She was my instructress in the art of love, and I shall
repeat to you what she said to me, beginning with the admissions made by
Agathon, which are nearly if not quite the same which I made to the wise
woman when she questioned me: I think that this will be the easiest way,
and I shall take both parts myself as well as I can (compare Gorgias). As
you, Agathon, suggested (supra), I must speak first of the being and nature
of Love, and then of his works. First I said to her in nearly the same
words which he used to me, that Love was a mighty god, and likewise fair;
and she proved to me as I proved to him that, by my own showing, Love was
neither fair nor good. 'What do you mean, Diotima,' I said, 'is love then
evil and foul?' 'Hush,' she cried; 'must that be foul which is not fair?'
'Certainly,' I said. 'And is that which is not wise, ignorant? do you not
see that there is a mean between wisdom and ignorance?' 'And what may that
be?' I said. 'Right opinion,' she replied; 'which, as you know, being
incapable of giving a reason, is not knowledge (for how can knowledge be
devoid of reason? nor again, ignorance, for neither can ignorance attain
the truth), but is clearly something which is a mean between ignorance and
wisdom.
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