The beloved lets the lover near
SocratesWhen the appointed time comes, he reminds the other two, who pretend to have forgotten. He forces them, neighs and pulls them back towards the beloved with the same demand. Near the youth he lowers his head, stretches out his tail, bites the bit and hauls shamelessly. The charioteer recoils even more violently, as if at the snap of a starting rope, and wrenches the bit back from the insolent horse’s teeth. He draws blood from the horse’s slanderous tongue and jaws, presses his legs and haunches to the ground and gives him pain. After many such defeats the bad horse gives up his insolence and follows the charioteer’s judgement in humility; at the sight of the beautiful youth, he wastes away with fear. Now the lover’s soul follows his beloved in awe and dread.
The youth is treated with every care, as though he were a god’s equal, and the lover does not pretend but feels it truly. The youth too is naturally drawn to the man who cares for him. If fellow students or others once set the youth against lovers, saying that it is shameful to be close to a lover, and so he has pushed his lover away, in due course his age and necessity bring him to accept his company. It is never fated that the bad should love the bad, or the good fail to love the good. Once he allows the lover to talk and spend time with him, the kindness he feels at close hand astonishes him: he sees that all his other friends and family together cannot offer a fraction of the affection this divinely inspired friend gives him.