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[180b] there is no sort of valor more respected by the gods than this which comes of love; yet they are even more admiring and delighted and beneficent when the beloved is fond of his lover than when the lover is fond of his favorite; since a lover, filled as he is with a god, surpasses his favorite in divinity. This is the reason why they honored Achilles above Alcestis, giving him his abode in the Isles of the Blest.

“So there is my description of Love—that he is the most venerable and valuable of the gods, and that he has sovereign power to provide all virtue and happiness for men whether living or departed.”


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  • Commentary references to this page (7):
    • R. G. Bury, The Symposium of Plato, 176D
    • R. G. Bury, The Symposium of Plato, 179A
    • R. G. Bury, The Symposium of Plato, 181C
    • R. G. Bury, The Symposium of Plato, 209B
    • R. G. Bury, The Symposium of Plato, 222B
    • James Adam, The Republic of Plato, 1.334B
    • Basil L. Gildersleeve, Pindar: The Olympian and Pythian Odes, 2
  • Cross-references to this page (1):
    • Basil L. Gildersleeve, Syntax of Classical Greek, The Article
  • Cross-references in general dictionaries to this page (1):
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