Page:The Dialogues of Plato v. 1.djvu/566

 

 

of Pausanias and Eryxiiiiachus to be also true to the traditional Sym- fosiuni. recollection of them (cp. Phaedr. 268 A, Protag. 315 C, D ; and compare Sympos. 214 B with Phaedr. 227 A). We may also remark that Aristodemus is called 'the little' in Xenophon's Memorabilia, i. 4 (cp. Sym. 173 B). The speeches have been said to follow each other in pairs : Phaedrus and Pausanias being the ethical, Eryximachus and Aristophanes the physical speakers, while in Agathon and Socrates poetry and philosophy blend together. The speech of Phaedrus is also described as the mythological, that of Pau- sanias as the political, that of Eryximachus as the scientific, that of Aristophanes as the artistic (!), that of Socrates as the philo- sophical. But these and similar distinctions are not found in Plato;— they are the points of view of his critics, and seem to impede rather than to assist us in understanding him. When the turn of Socrates comes round he cannot be allowed to disturb the arrangement made at first. With the leave of Phaedrus he asks a few questions, and then he throws his argu- ment into the form of a speech (cp. Gorg. 505 E, Protag. 353 B). But his speech is really the narrative of a dialogue between himself and Diotima. And as at a banquet good manners would not allow him to win a victory either over his host or any of the guests, the superiority which he gains over Agathon is ingeni- ously represented as having been already gained over himself by her. The artifice has the further advantage of maintaining his accustomed profession of ignorance (cp. Menex. 236 fol.). Even his knowledge of the mysteries of love, to which he lays claim here and elsewhere (Lys. 204 C), is given by Diotima. The speeches are attested to us lay the very best authority. The madman Apollodorus, who for three years past has made a daily study of the actions of Socrates— to whom the world is summed up in the words ' Great is Socrates'— he has heard them from another 'madman,' Aristodemus, who was the 'shadow' of Socrates in days of old, like him going about barefooted, and who had been present at the time. ' Would you desire better witness ? ' The extraordinary narrative of Alcibiades is ingeni- ously represented as admitted by Socrates, whose silence when he is invited to contradict gives consent to the narrator. We may observe, by the way, (i) how the very appearance of Aristodemus I NTRODUC- TION.