One of These Is Eros
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Diotima — καὶ τὰς ἐπῳδὰς καὶ τὴν μαντείαν πᾶσαν καὶ γοητείαν. θεὸς δὲ ἀνθρώπῳ οὐ μείγνυται, ἀλλὰ διὰ τούτου πᾶσά ἐστιν ἡ ὁμιλία καὶ ἡ διάλεκτος θεοῖς πρὸς ἀνθρώπους, καὶ ἐγρηγορόσι καὶ καθεύδουσι· καὶ ὁ μὲν περὶ τὰ τοιαῦτα σοφὸς δαιμόνιος ἀνήρ, ὁ δὲ ἄλλο τι σοφὸς ὢν ἢ περὶ τέχνας ἢ χειρουργίας τινὰς βάναυσος. οὗτοι δὴ οἱ δαίμονες πολλοὶ καὶ παντοδαποί εἰσιν, εἷς δὲ τούτων ἐστὶ καὶ ὁ Ἔρως.
Socrates — πατρὸς δέ, ἦν δʼ ἐγώ, τίνος ἐστὶ καὶ μητρός;
and all incantations, all divination and sorcery. A god does not mingle with a man, but through this is all the converse and discourse of gods with men, both waking and sleeping; and the man wise in such things is a daimonic man, but he wise in something else, in arts or handicrafts, is a mere craftsman. These spirits, then, are many and of every kind, and one of them is Eros too. And of what father, said I, is he, and of what mother?
Diotima completes the account of the daimonic: through it pass incantations, all divination, all sorcery; a god does not mingle with a man directly, but all converse between gods and men, waking or sleeping, goes through daimons. The man wise in such things is a daimonic man; the one wise only in arts or crafts is a mere mechanic. These spirits are many and various, and one of them is Eros. Socrates then asks: of what father and mother is he?
The little social snobbery — the daimonios anēr (the man wise in divine things) set above the banausos (the mere craftsman) — is Plato ranking kinds of knowledge, with the erotic-philosophical at the top. But the real payload is the last line: Eros is one daimon among many, and Socrates' next question turns the abstract category into a story. "Of what father and mother?" invites the myth of Poros and Penia (203b), which will give the in-between being a genealogy: born of Resource and Poverty, Eros is neither rich nor poor, neither god nor mortal, always contriving and always in want. The philosophy has prepared the myth; the myth will make it unforgettable.
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