Love according to Diotime

Socrates “— What is his father, I said, and what is his mother?”

203B Diotime “— It's a pretty long story, she replied. I'll tell you about it, though.

It should be known that, on the day when Aphrodite was born, the gods feasted: among them was Mètis' son, Poros.

Now, when the banquet was over, Penia, arrived, who had come to beg as it is natural on a day of feast, and was standing on the doorstep.

Now Poros, who had gotten drunk on nectar, for wine did not yet exist at that time, dragged himself into Zeus' garden and, overwhelmed by drunkenness, fell asleep there.

203C Then Penia, in her shortage, had the project to have a child made by Poros; she lay next to him and became pregnant with Eros.

If Eros became the next one to Aphrodite and her servant, it is because he was born during the celebrations given in honour of the birth of the goddess; and if at the same time he is by nature in love with beauty, it is because Aphrodite is beautiful.

Because he is the son of Poros and Penia, Eros is in the following condition.

203D First, it is still poor, and it is far from being delicate and beautiful, as most people believe. On the contrary, he is rough, unclean, barefoot and has no shelter, always lying on the ground and rough, sleeping under the stars on the doorstep and on the side of the road, because, since he takes after his mother, he shares the poverty he has.

Like his father, on the other hand, he is on the lookout for what is beautiful and what is good, he is manly, determined, ardent, he is a formidable hunter; he never ceases to weave tricks, he is passionate about knowledge and fertile in expedients, he spends all his time philosophizing, he is a formidable wizard, a magician and an expert.

203E It should be added that by nature it is neither immortal nor mortal.

In the space of a single day, sometimes it is in bloom, full of life, sometimes it is dying; then it comes back to life when its expedients succeed by virtue of the nature it takes from its father;

but what his expedients constantly provide him escapes him; so Eros is never in poverty or opulence.

Moreover, it is halfway between knowledge and ignorance.”

204A Diotime “— Here is the situation.

No god tends towards knowledge or desires to become a knowledgeable, because one is;

and if you are knowledgeable, you don't need to strive for knowledge.

Ignorants do not tend more towards knowledge or wish to become knowledgeable,

But that is precisely what is unfortunate about ignorance: while one is neither beautiful nor good nor knowledgeable, one believes one is sufficiently so.

No, one who does not imagine he is deprived of it does not want what he does not believe he should be provided with.”

Socrates “— Who then, Diotime, I asked, are those who tend towards knowledge, if they are neither knowledgeable people nor ignorant? ?”

Diotime “— Already, she replied, it is perfectly clear, even for a child, that these are the ones who are in between, and that Eros must be one of them.

It goes without saying that knowledge is one of the most beautiful things, and Eros is the love of beauty.

Consequently, Eros must necessarily tend towards knowledge, and, since he tends towards knowledge, he must hold the middle between the one who knows and the ignorant.

And what explains these traits to him is his origin:

because he was born of a knowledgeable and resourceful father and a mother without knowledge and resources.

Such is the nature of this demon, my dear Socrates.

But the idea you had of Eros, it's not surprising that you let yourself get caught up in it.

This idea of yours, insofar as what you say gives an indication of it, is that love is the beloved and not the lover.

That's why, I imagine, Eros seemed to you to be endowed with boundless beauty.

And in fact what attracts love is what is really beautiful, delicate, perfect, that is to say, what gives the greatest happiness.

But there is another nature of what loves, and I have explained to you what it is.”