Brother of Someone
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Socrates — ἔτι τοίνυν, εἰπεῖν τὸν Σωκράτη, ἀπόκριναι ὀλίγῳ πλείω, ἵνα μᾶλλον καταμάθῃς ὃ βούλομαι. εἰ γὰρ ἐροίμην, τί δέ; ἀδελφός, αὐτὸ τοῦθʼ ὅπερ ἔστιν, ἔστι τινὸς ἀδελφὸς ἢ οὔ;
Agathon — φάναι εἶναι.
Socrates — οὐκοῦν ἀδελφοῦ ἢ ἀδελφῆς;
Agathon — Ὁμολογεῖν.
Socrates — πειρῶ δή, φάναι, καὶ τὸν ἔρωτα εἰπεῖν. ὁ Ἔρως ἔρως ἐστὶν οὐδενὸς ἢ τινός;
Agathon — πάνυ μὲν οὖν ἔστιν.
Answer me then, a little more, so you may better grasp what I mean. For if I asked: what of this? A brother, that very thing which it is, is he brother of someone or not? He said it is. Of a brother or a sister, then? He agreed. Try then, he said, the same of Eros. Is Eros love of nothing, or of something? Of something, of course.
Socrates asks Agathon to answer a little further, so he'll see the point. Take the word 'brother': a brother, just as such, is he brother of someone or not? Of a brother or a sister — yes. Now try the same with Eros: is Eros love of nothing, or of something? Agathon answers: of something, of course.
The phrase auto touth' hoper estin, "that very thing which it is," is doing quiet technical work — it isolates the pure concept, the brother-as-such, so the answer cannot dodge into particulars. This is the vocabulary Plato will sharpen into the theory of Forms: the thing itself, considered just as what it is. Here it is still lightweight, a conversational tool. But the ground is being laid: once Agathon grants that Eros too is love of something, the next question — whether one desires what one already has — will close the trap.
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