your nature, but now much more so, when I see that you are in love
with one who does not wanton in luxury or languish in effeminacy,[18]
but who displays to all his strength, his hardihood, his courage, and
sobriety of soul. To be enamoured of such qualities as these is a
proof itself of a true lover's nature.

[17] Lit. "many a foreign visitor likewise."

[18] See the Attic type of character, as drawn by Pericles, Thuc. ii.
40.

Whether indeed Aphrodite be one or twain[19] in personality, the
heavenly and the earthly, I cannot tell, for Zeus, who is one and
indivisible, bears many titles.[20] But this thing I know, that these
twain have separate altars, shrines, and sacrifices,[21] as befits
their nature--she that is earthly, of a lighter and a laxer sort; she
that is heavenly, purer and holier in type. And you may well
conjecture, it is the earthly goddess, the common Aphrodite, who sends
forth the bodily loves; while from her that is named of heaven,
Ourania, proceed those loves which feed upon the soul, on friendship
and on noble deeds. It is by this latter, Callias, that you are held
in bonds, if I mistake not, Love divine.[22] This I infer as well from
the fair and noble character of your friend, as from the fact that you
invite his father to share your life and intercourse.[23] Since no
part of these is hidden from the father by the fair and noble lover.

[19] For Aphrodite Ourania and Pandemos see Plat. "Symp." 180.

[20] Lit. "that is believed to be the same." See Cic. "De N. D." iii.
16. Cf. Aesch. "Prom." 210 (of Themis and Gaia), {pollon onomaton