Plato: Symposium

Apollodorus tells a companion that, coming from Phalerum, Glaucon hailed him and asked about the speeches in praise of love delivered at Agathon's supper by Socrates, Alcibiades, and others, mentioning Phoenix son of Philip as source. Apollodorus explains the occasion was not recent, since Agathon has long been absent from Athens; it occurred when Agathon won the prize with his first tragedy. Aristodemus of Cydathenaeum related it, and Socrates confirmed parts. A companion calls Apollodorus "the madman." Apollodorus recounts Aristodemus's tale: Socrates, freshly bathed and sandalled, invited Aristodemus unbidden, citing a proverb and Homer. Socrates lingered behind; Aristodemus arrived alone and was welcomed by Agathon. Socrates stood in a neighbour's portico, then entered mid-feast; Agathon seated him beside himself, joking about receiving wisdom by touch, with Dionysus as judge. After libations and a hymn, Pausanias raised the question of drinking; Aristophanes, Eryximachus, Agathon, and Phaedrus agreed to drink voluntarily. Eryximachus dismissed the flute-girl and proposed each speak in praise of Love, from left to right, beginning with Phaedrus. Socrates assented. Phaedrus affirmed Love is the eldest god, citing Hesiod, Parmenides, and Acusilaus, and the source of virtue; he praised Alcestis, who died for her husband and was returned, contrasted Orpheus, sent away empty, and Achilles, who avenged Patroclus and was sent to the Islands of the Blest. Pausanias then argued there are two Loves corresponding to two Aphrodites—heavenly, daughter of Uranus, and common, daughter of Zeus and Dione—distinguishing common love of the body from heavenly love of youths, and addressing law concerning the love of boys.

Pausanias observes that love-customs in Elis, Boeotia, and eloquence-poor countries are straightforward and approving, while in Ionia and barbarian-ruled lands such loves are dishonourable because tyrants fear the friendship love inspires, citing Aristogeiton and Harmodius. He explains Athens' perplexing principle: open loves are honourable, lovers are encouraged and permitted strange acts, and lovers' oaths are forgiven, yet parents and tutors forbid such attachments. He concludes that these practices are honourable when followed honourably and dishonourable otherwise; the vulgar lover loves the body, the noble lover the soul lifelong. He describes the meeting of two customs—love of youth and pursuit of virtue—as the only honourable yielding, connected to the heavenly goddess versus the common goddess, offering this to Phaedrus. Aristodemus reports Aristophanes has hiccoughs and exchanges turns with Eryximachus the physician, who prescribes remedies. Eryximachus speaks, extending Pausanias's two loves to medicine, describing the physician reconciling opposites, crediting his ancestor Asclepius, citing Heracleitus on harmony, and applying double love to music, rhythm, seasons, astronomy, and divination. He invites Aristophanes, now cured, to continue. Aristophanes, after exchanging banter with Eryximachus, praises Love by describing original human nature: three sexes—man, woman, androgynous—round beings with four hands and feet. They attacked the gods, so Zeus cut them in two, bidding Apollo heal them. The halves seek reunion; Zeus repositioned generation. He classifies resulting attractions, and describes halves meeting their other half, lost in love yet unable to explain their desire.

Aristophanes continues: the yearning between lovers is for something the soul cannot name; he imagines Hephaestus offering to melt the pair into one, which each would accept, since human nature was originally whole and love is the desire of the whole. He says God dispersed humans as the Lacedaemonians dispersed the Arcadians, warns of being split again like tallies, urges piety toward Love, and asks Eryximachus not to mock or apply his words to Pausanias and Agathon. Eryximachus declines to attack, calling the speech charming. Socrates and Agathon banter about speaking before judges; Phaedrus interrupts, urging Agathon to give his encomium. Agathon proceeds: he will praise the god first, calling Love fairest and best, youngest, fleeing age; he disputes Phaedrus that Love is older than Iapetus and Kronos, and cites Hesiod and Parmenides. He describes Love as tender, flexible, graceful, dwelling among flowers, and just, temperate, courageous, and wise—a poet and source of the arts of Apollo, the Muses, Hephaestus, Athene, and Zeus. He ends with verses and dedicates the speech to Phaedrus. A cheer follows. Socrates tells Eryximachus his prophecy proved true, praises Agathon's speech, recalls Gorgias, and says he misunderstood praise, begging release to speak the truth. Given permission, he questions Agathon: Love is of something wanting, desires what it lacks, wants beauty and good; Agathon concedes. Socrates then repeats a tale from Diotima of Mantineia, who delayed the plague ten years, who showed Love is neither fair nor good but a mean, and neither a god nor mortal.

