' When
Agathon says that no man 'can be wronged of his own free will,' he is
alluding playfully to a serious problem of Greek philosophy (compare Arist.
Nic. Ethics). So naturally does Plato mingle jest and earnest, truth and
opinion in the same work.
The characters--of Phaedrus, who has been the cause of more philosophical
discussions than any other man, with the exception of Simmias the Theban
(Phaedrus); of Aristophanes, who disguises under comic imagery a serious
purpose; of Agathon, who in later life is satirized by Aristophanes in the
Thesmophoriazusae, for his effeminate manners and the feeble rhythms of his
verse; of Alcibiades, who is the same strange contrast of great powers and
great vices, which meets us in history--are drawn to the life; and we may
suppose the less-known characters of Pausanias and Eryximachus to be also
true to the traditional recollection of them (compare Phaedr., Protag.; and
compare Sympos. with Phaedr.). We may also remark that Aristodemus is
called 'the little' in Xenophon's Memorabilia (compare Symp.
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