Socrates, Alcibiades, Agathon.He is the Satyr without and the God within.
to all men everywhere. 593 and he is always repeating the same things in the same Sym- words ', so that any ignorant or inexperienced person might f"""'"- 222 feel disposed to laugh at him ; but he who opens the bust Socrates, 1 • • 1 - '11 ^ 1 1 1 Alcibiades, and sees what is withm will find that they are the only words Agathon. which have a meaning in them, and also the most divine, He is the abounding in fair images of virtue, and of the widest com- Satyr with- prehension, or rather extending to the whole duty of a good Godwitiiin. and honourable man. This, friends, is my praise of Socrates. I ha^e added my blame of him for his ill-treatment of me; and he has ill- treated not only me, but Charmides the son of Glaucon, and Euthydemus the son of Diodes, and many others in the same way — beginning as their lover he has ended by making them pay their addresses to him. Wherefore I say to you, Agathon, ' Be not deceived by him ; learn from me and take warning, and do not be a fool and learn by experience, as the proverb says.' When Alcibiades had finished, there was a laugh at his outspokenness ; for he seemed to be still in love with Socrates. You are sober, Alcibiades, said Socrates, or you The pur- would never have gone so far about to hide the purpose of ??'^',?'^, , your satyr's praises, for all this long story is only an in- speech, ac- genious circumlocution, of which the point comes in by the fording to oOCFcltGS, way at the end ; you want to get up a quarrel between me was only to and Agathon, and your notion is that I ought to love you and set up a , , , , , , , T , quarrel be- nobody else, and that you and you only ought to love tween him Agathon. But the plot of this Satyric or Silenic drama has *nd Aga- been detected, and you must not allow him, Agathon, to set us at variance. I believe you are' right, said Agathon, and I am disposed Agathon to think that his intention in placing himself between you and '^'^anges his •^ o ^ J place that me was only to divide us ; but he shall gain nothing by that he may be move ; for I will go and lie on the couch next to you. nearer So- Yes, yes, replied Socrates, by all means come here and lie not so near on the couch below me. Alcibiades. Alas, said Alcibiades, how I am fooled by this man ; he is determined to get the better of me at every turn. I do beseech you, allow Agathon to lie between us. Certainly not, said Socrates ; as you praised me, and I in ' Cp. Gorg. 490, 491, 517. VOL. I. Q q
