Heavenly Love, Most Noble of All
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Pausanias — καὶ οὐ κεκτημένου ἀρετήν, ὅμως καλὴ ἡ ἀπάτη· δοκεῖ γὰρ αὖ καὶ οὗτος τὸ καθʼ αὑτὸν δεδηλωκέναι, ὅτι ἀρετῆς γʼ ἕνεκα καὶ τοῦ βελτίων γενέσθαι πᾶν ἂν παντὶ προθυμηθείη, τοῦτο δὲ αὖ πάντων κάλλιστον· οὕτω πᾶν πάντως γε καλὸν ἀρετῆς γʼ ἕνεκα χαρίζεσθαι. οὗτός ἐστιν ὁ τῆς οὐρανίας θεοῦ ἔρως καὶ οὐράνιος καὶ πολλοῦ ἄξιος καὶ πόλει καὶ ἰδιώταις, πολλὴν ἐπιμέλειαν ἀναγκάζων ποιεῖσθαι πρὸς ἀρετὴν τόν
and not having acquired virtue, nonetheless the deception is noble; for this one too seems, as far as he himself is concerned, to have shown that for the sake of virtue and of becoming better, he would eagerly do anything for anyone — and this, in turn, is of all things most noble. Thus it is in every way entirely honorable to grant favor for virtue's sake. This is the Love of the heavenly goddess, heavenly itself, and of great worth to city and to individuals, compelling much care to be taken toward virtue, on the part of the—
Continuing directly from 185a's second case (a boy who grants favor hoping to become better through a lover's friendship, deceived when the lover turns out bad), Pausanias here completes the genitive absolute and draws the payoff: even that failure does not taint the deception, because the boy's own willingness to do anything for the sake of virtue is itself the noblest thing there is. He then names the conclusion of his whole speech: this is the Love belonging to the Heavenly goddess, of great worth to city and individual alike, compelling real care for virtue — a sentence that continues into 185c naming both beloved and lover.
Pausanias closes his diagnosis with a phrase that echoes the one he condemned two Stephanus pages earlier. In 185a the money-driven boy "would serve anything for anyone" (πᾶν ἂν ... ὑπηρετοῖ), and that total availability was the proof of his disgrace. Here the boy chasing virtue "would eagerly do anything for anyone" (πᾶν ἂν παντὶ προθυμηθείη) — the same universal willingness, restated almost word for word, now called κάλλιστον, "the most noble thing there is." Pausanias never argues that the actions differ; he argues only that the motive differs. Even the verb shifts to match: ὑπηρετεῖν names a hired hand taking orders, προθυμεῖσθαι names a heart setting itself eagerly forward. Swap the reason, and the identical total surrender flips from shameful to the finest thing a person can do.
The epithet he lands on, οὐράνιος, is not decoration. Hesiod's Theogony tells how Aphrodite Ourania was born from the sea-foam that gathered around the severed genitals of Ouranos, the sky itself — no mother, no female line at all. Pausanias built his whole speech on that genealogy back at 180d–181c: a goddess with no mother licenses, in his account, a love with no women in it, running only between men and boys. So when he calls this Love "heavenly" and "of great worth to city and individuals," the word is doing real argumentative work — it is his warrant for closing off one entire half of Athenian erotic life from the kind of love he is willing to call noble.
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