Plato's Phaedrus: The Philosophy of Love

Part Two: Socrates' Great Speech: Phaedrus 241d-257b

PART TWO Socrates' Great Speech Phaedrus 241d-257b SOCRATES: ... There, Phaedrus, that will do. Not another word shall you hear from me. You'll have to let that be the end of the speech. PHAEDRUS: But I thought you were just halfway through and that you'd have as much to say about the nonlover, and why it was better to bestow favors on him! You were going to pick out all his good points! Why would you stop now, Socrates ? SOC.: My excellent man, couldn't you tell that I'm already e speaking in epic style, even more elevated than my dithyrambs earlier, and this when I'm still speaking critically? How do you think I'll end up if I begin to speak in praise of the other man? I will become inspired by the nymphs here-you can see that. In fact, you've purposely thrown me into their clutches! I say, then, in a word, that for all the faults we found with the one, we can ascribe the corresponding virtues to the other. What need is there for a long speech? Enough has been said about the two of them. The tale no doubt will meet with whatever fate it will, and, as for me, I'm going to take my leave now and cross over this river before you force me into anything more. 242 PHAE.: Oh but not yet, Socrates, not before the heat of the day has gone! Don't you see it's almost noon, the time of day when the sun stands still, as they say? No, stay, and let us discuss all the things that have been said, and then when it's cooled down we can go. SOC.: You are a prodigy when it comes to speeches, I 89 90 I PARTTwo Phaedrus, really amazing. When I think of all the speeches that have been produced during your lifetime, I'm sure that nobody b has been responsible for as many as you-either you composed them yourself or else you forced them out of others in one way or another. I leave Simmias the Theban out of account , but you prevail over all the others. And even now it seems that again you are causing me to bring forth a speech. PHAE.: That's certainly good news. But how does that come about? SOC.: Just as I was going to cross the river, Phaedrus, I had an experience of that divine sign that often comes to mee it comes to stop me when I'm just about to do something-and then immediately it was as if I heard a voice that forbade me to go away until I had purified myself. For I have sinned against the divinity. I am a kind of prophet, you see, not very great, to be sure-I'm like someone who is hardly schooled at allbut I am at least sufficient for myself, because I do understand quite clearly wherein I have sinned. Indeed, my friend, the soul itself is a kind of prophet, for I was shuddering even as I uttered that earlier speech. I feared that I was sinning in the way d Ibycus meant when he spoke of "doing wrong to the gods so as to gain the honor of men." And now I know what my transgression is. PHAE.: What are you talking about? SOC.: That was dreadful, Phaedrus, a dreadful speech that you brought along, and so was the one you forced me to give. PHAE.:Why? SOC.: It was stupid, and besides that it was virtually sacreligious . What could be more dreadful than that? PHAE.: Nothing, if you're right in what you say. SOC.: Well, don't you believe that Love is a god, the child of Aphrodite? PHAE.: So they say. SOC.: But that's not what Lysias said, nor that speech e you made me utter, by casting a spell over my mouth. If Love is a god or in some way divine, and surely he is, then he can't be bad, and yet that is the way he was treated in those two speeches. That's why they were a transgression against Lovethey were just a bit of elegant foolishness, and what they said 91 I Socrates' Great Speech was neither wholesome nor true, even though uttered with the appearance of a grave truth, enough perhaps...