Euripides would say) was a promise of

the lips and not of the mind. Farewell then to such a strain: for I do

not praise in that way; no, indeed, I cannot. But if you like to

here the truth about love, I am ready to speak in my own manner,

though I will not make myself ridiculous by entering into any

rivalry with you. Say then, Phaedrus, whether you would like, to

have the truth about love, spoken in any words and in any order

which may happen to come into my mind at the time. Will that be

agreeable to you?

Aristodemus said that Phaedrus and the company bid him speak in

any manner which he thought best. Then, he added, let me have your

permission first to ask Agathon a few more questions, in order that

I may take his admissions as the premisses of my discourse.

I grant the permission, said Phaedrus: put your questions.

Socrates then proceeded as follows:-

In the magnificent oration which you have just uttered, I think that

you were right, my dear Agathon, in proposing to speak of the nature

of Love first and afterwards of his works-that is a way of beginning

which I very much approve. And as you have spoken so eloquently of his

nature, may I ask you further, Whether love is the love of something

or of nothing? And here I must explain myself: I do not want you to