existence in the old days of Iapetus and Cronos when the gods were at war.
The things that were done then were done of necessity and not of love. For
love is young and dwells in soft places,--not like Ate in Homer, walking on
the skulls of men, but in their hearts and souls, which are soft enough.
He is all flexibility and grace, and his habitation is among the flowers,
and he cannot do or suffer wrong; for all men serve and obey him of their
own free will, and where there is love there is obedience, and where
obedience, there is justice; for none can be wronged of his own free will.
And he is temperate as well as just, for he is the ruler of the desires,
and if he rules them he must be temperate. Also he is courageous, for he
is the conqueror of the lord of war. And he is wise too; for he is a poet,
and the author of poesy in others. He created the animals; he is the
inventor of the arts; all the gods are his subjects; he is the fairest and
best himself, and the cause of what is fairest and best in others; he makes
men to be of one mind at a banquet, filling them with affection and
emptying them of disaffection; the pilot, helper, defender, saviour of men,
in whose footsteps let every man follow, chanting a strain of love. Such
is the discourse, half playful, half serious, which I dedicate to the god.

The turn of Socrates comes next. He begins by remarking satirically that
he has not understood the terms of the original agreement, for he fancied
that they meant to speak the true praises of love, but now he finds that
they only say what is good of him, whether true or false. He begs to be
absolved from speaking falsely, but he is willing to speak the truth, and
proposes to begin by questioning Agathon. The result of his questions may
be summed up as follows:--

Love is of something, and that which love desires is not that which love is
or has; for no man desires that which he is or has. And love is of the
beautiful, and therefore has not the beautiful. And the beautiful is the