IX. The third Interlude: 193 D-194 E.

Some conversation ensues between Aristophanes, Eryximachus, Socrates, and Agathon. Upon Socrates attempting to entangle Agathon in an argument, Phaedrus intervenes and bids Agathon proceed without further delay to offer his meed of praise to the god.

X. The Discourse of Agathon: 194 E-197 E.

Prologue: The method of previous speakers needs amendment. The correct method, which I shall adopt, is to laud first the character of Eros, and secondly his gifts to men.

(A) The attributes of Eros are (1) supreme felicity, (due to) (2) supreme beauty and (3) goodness.

(2) Eros is most beautiful, since he is (a) the youngest of gods (all tales to the contrary being false), witness his aversion to old-age ; (b) most tender, witness his choosing soft souls for his abode; (c) supple, witness his power to steal unnoticed in and out of souls; (d) symmetrical, because comely as all allow; (e) fair-of-skin, for he feeds on flowers amid sweet scents.

(3) Eros is supremely good, since he is (a) most just, having no lot in violence or injustice; (b) most temperate, for he is the master of pleasure since no pleasure is greater than love; (c) most courageous, as holding sway over Ares, the most courageous of the gods; (d) most wise, being expert (a) in both musical and creative poesy, and (B) in the practical arts, as instructor of Zeus, Apollo and Athene in their respective crafts (he, too, inspired the gods with love of beauty and dethroned Necessity).

(B) The blessings conferred by Eros are, like his attributes, beauty and goodness. He produces peace and pleasantness in all spheres of life: he is the object of universal admiration, the author of all delights, best guide and captain for gods and men alike, whose praises it behoves all to chant in unison.

Epilogue: Such is my tribute of eulogy, not wholly serious nor wholly playful.

XI. The fourth Interlude: 198 a—199 c.

Agathon "brought down the house" with his peroration; and Socrates remarked to Eryximachus that its eloquence left him in despair -petrified by the Gorgon of Agathon's brilliant Gorgianisms. "Now,"

he said, "I must retract my rash tongue-pledge to join in a eulogy of Eros, since I perceive that I was quite astray in my ideas about the encomiastic art: for I supposed that truth came first, ornamental compliment second, whereas the contrary is evidently the fact. Such an encomium is quite beyond my poor powers; but if you care for an unvarnished speech about Eros, that I am ready to make." Phaedrus and the rest bidding him proceed in his own fashion, Socrates began by the following conversation with Agathon.

XII. Socrates' preliminary Discussion with Agathon :
199 c-201 D.

(1) "Your exordium on Method was admirable, Agathon. But tell me further, is Eros a relative notion, like 'father' or 'brother'?" "Certainly it is."

(2) "Next, you agree that if Eros desires its object it must lack it; and if a man wishes for some good he already possesses, what he really desires is what he lacks, viz. the future possession of that good." "True."

(3) "Again, if Eros is (as you said) love for beauty, Eros must lack beauty, and therefore goodness too, and be neither beautiful nor good." "I cannot gainsay you."

XIII. The Discourse of Socrates (Diotima): 201 D-212 c.

Prologue: I will now repeat the discourse on Eros which I once heard from my instructress in Erotics, Diotima the prophetess—assuming the conclusions formulated just now, and treating first of the character and secondly of the effects of Eros, according to Agathon's own method.

A. [The nature of Eros, 201 E-204 c.]

(1) Diotima showed me that Eros, although (as we have seen) neither beautiful nor good, is not therefore ugly and bad but rather a mean between these contraries.

(2) She argued also that Eros is not a god, since godhead involves the possession of just those goods which Eros desires and lacks. But neither is he a mortal, but stands midway between the two, being a great daemon; and the function of the daemonian is to mediate between gods and men.

(3) As to origin, Eros is son of Poros and Penia, and partakes of the nature of both parents-the fertile vigour of the one, the wastrel neediness of the other. As he is a mean between the mortal and the immortal, so he is a mean between the wise and the unwise, i.e. a wisdom-lover (philosopher). The notion that Eros is a beautiful god is due to a confusion between subjective Eros and the object loved.

B. [The effects, or utility, of Eros, 204 D-212 A.]

(1) [The object or end of Eros.]

What does Eros as "love of the beautiful" precisely imply? In the case of the good, its acquisition is a means to happiness as end. But Eros is not used in this generic sense of "desire for happiness," so much as in a narrower specific sense. And if we say that Eros is "the desire for the good," we must expand this definition into "the desire for the everlasting possession of the good."

(2) [The method or mode of action of Eros.]

Eros works by means of generation, both physical and psychical, in the beautiful.

(a) Generation, being an immortal thing, requires harmony with the divine, i.e. beauty; without which the process is hindered. And generation is sought because it is, for mortals, the nearest approach to immortality. It is in the desire for immortality that we must find the explanation of all the sexual passion and love of offspring which we see in the animal world, since it is only by the way of leaving a successor to take its place that the mortal creature, in this world of flux, can secure a kind of perpetuity.

