Symposium

beginning I greatly admire. Come, then, since about Love you went through the rest well and magnificently, of what kind he is, 199d tell me this too: is Love such as to be love of something, or of nothing? I am not asking whether he is of some mother or father — for the question would be laughable, whether Love is love of mother or father¹ — but as if I were asking about this very thing, a father: is the father father of someone, or not? You would surely tell me, if you wanted to answer well, that the father is father of a son, of course, or of a daughter. Or not?”

“Certainly,” Agathon said.

“And the mother likewise?” This too was agreed.

199e“Further, then,” said Socrates, “answer a little more, so that you may better grasp what I want. For if I were to ask, ‘What then? A brother, just this very thing that he is, is he brother of someone or not?’” He said he was.

“Of a brother, then, or of a sister?” He agreed.

“Try, then,” he said, “to speak about love too. Is Love love of nothing, or of something?”

“He most certainly is of something.”

200a“This, now,” said Socrates, “keep under guard at your side, remembering what it is of; but tell me this much: does Love desire that of which he is love, or not?”

“Certainly,” he said.

“Is it when he has that which he desires and is in love with that he desires it and is in love with it, or when he does not have it?”

“When he does not have it, as is likely, at least,” he said.

“Look into it, then,” said Socrates, “instead of what is likely, whether it is necessarily so: that what desires desires what it lacks, or does not 200b desire if it does not lack it?² For to me, Agathon, it seems, marvellously, to be necessary; and how does it seem to you?”

“To me too,” he said, “it seems so.”