Socrates continues recounting his exchange with Diotima. She gets him to admit the happy possess good and fair things, and that Love, being in want of such things, cannot be a god; Socrates asks whether Love is mortal, and Diotima answers that he is neither mortal nor immortal but in a mean, a great spirit (daimon) intermediate between the divine and the mortal. She describes his power of interpreting between gods and men, conveying prayers and commands. Asked about Love's parentage, Diotima recounts that at Aphrodite's birthday feast, Poros (Plenty), son of Metis, fell asleep in Zeus's garden, and Penia (Poverty) conceived Love by him; thus Love is poor, homeless, and also a plotter and philosopher, in a mean between ignorance and knowledge. She explains that neither the wise nor the ignorant seek wisdom, but those in between, and that Socrates confused love with the beloved. She leads Socrates to agree that love desires the everlasting possession of the good, and that its aim is birth in beauty, of body or soul. She explains generation as the mortal's share in immortality, citing the changing body, soul, and knowledge, and recollection. She invokes the love of fame, naming Alcestis dying for Admetus, Achilles avenging Patroclus, and Codrus. She distinguishes those pregnant in body, who beget children, from those pregnant in soul, who beget wisdom and virtue, naming Homer, Hesiod, Lycurgus, and Solon as parents of such offspring.

Diotima's words, relayed by Socrates, distinguish the lesser mysteries of love from the greater; she describes ascending from love of one beautiful form to all forms, to beauty of mind, to institutions and laws, to sciences, and finally to a single science of beauty absolute—everlasting, unchanging—by which one brings forth true virtue and becomes a friend of God. Socrates tells Phaedrus these were Diotima's words and declares he honours love. The company applauds; Aristophanes begins to respond when knocking and a flute-girl are heard. Agathon orders the attendants to see who comes. Alcibiades, drunk and crowned with ivy and violets, arrives seeking Agathon, intending to crown him. Invited in, he sits between Agathon and Socrates, embracing and crowning Agathon before noticing Socrates. Socrates asks Agathon to protect him from Alcibiades' jealousy. Alcibiades crowns Socrates too, elects himself master of the feast, drinks from a wine-cooler and has it filled for Socrates, who drinks. Eryximachus explains the resolution to praise love; Alcibiades chooses instead to praise Socrates. He likens Socrates to Silenus busts and to Marsyas the satyr, describing how Socrates' words stir his soul, bring tears and shame, and make him confess he neglects his soul. He reveals the divine images within Socrates. He recounts his attempts to seduce Socrates—being alone, wrestling, inviting him to supper, and finally, at night, offering himself; Socrates replies ironically, comparing the exchange to Diomede's gold for brass, and Alcibiades slept beside him as with a father. Finally he describes Socrates' endurance of fatigue and hunger on the Potidaea expedition.

Alcibiades relates that Socrates alone had real powers of enjoyment at a festival, yet no one ever saw him drunk. He describes Socrates' endurance of cold, marching barefoot on ice past other soldiers. He recounts Socrates standing in thought a full day and night during the expedition, then praying to the sun. He tells how Socrates saved his life at Potidaea and urged the generals to give Alcibiades the prize. He describes Socrates and Laches retreating after Delium. He compares Socrates to Silenus and satyrs, praising his words, then blames Socrates for ill-treating him and others, warning Agathon. Socrates accuses Alcibiades of scheming to divide him and Agathon. Agathon, Socrates, and Alcibiades dispute seating. Revellers enter; confusion ensues. Aristodemus later sees Socrates compelling Aristophanes and Agathon to agree comedy and tragedy share one art. Socrates departs to the Lyceum, then home.