“And the love, more especially, which is concerned with the good, and which is perfected in company with temperance and justice, whether among gods or men, has the greatest power, and is the source of all our happiness and harmony, and makes us friends with the gods who are above us, and with one another.”
- Source
- Symposium
- Date
- 4th century BCE
- Local voice
- Dialogue speaker · Eryximachus
- English wording
- Benjamin Jowett — Translator · from Ancient Greek
Meaning of “And the love, more especially, which is concerned…”
Eryximachus presents an expansive account in which well-ordered love creates harmony between people and even between humanity and the gods. His physician’s speech moves between medicine, music, the seasons and ritual, so friendship is part of an ancient analogy about the balance of opposing forces. It is his contribution to a gathering of competing speeches about love, not a single universally endorsed Platonic doctrine.
Where does it come from?
Plato, Symposium, Eryximachus speaking at approximately 188d–e near the end of his encomium of Eros; Benjamin Jowett English, Project Gutenberg #1600. The following exchange passes the speech to Aristophanes; speaker is physician Eryximachus, NOT Socrates. References to divine friendship and cosmology express ancient philosophical and religious views, not contemporary scientific findings.
Why the local voice matters
Jowett English; Symposium; dramatic speaker Eryximachus, not autobiographical Plato.
