symposium   

"What then is Love?" I asked; "Is he mortal?" "No." "What then?" "As

in the former instance, he is neither mortal nor immortal, but in a

mean between the two." "What is he, Diotima?" "He is a great spirit

(daimon), and like all spirits he is intermediate between the divine

and the mortal." "And what," I said, "is his power?" "He

interprets," she replied, "between gods and men, conveying and

taking across to the gods the prayers and sacrifices of men, and to

men the commands and replies of the gods; he is the mediator who spans

the chasm which divides them, and therefore in him all is bound

together, and through him the arts of the prophet and the priest,

their sacrifices and mysteries and charms, and all, prophecy and

incantation, find their way. For God mingles not with man; but through

Love. all the intercourse, and converse of god with man, whether awake

or asleep, is carried on. The wisdom which understands this is

spiritual; all other wisdom, such as that of arts and handicrafts,

is mean and vulgar. Now these spirits or intermediate powers are

many and diverse, and one of them is Love. "And who," I said, "was his

father, and who his mother?" "The tale," she said, "will take time;

nevertheless I will tell you. On the birthday of Aphrodite there was a

feast of the gods, at which the god Poros or Plenty, who is the son of

Metis or Discretion, was one of the guests. When the feast was over,

Penia or Poverty, as the manner is on such occasions, came about the

doors to beg. Now Plenty who was the worse for nectar (there was no

wine in those days), went into the garden of Zeus and fell into a

heavy sleep, and Poverty considering her own straitened circumstances,

plotted to have a child by him, and accordingly she lay down at his

side and conceived love, who partly because he is naturally a lover of

the beautiful, and because Aphrodite is herself beautiful, and also

because he was born on her birthday, is her follower and attendant.

And as his parentage is, so also are his fortunes. In the first

place he is always poor, and anything but tender and fair, as the many

imagine him; and he is rough and squalid, and has no shoes, nor a