Love Is of Immortality
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Diotima — δὲ ἀναγκαῖον ἐπιθυμεῖν μετὰ ἀγαθοῦ ἐκ τῶν ὡμολογημένων, εἴπερ τοῦ ἀγαθοῦ ἑαυτῷ εἶναι ἀεὶ ἔρως ἐστίν. ἀναγκαῖον δὴ ἐκ τούτου τοῦ λόγου καὶ τῆς ἀθανασίας τὸν ἔρωτα εἶναι. ταῦτά τε οὖν πάντα ἐδίδασκέ με, ὁπότε περὶ τῶν ἐρωτικῶν λόγους ποιοῖτο, καί ποτε ἤρετο τί οἴει, ὦ Σώκρατες, αