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[180d] what sort we ought to praise. Now this defect I will endeavor to amend, and will first decide on a Love who deserves our praise, and then will praise him in terms worthy of his godhead. We are all aware that there is no Aphrodite or Love-passion without a Love. True, if that goddess were one, then Love would be one: but since there are two of her, there must needs be two Loves also. Does anyone doubt that she is double? Surely there is the elder, of no mother born, but daughter of Heaven, whence we name her Heavenly;1 while the younger was the child of Zeus and Dione, and her we call Popular.2


1 Hdt. 1.105, Hdt. 1.131; Paus. 1.14.7.

2 Paus. 1.22.3.

Plato. Plato in Twelve Volumes, Vol. 9 translated by Harold N. Fowler. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1925.

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  • Commentary references to this page (3):
    • R. G. Bury, The Symposium of Plato, Speech of Agathon
    • R. G. Bury, The Symposium of Plato, 198E
    • R. G. Bury, The Symposium of Plato, 204C
  • Cross-references to this page (3):
  • Cross-references in notes from this page (4):
    • Herodotus, Histories, 1.105
    • Herodotus, Histories, 1.131
    • Pausanias, Description of Greece, 1.14.7
    • Pausanias, Description of Greece, 1.22.3
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