Mem.).
The narrative which he had heard was as follows:--
Aristodemus meeting Socrates in holiday attire, is invited by him to a
banquet at the house of Agathon, who had been sacrificing in thanksgiving
for his tragic victory on the day previous. But no sooner has he entered
the house than he finds that he is alone; Socrates has stayed behind in a
fit of abstraction, and does not appear until the banquet is half over. On
his appearing he and the host jest a little; the question is then asked by
Pausanias, one of the guests, 'What shall they do about drinking? as they
had been all well drunk on the day before, and drinking on two successive
days is such a bad thing.' This is confirmed by the authority of
Eryximachus the physician, who further proposes that instead of listening
to the flute-girl and her 'noise' they shall make speeches in honour of
love, one after another, going from left to right in the order in which
they are reclining at the table. All of them agree to this proposal, and
Phaedrus, who is the 'father' of the idea, which he has previously
communicated to Eryximachus, begins as follows:--
He descants first of all upon the antiquity of love, which is proved by the
authority of the poets; secondly upon the benefits which love gives to man.
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