The Love who is the offspring of the common Aphrodite is
essentially common, and has no discrimination, being such as the meaner
sort of men feel, and is apt to be of women as well as of youths, and is of
the body rather than of the soul--the most foolish beings are the objects
of this love which desires only to gain an end, but never thinks of
accomplishing the end nobly, and therefore does good and evil quite
indiscriminately. The goddess who is his mother is far younger than the
other, and she was born of the union of the male and female, and partakes
of both. But the offspring of the heavenly Aphrodite is derived from a
mother in whose birth the female has no part,--she is from the male only;
this is that love which is of youths, and the goddess being older, there is
nothing of wantonness in her. Those who are inspired by this love turn to
the male, and delight in him who is the more valiant and intelligent
nature; any one may recognise the pure enthusiasts in the very character of
their attachments. For they love not boys, but intelligent beings whose
reason is beginning to be developed, much about the time at which their
beards begin to grow.
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