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07 - Phaedrus - Plato · The Philosophy Insights Collection

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  Section seven. Thus far I have been speaking of the fourth and last kind
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  of madness, which is imputed to him who, when he sees the beauty
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  of earth, is transported with the recollection of the true beauty. He would
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  like to fly away, but he cannot. He is like a bird,
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  fluttering and looking upward, and careless of the world below. And he is
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  therefore thought to be mad. And I have shown this of all inspirations to
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  be the noblest and highest, and the offspring of the highest, to him
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  who has or shares in it. And that he who loves the beautiful is
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  called a lover, because he partakes of it. For as has been already
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  said, every soul of man has, in the way of nature beheld true
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  being. This was the condition of her passing into the form of man.
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  But all souls do not easily recall the things of the other world. They
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  may have seen them for a short time only, or they may have been
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  unfortunate in their earthly lot, and having had their hearts turned to unrighteousness through
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  some corrupting influence, they may have lost the memory of the holy things which
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  once they saw. Few only retain an adequate remembrance of them, and they,
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  when they behold here any image of that the world, are wrapped in
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  amazement. But they are ignorant of what this rapture means, because they do
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  not clearly perceive. For there is no light of justice, or temperance,
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  or any of the higher ideas which are precious to souls. In the earthly
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  copies of them. They are seen through a glass dimly, and there are
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  few who, going to the images, behold in them the realities, and
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  these only with difficulty. There was a time when, with the rest of
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  the happy band, they saw beauty shining in brightness, we philosophers, following
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  in the train of SEUs others in company with the gods. And then we
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  beheld the beatific vision, and where initiated into a mystery which may be truly
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  called most bless. It celebrated by us in our state of innocence, before
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  we had any experience of evils to come, when we were admitted to the
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  sight of apparitions, innocent and simple and calm and happy, which we beheld
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  shining in pure light, pure ourselves, and not yet enshrined in that living
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  tomb which we carry about now that we are imprisoned in the body like an
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  oyster in his shell. Let me linger over the memory of scenes which have
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  passed away. Ah, But of beauty, I repeat again that we saw
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  her there, shining in company with the celestial forms, and coming to earth,
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  we find her here too, shining in clearness through the clearest aperture of
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  sense. For sight is the most piercing of our bodily senses, though not
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  by that is wisdom seen. Her loveliness would have been transporting if there had
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  been a visible image of her, and the other ideas, if they had
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  visible counterparts, would be equally lovely. But this is the privilege of beauty,
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  that being the loveliest, she is also the most palpable to sight.
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  Now, he who is not newly initiated, or who has become corrupted,
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  does not easily rise out of this world to the sight of true beauty.
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  In the other he looks only at her earthly namesake, and instead of being
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  awed at the sight of her, he is given over to pleasure, and
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  like a brutish beast, he rushes on to enjoy and beget. He consorts
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  with wantonness, and is not afraid or ashamed of pursuing pleasure in violation of
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  nature. But he whose initiation is recent, and who has been the spectator
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  of many glories in the other world, is amazed when he sees anyone having
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  a godlike face or form, which is the expression of divine beauty. And
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  at first a shudder runs through him, and again the old awe steals over
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  him. Then, looking upon the face of his beloved as of a god,
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  he reverences him. And if he were not afraid of being thought a
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  downright madman, he would sacrifice to his beloved as to the image of a
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  god. Then, while he gazes on him, there is a sort of
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  reaction, and the shudder passes into an unusual heat and perspiration. For as
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  he receives the effluence of beauty through the eyes, the wing moists and he
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  warms. And as he warms the parts out of which the wing grew,
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  and which had been hitherto closed and rigid, and had prevented the wing from
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  shooting, forth u melted, And as nourishment streams upon him, the lower
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  end of the wing begins to swell and grow from the root upputs, and
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  the growth extends under the whole soul, For once the whole was winged.
