all?' 'And who are they?' I said. 'You and I are two of them,' she
replied. 'How can that be?' I said. 'It is quite intelligible,' she
replied; 'for you yourself would acknowledge that the gods are happy and
fair--of course you would--would you dare to say that any god was not?'
'Certainly not,' I replied. 'And you mean by the happy, those who are the
possessors of things good or fair?' 'Yes.' 'And you admitted that Love,
because he was in want, desires those good and fair things of which he is
in want?' 'Yes, I did.' 'But how can he be a god who has no portion in
what is either good or fair?' 'Impossible.' 'Then you see that you also
deny the divinity of Love.'

'What then is Love?' I asked; 'Is he mortal?' 'No.' 'What then?' 'As in
the former instance, he is neither mortal nor immortal, but in a mean
between the two.' 'What is he, Diotima?' 'He is a great spirit (daimon),
and like all spirits he is intermediate between the divine and the mortal.'
'And what,' I said, 'is his power?' 'He interprets,' she replied, 'between
gods and men, conveying and taking across to the gods the prayers and
sacrifices of men, and to men the commands and replies of the gods; he is
the mediator who spans the chasm which divides them, and therefore in him
all is bound together, and through him the arts of the prophet and the
priest, their sacrifices and mysteries and charms, and all prophecy and
incantation, find their way. For God mingles not with man; but through
Love all the intercourse and converse of God with man, whether awake or
asleep, is carried on. The wisdom which understands this is spiritual; all
other wisdom, such as that of arts and handicrafts, is mean and vulgar.
Now these spirits or intermediate powers are many and diverse, and one of
them is Love.' 'And who,' I said, 'was his father, and who his mother?'
'The tale,' she said, 'will take time; nevertheless I will tell you. On
the birthday of Aphrodite there was a feast of the gods, at which the god
Poros or Plenty, who is the son of Metis or Discretion, was one of the