Poros and Penia
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Diotima — μακρότερον μέν, ἔφη, διηγήσασθαι· ὅμως δέ σοι ἐρῶ. ὅτε γὰρ ἐγένετο ἡ Ἀφροδίτη, ἡστιῶντο οἱ θεοὶ οἵ τε ἄλλοι καὶ ὁ τῆς Μήτιδος ὑὸς Πόρος. ἐπειδὴ δὲ ἐδείπνησαν, προσαιτήσουσα οἷον δὴ εὐωχίας οὔσης ἀφίκετο ἡ Πενία, καὶ ἦν περὶ τὰς θύρας. ὁ οὖν Πόρος μεθυσθεὶς τοῦ νέκταρος— οἶνος γὰρ οὔπω ἦν— εἰς τὸν τοῦ Διὸς κῆπον εἰσελθὼν βεβαρημένος ηὗδεν. ἡ οὖν Πενία ἐπιβουλεύουσα διὰ τὴν αὑτῆς ἀπορίαν παιδίον ποιήσασθαι ἐκ τοῦ Πόρου, κατακλίνεταί
It is rather long, she said, to relate; but nevertheless I will tell it to you. For when Aphrodite was born, the gods were feasting, the others and the son of Metis, Poros. And when they had dined, to beg — seeing that a feast was going on — came Penia, and was about the doors. So Poros, having got drunk on the nectar — for wine was not yet — entered the garden of Zeus and, weighed down, slept. So Penia, scheming because of her own want to make herself a child from Poros, lies down beside him,
Diotima tells the myth of Eros' birth. When Aphrodite was born, the gods held a feast, among them Poros (Resource), son of Metis (Cunning). After dinner, Penia (Poverty) came begging, as one does when a feast is on, and hung about the doors. Poros, drunk on nectar — for wine did not yet exist — wandered into Zeus's garden and, heavy with drink, fell asleep. Penia, scheming out of her own want to have a child by Poros, lies down beside him. The story continues into 203c.
The small touches carry weight. It is at Aphrodite's birthday feast that Eros is conceived, which is why (Diotima will say) love is bound up with beauty. The detail that wine did not yet exist — only nectar — marks the scene as the dawn of the divine order, before the human world's gifts. And the shift into the vivid present tense, kataklinetai, "lies down," pulls the listener into the moment of conception. Plato lets a story do what the dialectic could only assert: that love is the offspring of lack reaching toward plenty. The birth itself, and the portrait of the child, come in 203c–d — the famous description of Eros as barefoot, homeless, and forever scheming after the beautiful.
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