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  During this process, the whole soul is all in a state of ebullition and
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  effervescence, which may be compared to the irritation and uneasiness in the gums at
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  the time of cutting teeth bus up and has a feeling of uneasiness and tickling.
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  But when in like manner the soul is beginning to grow wings, the
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  beauty of the beloved meets her eye, and she receives the sensible warm motion
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  of particles which flow towards her, therefore called emotion chimeros, and is refreshed
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  and warmed by them, And then she ceases from her pain with joy.
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  But when she is parted from her beloved and her moisture fails, then the
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  orifices of the passage out of which the wing shoots, dry up and close
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  and intercept the germ of the wing, which, being shut up with the
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  emotion throbbing, as with the pulsations of an artery, pricks the aperture which
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  is nearest, until at length the entire soul is pierced and maddened and pained,
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  and at the recollection of beauty is again delighted, And from both of
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  them together the soul is oppressed. At the strangeness of her condition, and
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  is in a great strait and excitement, and in her madness can neither sleep
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  by night, nor abide in her place by day. And wherever she thinks
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  that she will behold the beautiful One, thither in her desire she runs.
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  And when she has seen him and bathed herself in the waters of beauty,
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  her constraint is loosened, and she is refreshed, and has no more pangs
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  and pains. And this is the sweetest of all pleasures at the time,
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  and is the reason why the soul of the lover will never forsake his beautiful
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  One, whom he esteems above all. He has forgotten mother, and brethren
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  and companions, and he thinks nothing of the neglect and loss of his property.
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  The rules and proprieties of life on which he formerly prided himself he now
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  despises, and is ready to sleep like a servant wherever he is allowed,
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  as near as he can to his desired one who is the object of his
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  worship, and the physician who can alone assuage the greatness of his pain.
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  Oh, and this state, my dear imaginary youth, to whom I am
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  talking, is by men called love, and among the gods has a name
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  at which you, in your simplicity, may be inclined to mark. There
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  are two lines in the apocryphal writings of Homer in which the name occurs.
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  One of them is rather outrageous and not altogether metrical. They are as follows.
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  Mortals call him fluttering Love, but the immortals call him winged one,
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  because the growing of wings, or reading pterothoiton the movement of wings is a
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  necessity to him. You may believe this, but not unless you like at
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  any rate. The loves of lovers and their causes are such as I have
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  describ'd now. The lover who is taken to be the attendant of Zeus is
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  better able to bear the winged God, and can endure a heavier burden.
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  But the attendants and companions of aries, when under the influence of love,
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  if they fancy that they have been at all wronged, are ready to kill
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  and put an end to themselves and their belove it. And he who follows
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  in the train of any other God, while he is unspoil'd and the impression
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  lasts, honors and imitates him as far as he is able, and after
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  the manner of his God, he behaves in his intercourse with his beloved and
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  with the rest of the world. During the first period of his earthly existence.
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  Everyone chooses his love from the ranks of beauty according to his character,
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  and this he makes his God and fashions and adorns as a sort of image
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  which he is to fall down and worship. The followers of Zeus desire that
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  their beloved should have a soul like him, and therefore they seek out someone
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  of a philosophical and imperial nature. And when they have found him and loved
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  him, they do all they can to confirm such a nature are in him.
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  And if they have no experience of such a disposition, either too,
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  they learn of anyone who can teach them, and themselves follow in the same
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  way. And they have the less difficulty in finding the nature of their own
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  God in themselves. Because they have been compelled to gaze intensely on him,
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  Their recollection clings to him, and they become possessed of him and receive from
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  him their character and disposition. So far as man can participate in God,
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  the qualities of their God they attribute to the beloved. Wherefore they love him
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  all the more. And if like the backic nymphs, they draw inspiration from
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  Zeus. They pour out their own fountain upon him, wanting to make him
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  as like as possible to their own God. But those who are the followers
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  of Hero seek a royal love, and when they have found him, they
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  do just the same with him. And in like manner. The followers of
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  Apollo and of every other God, walking in the ways of their God,
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  seek a love who is to be made like him whom they serve. And
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  when they have found him, they themselves imitate their God and persuade their love
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  to do the same, and educate him into the manner and nature of the
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  God as far as they each can. For no feelings of envy or jealousy
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  are entertain'd by them towards their beloved, but they do their utmost to create
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  in him the greatest likeness of themselves and of the God whom they honor.
