Then, said Eryximachus, as you are all agreed that drinking is to be
voluntary, and that there is to be no compulsion, I move, in the next
place, that the flute-girl, who has just made her appearance, be told to go
away and play to herself, or, if she likes, to the women who are within
(compare Prot.). To-day let us have conversation instead; and, if you will
allow me, I will tell you what sort of conversation. This proposal having
been accepted, Eryximachus proceeded as follows:--
I will begin, he said, after the manner of Melanippe in Euripides,
'Not mine the word'
which I am about to speak, but that of Phaedrus. For often he says to me
in an indignant tone:--'What a strange thing it is, Eryximachus, that,
whereas other gods have poems and hymns made in their honour, the great and
glorious god, Love, has no encomiast among all the poets who are so many.
There are the worthy sophists too--the excellent Prodicus for example, who
have descanted in prose on the virtues of Heracles and other heroes; and,
what is still more extraordinary, I have met with a philosophical work in
which the utility of salt has been made the theme of an eloquent discourse;
and many other like things have had a like honour bestowed upon them.
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