Symposium

Name: Symposium
Author: Plato

Ancient Greek with an independent English translation.

SymposiumSymposium · 178b–179a

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Symposium · 178b–179a

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p. 20

Ἡσιόδῳ δὲ καὶ Ἀκουσίλεως σύμφησιν μετὰ τὸ Χάος δύο τούτω γενέσθαι, Γῆν τε καὶ Ἔρωτα. Παρμενίδης δὲ τὴν γένεσιν λέγει—

πρώτιστον μὲν Ἔρωτα θεῶν μητίσατο πάντων.

178cοὕτω πολλαχόθεν ὁμολογεῖται ὁ Ἔρως ἐν τοῖς πρεσβύτατος εἶναι. πρεσβύτατος δὲ ὢν μεγίστων ἀγαθῶν ἡμῖν αἴτιός ἐστιν. οὐ γὰρ ἔγωγ’ ἔχω εἰπεῖν ὅτι μεῖζόν ἐστιν ἀγαθὸν εὐθὺς νέῳ ὄντι ἢ ἐραστὴς χρηστὸς καὶ ἐραστῇ παιδικά. ὃ γὰρ χρὴ ἀνθρώποις ἡγεῖσθαι παντὸς τοῦ βίου τοῖς μέλλουσι καλῶς βιώσεσθαι, τοῦτο οὔτε συγγένεια οἵα τε ἐμποιεῖν οὕτω καλῶς οὔτε τιμαὶ οὔτε πλοῦτος οὔτ’ ἄλλο 178d οὐδὲν ὡς ἔρως. λέγω δὲ δὴ τί τοῦτο; τὴν ἐπὶ μὲν τοῖς αἰσχροῖς αἰσχύνην, ἐπὶ δὲ τοῖς καλοῖς φιλοτιμίαν· οὐ γὰρ ἔστιν ἄνευ τούτων οὔτε πόλιν οὔτε ἰδιώτην μεγάλα καὶ καλὰ ἔργα ἐξεργάζεσθαι. φημὶ τοίνυν ἐγὼ ἄνδρα ὅστις ἐρᾷ, εἴ τι αἰσχρὸν ποιῶν κατάδηλος γίγνοιτο ἢ πάσχων ὑπό του δι’ ἀνανδρίαν μὴ ἀμυνόμενος, οὔτ’ ἂν ὑπὸ πατρὸς ὀφθέντα οὕτως ἀλγῆσαι οὔτε ὑπὸ ἑταίρων οὔτε ὑπ’ ἄλλου 178e οὐδενὸς ὡς ὑπὸ παιδικῶν. ταὐτὸν δὲ τοῦτο καὶ τὸν ἐρώμενον ὁρῶμεν, ὅτι διαφερόντως τοὺς ἐραστὰς αἰσχύνεται, ὅταν ὀφθῇ ἐν αἰσχρῷ τινι ὤν. εἰ οὖν μηχανή τις γένοιτο ὥστε πόλιν γενέσθαι ἢ στρατόπεδον ἐραστῶν τε καὶ παιδικῶν, οὐκ ἔστιν ὅπως ἂν ἄμεινον οἰκήσειαν τὴν ἑαυτῶν ἢ ἀπεχόμενοι πάντων τῶν αἰσχρῶν καὶ φιλοτιμούμενοι πρὸς 179a ἀλλήλους, καὶ μαχόμενοί γ’ ἂν μετ’ ἀλλήλων οἱ τοιοῦτοι νικῷεν ἂν ὀλίγοι ὄντες ὡς ἔπος εἰπεῖν πάντας ἀνθρώπους. ἐρῶν γὰρ ἀνὴρ ὑπὸ παιδικῶν ὀφθῆναι ἢ λιπὼν τάξιν ἢ ὅπλα ἀποβαλὼν ἧττον ἂν δήπου δέξαιτο ἢ ὑπὸ πάντων τῶν

Symposium

p. 21

And Acusilaus too concurs with Hesiod¹ that after Chaos these two came to be, Earth and Love. And Parmenides tells of the birth —

first of all the gods she devised Love.²

178cSo from many quarters it is agreed that Love is among the very oldest. And being the oldest, he is the cause of the greatest goods for us. For I for my part cannot say what greater good there is for one who is young, from the very first, than a decent lover, and for a lover than a darling. For what ought to guide human beings through the whole of life, those who are going to live well, this neither kinship can implant so well, nor honours, nor wealth, nor 178d anything else, as love. And what do I say this is? Shame at shameful things, and love of honour in beautiful ones; for without these neither a city nor a private person can accomplish great and beautiful works. So I say that a man who is in love, if he were found out doing something shameful, or suffering it at someone’s hands and not defending himself through unmanliness, would not be so pained at being seen by his father, or by his companions, or by 178e anyone else, as by his darling. And we see this same thing in the beloved too, that he is ashamed before his lovers above all, when he is seen to be in something shameful. If, then, there were some device by which a city or an army³ might come to be made of lovers and darlings, there is no way they could govern their own better than by holding back from everything shameful and vying in honour with 179a one another; and what is more, fighting alongside one another, such men, though few, would defeat, so to speak, all human beings. For a man who is in love would surely accept being seen by his darling leaving his post or throwing away his arms less than by all the

1.And Acusilaus too concurs with Hesiod: in the manuscripts these words stand after the line of Parmenides, with homologei, “agrees”, and “he says” stands before “after Chaos”; Burnet follows Schanz, after F. A. Wolf, in moving them here, takes the verb, symphēsin, “concurs”, from Stobaeus and leaves out “he says” (apparatus, b8). Acusilaus of Argos set out the genealogies of gods and heroes in prose.

2.Parmenides, fragment 13 Diels–Kranz. The Greek line has no subject; “she” follows Simplicius, who takes it to be the goddess who “steers all things” (fragment 12; On Aristotle’s Physics 39.18) (interpretation). Aristotle quotes the same line from Parmenides’ account of “the coming-to-be of the universe” (Metaphysics 984b23–27).

3.A Theban “Sacred Band” of three hundred men, lovers and beloved, was formed later, about 378 BC (Plutarch, Pelopidas 18–19).

About This Reading Edition

The complete Symposium, 172a–223d: at Agathon’s banquet the guests praise Love, Socrates recounts Diotima’s teaching, and Alcibiades praises Socrates. Burnet’s Greek faces a new Diotimos Editions English translation, with an introduction, key words, outline, glossary, critical apparatus, and linked translator notes.

Historical Text and Translation

Greek: Plato, Symposium, in John Burnet, Platonis Opera, volume II (Oxford, 1901; second edition, 1910), in a later impression printed by John Johnson and issued by Humphrey Milford no earlier than January 1935, as described by the supplied edition. Its Greek was taken from the Perseus Digital Library transcription and checked against photographs of that impression; Burnet’s readings and critical apparatus are retained. The digital Greek transcription and its modifications are attributed to the Perseus Digital Library, Tufts University, under CC BY-SA 4.0. English translation and editorial matter: Diotimos Editions, 2026.

About Diotimos Editions

This historical edition credits Diotimos Editions as its English translator.

Rights

The ancient Greek work and Burnet’s printed edition are in the public domain. The Perseus digital Greek transcription and its modifications are reused under CC BY-SA 4.0, as verified from the official Perseus repository license. The supplied edition reports checking its transcription against Burnet’s printed pages. The new English translation and editorial matter are credited to Diotimos Editions, 2026; no open license for those new contributions is stated in the supplied files.