When the turn of Socrates comes round he cannot be allowed to disturb the
arrangement made at first. With the leave of Phaedrus he asks a few
questions, and then he throws his argument into the form of a speech
(compare Gorg., Protag.). But his speech is really the narrative of a
dialogue between himself and Diotima. And as at a banquet good manners
would not allow him to win a victory either over his host or any of the
guests, the superiority which he gains over Agathon is ingeniously
represented as having been already gained over himself by her. The
artifice has the further advantage of maintaining his accustomed profession
of ignorance (compare Menex.). Even his knowledge of the mysteries of
love, to which he lays claim here and elsewhere (Lys.), is given by
Diotima.

The speeches are attested to us by the very best authority. The madman
Apollodorus, who for three years past has made a daily study of the actions
of Socrates--to whom the world is summed up in the words 'Great is
Socrates'--he has heard them from another 'madman,' Aristodemus, who was
the 'shadow' of Socrates in days of old, like him going about barefooted,
and who had been present at the time. 'Would you desire better witness?'
The extraordinary narrative of Alcibiades is ingeniously represented as
admitted by Socrates, whose silence when he is invited to contradict gives
consent to the narrator. We may observe, by the way, (1) how the very
appearance of Aristodemus by himself is a sufficient indication to Agathon
that Socrates has been left behind; also, (2) how the courtesy of Agathon
anticipates the excuse which Socrates was to have made on Aristodemus'
behalf for coming uninvited; (3) how the story of the fit or trance of
Socrates is confirmed by the mention which Alcibiades makes of a similar
fit of abstraction occurring when he was serving with the army at Potidaea;
like (4) the drinking powers of Socrates and his love of the fair, which
receive a similar attestation in the concluding scene; or the attachment of