Whoever Eros Teaches Turns Radiant
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Agathon — μὲν δὴ τήν γε τῶν ζῴων ποίησιν πάντων τίς ἐναντιώσεται μὴ οὐχὶ Ἔρωτος εἶναι σοφίαν, ᾗ γίγνεταί τε καὶ φύεται πάντα τὰ ζῷα; ἀλλὰ τὴν τῶν τεχνῶν δημιουργίαν οὐκ ἴσμεν, ὅτι οὗ μέν ἂν ὁ θεὸς οὗτος διδάσκαλος γένηται, ἐλλόγιμος καὶ φανὸς ἀπέβη, οὗ δʼ ἂν Ἔρως μὴ ἐφάψηται, σκοτεινός; τοξικήν γε μὴν καὶ ἰατρικὴν καὶ μαντικὴν Ἀπόλλων ἀνηῦρεν ἐπιθυμίας καὶ ἔρωτος ἡγεμονεύσαντος,
Now then, the creation, indeed, of all living things— who will deny that it is not Eros’s wisdom, the wisdom by which all living creatures both come to be and grow? But as for the crafting of the arts— do we not know that whomever, then, this god becomes teacher of, turns out eminent and radiant, while whomever Eros does not touch, stays obscure. Archery, to be sure, and medicine, and prophecy, Apollo invented, with desire and love leading the way,
Turning from courage to wisdom, Agathon widens Eros's authorship from mere life to every craft: whomever this god teaches turns out eminent and bright, whomever he leaves untouched stays obscure. As proof he traces Apollo's own inventions — archery, medicine, prophecy — to desire and Eros leading the way, delivering on his promise (196d) to honor poetry the way Eryximachus honored medicine.
Agathon widens the courage argument’s move — the stronger rules the weaker — into a claim about every craft. He offers assertion rather than proof: whomever the god teaches turns out ellógimos (worth naming) and phanós (bright to see); whomever he leaves untouched stays skoteinós (dark, hard to make out). The vocabulary of visibility and reputation running through this speech is not accidental — Agathon is a poet mid-display, in front of the very crowd whose good opinion decides whether he himself ends up ellógimos or forgotten. He reaches for his first proof, Apollo, and credits the god’s inventions — archery, medicine, prophecy — not to skill worked out over time but to epithymía and Eros ‘leading the way’ (hēgemoneúsantos). That finally delivers on the promise he made at 196d: to honor his own craft, poetry, the way Eryximachus honored his, medicine — Apollo’s medicine included.
The claim sits oddly next to the Phaedrus, where mantikē is named the finest technē precisely because it works through god-sent madness rather than a teachable method, and Socrates credits Apollo directly, with no other god standing behind him. Agathon needs Eros behind every craft, including the crafts of gods traditionally credited with inventing craft itself. That is the standard shape of a Gorgianic encomium: pick the one thing under praise, then show that everything valuable runs back through it. Agathon does not test whether Eros deserves that position in Apollo’s case; the myth is asked to confirm a conclusion reached before the argument started.
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