From blame to praise
PhaedrusWhat is that?
SocratesThe two speeches were opposites: one argued that you should favour a lover, the other that you should not.
PhaedrusAnd very manfully too!
SocratesI thought you would tell the truth and say “madly”. That is exactly what I wanted to ask about. We called love a kind of madness, did we not?
PhaedrusYes.
SocratesAnd there are two kinds of madness: one arises from human illnesses, the other from a divine departure from our customary ways.
PhaedrusExactly.
SocratesWe divided divine madness into four parts, each belonging to a god: prophetic inspiration to Apollo, initiation into the mysteries to Dionysus, poetic inspiration to the Muses, and the fourth kind, the madness of love, to Aphrodite and Eros. This last we called the best. And as we pictured the experience of love—I cannot quite say how—we may have touched upon some truth, or perhaps strayed elsewhere. So we put together an account that was not wholly implausible and playfully sang a mythical hymn, with due restraint and reverence, to Eros, your master and mine, Phaedrus, the guardian of beautiful youths.
PhaedrusAnd I found it very pleasant to hear.
SocratesLet us take this from it, then: how the speech managed to pass from blame to praise.
PhaedrusWhat do you mean?