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Symposium

P >> Plato, translated by B. Jowett. >> Symposium




When the lamp was put out and the servants had gone away, I thought that I
must be plain with him and have no more ambiguity. So I gave him a shake,
and I said: 'Socrates, are you asleep?' 'No,' he said. 'Do you know what
I am meditating? 'What are you meditating?' he said. 'I think,' I
replied, 'that of all the lovers whom I have ever had you are the only one
who is worthy of me, and you appear to be too modest to speak. Now I feel
that I should be a fool to refuse you this or any other favour, and
therefore I come to lay at your feet all that I have and all that my
friends have, in the hope that you will assist me in the way of virtue,
which I desire above all things, and in which I believe that you can help
me better than any one else. And I should certainly have more reason to be
ashamed of what wise men would say if I were to refuse a favour to such as
you, than of what the world, who are mostly fools, would say of me if I
granted it.' To these words he replied in the ironical manner which is so
characteristic of him:--'Alcibiades, my friend, you have indeed an elevated
aim if what you say is true, and if there really is in me any power by
which you may become better; truly you must see in me some rare beauty of a
kind infinitely higher than any which I see in you. And therefore, if you
mean to share with me and to exchange beauty for beauty, you will have
greatly the advantage of me; you will gain true beauty in return for
appearance--like Diomede, gold in exchange for brass. But look again,
sweet friend, and see whether you are not deceived in me. The mind begins
to grow critical when the bodily eye fails, and it will be a long time
before you get old.' Hearing this, I said: 'I have told you my purpose,
which is quite serious, and do you consider what you think best for you and
me.' 'That is good,' he said; 'at some other time then we will consider
and act as seems best about this and about other matters.' Whereupon, I
fancied that he was smitten, and that the words which I had uttered like
arrows had wounded him, and so without waiting to hear more I got up, and
throwing my coat about him crept under his threadbare cloak, as the time of
year was winter, and there I lay during the whole night having this
wonderful monster in my arms. This again, Socrates, will not be denied by
you. And yet, notwithstanding all, he was so superior to my solicitations,
so contemptuous and derisive and disdainful of my beauty--which really, as
I fancied, had some attractions--hear, O judges; for judges you shall be of
the haughty virtue of Socrates--nothing more happened, but in the morning
when I awoke (let all the gods and goddesses be my witnesses) I arose as
from the couch of a father or an elder brother.

What do you suppose must have been my feelings, after this rejection, at
the thought of my own dishonour? And yet I could not help wondering at his
natural temperance and self-restraint and manliness. I never imagined that
I could have met with a man such as he is in wisdom and endurance. And
therefore I could not be angry with him or renounce his company, any more
than I could hope to win him. For I well knew that if Ajax could not be
wounded by steel, much less he by money; and my only chance of captivating
him by my personal attractions had failed. So I was at my wit's end; no
one was ever more hopelessly enslaved by another. All this happened before
he and I went on the expedition to Potidaea; there we messed together, and
I had the opportunity of observing his extraordinary power of sustaining
fatigue. His endurance was simply marvellous when, being cut off from our
supplies, we were compelled to go without food--on such occasions, which
often happen in time of war, he was superior not only to me but to
everybody; there was no one to be compared to him. Yet at a festival he
was the only person who had any real powers of enjoyment; though not
willing to drink, he could if compelled beat us all at that,--wonderful to
relate! no human being had ever seen Socrates drunk; and his powers, if I
am not mistaken, will be tested before long. His fortitude in enduring
cold was also surprising. There was a severe frost, for the winter in that
region is really tremendous, and everybody else either remained indoors, or
if they went out had on an amazing quantity of clothes, and were well shod,
and had their feet swathed in felt and fleeces: in the midst of this,
Socrates with his bare feet on the ice and in his ordinary dress marched
better than the other soldiers who had shoes, and they looked daggers at
him because he seemed to despise them.

I have told you one tale, and now I must tell you another, which is worth
hearing,

