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[186b] how mighty and wonderful and universal is the sway of this god over all affairs both human and divine.1 Reverence for my profession prompts me to begin with the witness of medicine. This double Love belongs to the nature of all bodies: for between bodily health and sickness there is an admitted difference or dissimilarity, and what is dissimilar craves and loves dissimilar things. Hence the desire felt by a sound body is quite other than that of a sickly one. Now I agree with what Pausanias was just saying, that it is right to gratify


1 This cosmic theory was derived from Empedocles, who spoke of Love as the combining, and Strife as the disruptive, force pervading the universe.

Plato. Plato in Twelve Volumes, Vol. 9 translated by Harold N. Fowler. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1925.

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  • Commentary references to this page (7):
    • R. G. Bury, The Symposium of Plato, 187D
    • R. G. Bury, The Symposium of Plato, 188D
    • R. G. Bury, The Symposium of Plato, 189D
    • R. G. Bury, The Symposium of Plato, 195B
    • R. G. Bury, The Symposium of Plato, 196E
    • R. G. Bury, The Symposium of Plato, 218D
    • James Adam, The Republic of Plato, 4.437E
  • Cross-references to this page (5):
    • Herbert Weir Smyth, A Greek Grammar for Colleges, THE CASES
    • Herbert Weir Smyth, A Greek Grammar for Colleges, THE PARTICIPLE
    • Herbert Weir Smyth, A Greek Grammar for Colleges, PARTICLES
    • Raphael Kühner, Bernhard Gerth, Ausführliche Grammatik der griechischen Sprache, KG 3.5.3
    • William Watson Goodwin, Syntax of the Moods and Tenses of the Greek Verb, Chapter VI
  • Cross-references in general dictionaries to this page (7):
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