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  Thus, fair and blissful to the beloved is the desire of the inspired lover,
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  and the initiation of which I speak into the mysteries of true love.
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  If he be captur'd by the lover, and their purpose is effected. Now
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  the beloved is taken captive in the following manner. As I said at the
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  beginning of this tale, I divided each soul into three, two horses and
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  a charioteer. And one of the horses was good and the other bad.
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  The division may remain, but I have not yet explain'd in what the goodness
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  or badness of either consists. And to that I will now proceed. The
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  right hand horses upright and cleanly made. He has a lofty neck and an
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  aquiline nose. His color is white and his eyes dark. He is a
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  lover of honor and modesty and temperance, and the follower of true glory.
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  He needs no touch of the whip, but is guided by word and admonition
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  only. The other is a crooked, lumbering animal put together anyhow. He
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  has a short, thick neck, his flat faced, and of a dark
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  color, with gray eyes and blood red complexion. The mate of insolence and
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  pray, shagg eared and death, hardly yielding to whip and spur. Now,
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  when the charioteer beholds the vision of love, and has his whole soul
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  warmed through sense, and is full of the prickings and ticklings of desire,
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  the obedient steed then, as always under the government of shame, refrains from
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  leaping on the beloved, But the other, heedless of the pricks and of
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  the blows of the whip, plunges and runs away, giving all manner of
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  trouble to his companion and the charioteer, whom he forces to approach the beloved
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  and to remember the joys of love. They yet first indignantly oppose him,
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  and will not be urg'd on to do terrible and unlawful deeds. But at
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  last, when he persists in plaguing them, they yield and agree to do
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  as he bids them. And now they are at the spot and behold the
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  flashing beauty of the beloved, which, when the charioteer sees, his memory
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  is carried to the true beauty, whom he beholds in company with modesty,
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  like an image placed upon a holy pedestal. He sees her, but is
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  afraid, and falls backwards in adoration, and by his fall is compell'd to
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  pull back the reins with such violence as to bring both the steeds on their
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  haunches, the one willing and unresist the unruly one very unwilling. And when
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  they have gone back a little. The one is overcome with shame and wonder,
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  and his whole soul is bathed in perspiration. The other, when the
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  pain is over which the bridle and the fall had given him, having with
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  difficulty taken breath, is full of wrath and reproaches, which he heaps upon
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  the charioteer and his fellow steed for want of courage and manhood, declaring that
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  they have been false to their agreement and guilty of desertion. Again they refuse,
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  and again he urges them on and will scarce yield to their prayer that
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  he would wait until another time. When the pointed hour comes, they make
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  as if they had forgotten, and he reminds them, fighting and neighing and
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  dragging them on, until at length he, on the same thoughts intent,
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  forces them to draw near again. And when they are near, he stoops
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  his head and puts up his tail, and takes the bit in his teeth
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  and pulls shamelessly. Then the charioteer is worse off than ever. He falls
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  back like a racer at the barrier, and with a still more violent wrench,
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  drags the bit out of the teeth of the wild steed and covers his
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  abusive tongue and jaws with blood, and forces his legs and haunches to the
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  ground, and punishes him sore. And when this has happen'd several times and
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  the villain has ceas'd from his wanton way, he is tam'd and humbled and
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  follows the will of the charioteer. And when he sees the beautiful one,
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  he is ready to die of fear. And from that time forward, the
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  soul of the lover follows the beloved in modesty and holy fear. End of
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  Section seven.