'Of the doings and sufferings of the enduring man'

while he was on the expedition. One morning he was thinking about
something which he could not resolve; he would not give it up, but
continued thinking from early dawn until noon--there he stood fixed in
thought; and at noon attention was drawn to him, and the rumour ran through
the wondering crowd that Socrates had been standing and thinking about
something ever since the break of day. At last, in the evening after
supper, some Ionians out of curiosity (I should explain that this was not
in winter but in summer), brought out their mats and slept in the open air
that they might watch him and see whether he would stand all night. There
he stood until the following morning; and with the return of light he
offered up a prayer to the sun, and went his way (compare supra). I will
also tell, if you please--and indeed I am bound to tell--of his courage in
battle; for who but he saved my life? Now this was the engagement in which
I received the prize of valour: for I was wounded and he would not leave
me, but he rescued me and my arms; and he ought to have received the prize
of valour which the generals wanted to confer on me partly on account of my
rank, and I told them so, (this, again, Socrates will not impeach or deny),
but he was more eager than the generals that I and not he should have the
prize. There was another occasion on which his behaviour was very
remarkable--in the flight of the army after the battle of Delium, where he
served among the heavy-armed,--I had a better opportunity of seeing him
than at Potidaea, for I was myself on horseback, and therefore
comparatively out of danger. He and Laches were retreating, for the troops
were in flight, and I met them and told them not to be discouraged, and
promised to remain with them; and there you might see him, Aristophanes, as
you describe (Aristoph. Clouds), just as he is in the streets of Athens,
stalking like a pelican, and rolling his eyes, calmly contemplating enemies
as well as friends, and making very intelligible to anybody, even from a
distance, that whoever attacked him would be likely to meet with a stout
resistance; and in this way he and his companion escaped--for this is the
sort of man who is never touched in war; those only are pursued who are
running away headlong. I particularly observed how superior he was to
Laches in presence of mind. Many are the marvels which I might narrate in
praise of Socrates; most of his ways might perhaps be paralleled in another
man, but his absolute unlikeness to any human being that is or ever has
been is perfectly astonishing. You may imagine Brasidas and others to have
been like Achilles; or you may imagine Nestor and Antenor to have been like
Pericles; and the same may be said of other famous men, but of this strange
being you will never be able to find any likeness, however remote, either
among men who now are or who ever have been--other than that which I have
already suggested of Silenus and the satyrs; and they represent in a figure
not only himself, but his words. For, although I forgot to mention this to
you before, his words are like the images of Silenus which open; they are
ridiculous when you first hear them; he clothes himself in language that is
like the skin of the wanton satyr--for his talk is of pack-asses and smiths
and cobblers and curriers, and he is always repeating the same things in
the same words (compare Gorg.), so that any ignorant or inexperienced
person might feel disposed to laugh at him; but he who opens the bust and
sees what is within will find that they are the only words which have a
meaning in them, and also the most divine, abounding in fair images of
virtue, and of the widest comprehension, or rather extending to the whole
duty of a good and honourable man.

This, friends, is my praise of Socrates. I have 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 Diocles, 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 would never have gone so far about to hide the
purpose of your satyr's praises, for all this long story is only an
ingenious circumlocution, of which the point comes in by the way at the
end; you want to get up a quarrel between me and Agathon, and your notion
is that I ought to love you and nobody else, and that you and you only
ought to love Agathon. But the plot of this Satyric or Silenic drama has
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 to think that his
intention in placing himself between you and me was only to divide us; but
he shall gain nothing by that move; for I will go and lie on the couch next
to you.

Yes, yes, replied Socrates, by all means come here and lie on the couch
below me.

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 turn ought to
praise my neighbour on the right, he will be out of order in praising me
again when he ought rather to be praised by me, and I must entreat you to
consent to this, and not be jealous, for I have a great desire to praise
the youth.

Hurrah! cried Agathon, I will rise instantly, that I may be praised by
Socrates.

The usual way, said Alcibiades; where Socrates is, no one else has any
chance with the fair; and now how readily has he invented a specious reason
for attracting Agathon to himself.

Agathon arose in order that he might take his place on the couch by
Socrates, when suddenly a band of revellers entered, and spoiled the order
of the banquet. Some one who was going out having left the door open, they
had found their way in, and made themselves at home; great confusion
ensued, and every one was compelled to drink large quantities of wine.
Aristodemus said that Eryximachus, Phaedrus, and others went away--he
himself fell asleep, and as the nights were long took a good rest: he was
awakened towards daybreak by a crowing of cocks, and when he awoke, the
others were either asleep, or had gone away; there remained only Socrates,
Aristophanes, and Agathon, who were drinking out of a large goblet which
they passed round, and Socrates was discoursing to them. Aristodemus was
only half awake, and he did not hear the beginning of the discourse; the
chief thing which he remembered was Socrates compelling the other two to
acknowledge that the genius of comedy was the same with that of tragedy,
and that the true artist in tragedy was an artist in comedy also. To this
they were constrained to assent, being drowsy, and not quite following the
argument. And first of all Aristophanes dropped off, then, when the day
was already dawning, Agathon. Socrates, having laid them to sleep, rose to
depart; Aristodemus, as his manner was, following him. At the Lyceum he
took a bath, and passed the day as usual. In the evening he retired to
rest at his own home.

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