VI. The Discourse of Eryximachus: 185 E-188 E.
Prologue: Pausanias was right in asserting the dual nature of Eros; but he failed
to observe that the god's sway extends over the entire universe.
a The body, with its healthy and diseased appetites, exhibits the duality of Eros;
and
medicine is “the science of bodily erotics in
regard to replenishment and depletion.” It is the object of “the
Art” of Asclepios to produce the Eros which is harmony between the
opposite elements—the hot and the cold, the wet and the dry, etc. Eros is,
likewise, the patron-god of
gymnastics and
husbandry.
b Similarly with
music. The “discordant
concord” of Heraclitus hints at the power of music to harmonize sounds
previously in discord, and divergent times. Thus music is “the science of
Erotics in regard to harmony and rhythm.” It is less in the pure theory
than in applied music (metrical compositions and their educational use) that the
dual nature of Eros comes to light; when it does, the Eros Pandemos must be
carefully guarded against.
c Again, in the spheres of
meteorology and
astronomy we see the effects of the orderly Eros in a wholesome temperate
climate, of the disorderly Eros in blights and pestilences; for astronomy is
“the science of Erotics in regard to stellar motions and the seasons of
the year.”
d Lastly, in
religion, it is the disorderly Eros which
produces the impiety which it is the function of divination to cure; and
religion may be defined as “the science of human Erotics in regard to
piety.”
Epilogue: To Eros, as a whole, belongs great power; to the
virtuous Eros great influence in effecting human concord and happiness.—If
my eulogy is incomplete, it is for you, Aristophanes, to supplement it, if you
choose.