(b) But the soul has its offspring as well as the body. Laws, inventions and noble deeds, which spring from love of fame, have for their motive the same passion for immortality. The lover seeks a beautiful soul in order to generate therein offspring which shall live for ever; and the bonds of such soul-marriages are stronger than any carnal ties.

(c) After this elementary prelude, we reach the highest stage of the Mysteries of Love. The right method in Erotic procedure is to pass in upward course from love of bodily beauty to love of soul beauty, thence to the beauty of the sciences, until finally one science is reached which corresponds to the Absolute, Ideal Beauty, in which all finite things of beauty partake. To gain the vision of this is the goal of Love's endeavour, and to live in its presence were life indeed. There, if anywhere, with truth for the issue of his soul, might the lover hope to attain to immortality.

Epilogue: Believing that for the gaining of this boon Eros is man's best helper, I myself praise Eros and practise Erotics above all things and I urge others to do likewise. Such is my "encomium," Phaedrus, if you choose to call it so.

XIV. The fifth Interlude: 212 c-215 a.

Applause followed. Then suddenly, when Aristophanes was on the point of making an observation, a loud knocking was heard at the door. Presently Alcibiades, leaning on a flute-girl, appeared. “I am come to crown Agathon," he cried, "if you will admit a drunken reveller." Being heartily welcomed, he took the seat next Agathon, where Socrates had made room for him. And as soon as he perceived Socrates, he began playfully to abuse him. Then, taking some of the ribbands with which he had bedecked Agathon, he crowned "the marvellous head of Socrates, the invincible in words."

Next Alcibiades insisted on all the company drinking along with him. And, when Eryximachus protested against bare drinking without song or speech and explained to him what the previous order of procedure had been, Alcibiades replied, "In the presence of Socrates I dare not eulogize anyone else, so that if I am to deliver an encomium like the rest, Socrates must be my theme."

XV. Alcibiades' eulogy of Socrates: 215 A-222 c.

Prologue: My eulogy will take the form of parables-aiming not at mockery but at truth. Socrates resembles (a) Silenus-statuettes which serve as caskets for sacred images; (b) the Satyr Marsyas.

I. In form he resembles both (a) the Sileni, and (b) the Satyr.

II. (In character) he resembles (b) the Satyr, being (1) a mocker, (2) a flute-player. As to (2) he excels Marsyas, since his words alone, without an instrument, fascinate all, old and young. Me he charms far more than even Pericles could, filling me with shame and selfcontempt, and driving me to my wit's end.

III. He resembles (a) the Sileni in the contrast between his exterior and interior. (a) Externally he adopts an erotic attitude towards beautiful youths: (B) but internally he despises beauty and wealth, as I know from experience. For I tried to bribe him with my beauty, but all my many attempts came to nothing. Private conversations, gymnastics together, a supper-party à deux, even a night on the same couch-all was of no use. Against my battery of charms he was

armed (by his temperance) in "complete steel"; and I charge him now before you with the crime of ßpis. His hardihood was shown in the Potidaea campaign, where none could stand the cold like him. His valour was displayed in the battle where he saved my life, and in the retreat from Delium. Especially amazing is his unique originality, which makes it impossible to find anyone else like him-except Satyrs and Sileni.

IV. His speeches too, I forgot to say, are like the Silenus-statuettes, in outward seeming ridiculous, but in inner content supremely rational and full of images of virtue and wisdom.

Epilogue: Such is my eulogy, half praise, half blame. Let my experience, and that of many another, be a warning to you, Agathon : court Socrates less as an "erastes" than as an "anterastes"!

XVI. Concluding Scene: 222 c—end.

The company laughed at the erotic candour of Alcibiades. Then ensued some banter between Socrates and Alcibiades as rival "erastae" of Agathon, which was interrupted by the entrance of a band of revellers who filled the room with uproar. Some of the guests left, and Aristodemus himself fell asleep. On awaking, about dawn, he found only three of the party still present and awake-Agathon, Aristophanes, and Socrates: Socrates was trying to convince the others that the scientific tragedy-writer must be capable also of writing comedy. Presently Aristophanes, and then Agathon, dozed off; whereupon Socrates, still "shadowed" by Aristodemus, departed.

§ ii. THE FRAMEWORK OF THE Dialogue.

(A) The Method of Narration and the Preface.

The Platonic dialogues, viewed from the point of view of literary form, may be divided into two chief classes. To the first class belong those in which the story of the discussion is told directly by one of the protagonists; to the second class belong those in which the story is told indirectly or at second-hand,—a mode of narration which involves the further characteristic that dialogues of this class are necessarily prefaced (and concluded) by some explanatory paragraphs. This second class, moreover, falls into two subdivisions, according as the narrator is or is not represented as being himself present at the