Page:The Dialogues of Plato v. 1.djvu/559

 

 

who come from the woman form female attachments; those who 192 are a section of the male follow the male and embrace him, and in him all desires centre. The pair are inseparable and live together in pure and manly affection ; yet they cannot tell what they want of one another. But if Hephaestus were to come to them with his instruments and propose that they should be melted into one and remain one here and hereafter, they would acknowledge that this was the very expression of their want. For love is the desire of the whole, and the pursuit of the whole is called love. There was a time when the two sexes were 193 only one, but now God has halved them, — much as the Lacedae- monians have cut up the Arcadians, — and if they do not behave themselves he will divide them again, and they will hop about with half a nose and face in basso relievo. Wherefore let us exhort all men to piety, that we may obtain the goods of which love is the author, and be reconciled to God, and find our own true loves, which rarely happens in this world. And now I must beg you not to suppose that I am alluding to Pausanias and Agathon (cp. Protag. 315 E), for my words refer to all mankind everywhere. Some raillery ensues first between Aristophanes and Eryxi- machus, and then between Agathon, who fears a few select 194 friends more than any number of spectators at the theatre, and Socrates, who is disposed to begin an argument. This is speedily repressed by Phaedrus, who reminds the disputants of their tribute to the god. Agathon's speech follows : — He will speak of the god first and then of his gifts : He is 195 the fairest and blessedest and best of the gods, and also the youngest, having had no existence in the old days of lapetus and Cronos when the gods were at war. The things that were done then were done of necessity and not of love. For love is young and dwells in soft places, — not like Ate in Homer, walking on the skulls of men, but in their hearts and souls, which are soft enough. He is all flexibility and grace, and his habitation is 196 among the flowers, and he cannot do or suffer wrong; for all men serve and obey him of their own free will, and where there is love there is obedience, and where obedience, there is justice; for none can be wronged of his own free will. And he is tem- perate as well as just, for he is the ruler of the desires, and if he