Socrates.
not a god at all ?' 'And who are they?' I said. 'You and I are two of them,' she replied. 'How can that be?' I said. ' It is quite intelligible,' she replied ; 'for you yourself would acknowledge that the gods are happy and fair — of course you would— would you dare to say that any god was not ? ' 'Certainly not,' I replied, 'And you mean by the happy, those who are the possessors of things good or fair ? ' ' Yes.' 'And you admitted that Love, because he was in want, desires those good and fair things of which he is in want ? ' ' Yes, I did.' 'But how can he be a god who has no portion in what is either good or fair ? ' ' Impossible.' ' Then you see that you also deny the divinity of Love.' ' 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 (Saiiiwv), and like all spirits he is intermediate between the divine and the mortal.' 'And what,' I said, 'is his power?' 'He inter- prets/ she replied, 'betwefen 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 203 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. ISow 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 Sym- posium. Socrates. but, on the other hand, he is not a god who does not possess the good and the fair. He is a great spirit who mediates between gods and the son of Plenty and
Poverty ;
