Symposium

or in any other part of virtue whatever, this willing slavery in its turn is not shameful, nor is it flattery. So these two laws¹ must be brought together into one, the one about pederasty and 184d the one about philosophy and the rest of virtue, if it is going to turn out beautiful for a darling to gratify a lover. For when lover and darling come together, each with his law, the one that in serving the darling who has gratified him in anything whatever he would serve justly, the other that in doing service of any kind to the one who is making him wise and good he would in turn do service justly,² and the one is able to contribute to intelligence and the 184e rest of virtue, and the other is in need of acquiring them for his education and the rest of wisdom, then, when these laws come together into one, there and there alone does it coincide that it is beautiful for a darling to gratify a lover, and nowhere else. In this case even to be deceived is not shameful at all; but in all the others it brings shame whether one is deceived or not. For if someone gratified 185a a lover as being rich, for the sake of wealth, and were deceived and got no money, the lover turning out to be poor, it is no less shameful; for such a one seems to have shown what he himself, at least, is, that for the sake of money he would serve anyone in anything; and that is not beautiful. By the same account, even if someone gratified a man as being good, and as going to be better himself through the friendship of a lover, and were deceived, the man turning out bad 185b and not possessed of virtue, still the deception is beautiful; for this one too, in turn, seems to have made plain what he himself is, that for the sake of virtue at least, and of becoming better, he would be eager to do anything for anyone; and this, again, is the most beautiful thing of all. So it is wholly and in every way beautiful