Eryximachus Borrows a Line from Euripides
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Aristodemus — φάναι δὴ πάντας καὶ βούλεσθαι καὶ κελεύειν αὐτὸν εἰσηγεῖσθαι. εἰπεῖν οὖν τὸν Ἐρυξίμαχον ὅτι ἡ μέν μοι ἀρχὴ τοῦ λόγου ἐστὶ κατὰ τὴν Εὐριπίδου Μελανίππην· οὐ γὰρ ἐμὸς ὁ μῦθος, ἀλλὰ Φαίδρου τοῦδε, ὃν μέλλω λέγειν. Φαῖδρος γὰρ ἑκάστοτε πρός με ἀγανακτῶν λέγει οὐ δεινόν, φησίν, ὦ Ἐρυξίμαχε, ἄλλοις μέν τισι θεῶν ὕμνους καὶ παίωνας εἶναι ὑπὸ τῶν ποιητῶν πεποιημένους, τῷ δὲ Ἔρωτι, τηλικούτῳ ὄντι καὶ τοσούτῳ θεῷ, μηδὲ ἕνα πώποτε τοσούτων
They all said they wanted it and urged him to propose it. So, Eryximachus said: My opening of the speech runs after Euripides' Melanippe — for the story is not mine, but this Phaedrus's, which I'm about to tell. Phaedrus, you see, every time, complains to me, and says, Isn't it terrible, Eryximachus, he says, that for some other gods hymns and paeans have been composed by the poets, but for Eros — being so great and mighty a god, not even one, of all the many —
Aristodemus's narration continues: the whole company has just agreed to Eryximachus's proposal to spend the evening in speeches on Eros rather than in heavy drinking, and they press him to make good on it. He opens with a disclaimer borrowed from Euripides, tracing the idea itself back to Phaedrus and a complaint Phaedrus keeps repeating.
Eryximachus's opening line is a quotation, and an audience that knew its tragedy would have caught it at once. Euripides' Melanippe the Wise reportedly opened with its heroine disclaiming her own speech — ho mythos ouk emos, "the story is not mine" — before she launched into an account of the cosmos so bold that ancient tradition says Euripides later had to tone it down. Eryximachus borrows the same gambit and swaps out Melanippe's mother for Phaedrus: convenient cover for a physician about to hold forth on something as unscientific as Eros. It is also the dialogue's own method in miniature. Apollodorus is retelling what Aristodemus told him, and Aristodemus is retelling what happened at Agathon's party. Before the night is over, Socrates will do exactly what Eryximachus does here, crediting his own account of Eros to a woman named Diotima. Borrowed authority, not personal conviction, keeps turning out to be how this dialogue prefers to speak about love.
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