And so you attribute to
Love every imaginable form of praise which can be gathered anywhere; and
you say that 'he is all this,' and 'the cause of all that,' making him
appear the fairest and best of all to those who know him not, for you
cannot impose upon those who know him. And a noble and solemn hymn of
praise have you rehearsed. But as I misunderstood the nature of the praise
when I said that I would take my turn, I must beg to be absolved from the
promise which I made in ignorance, and which (as Euripides would say
(Eurip. Hyppolytus)) was a promise of the lips and not of the mind.
Farewell then to such a strain: for I do not praise in that way; no,
indeed, I cannot. But if you like to hear the truth about love, I am ready
to speak in my own manner, though I will not make myself ridiculous by
entering into any rivalry with you. Say then, Phaedrus, whether you would
like to have the truth about love, spoken in any words and in any order
which may happen to come into my mind at the time. Will that be agreeable
to you?
Aristodemus said that Phaedrus and the company bid him speak in any manner
which he thought best.
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