A fault in the speech
SocratesLysias does not, nor did your speech, which came through my mouth after you had bewitched it. If Eros is a god or something divine, as he is, he cannot be an evil. Yet both speeches we have just made described him as such. That is how they sinned against love. Their foolishness was rather amusing too: saying nothing sound or true, they put on grand airs, hoping to deceive a few poor souls and win their admiration. I must purify myself, my friend. There is an ancient cleansing rite for those who err in telling stories about the gods. Homer did not know it, but Stesichorus did. Having lost his sight for speaking ill of Helen, he did not remain ignorant of the cause as Homer did. Being a man of the Muses, he understood and at once composed: “That tale is untrue; / you did not board the well-benched ships, / nor did you reach Troy’s citadel.” When he had completed the poem called the Palinode, his sight returned at once. I shall be wiser than either poet in this one respect: before I suffer for speaking ill of Eros, I shall try to give him my recantation, with my head bare rather than covered in shame as before.
PhaedrusYou could not have said anything more pleasing to me, Socrates.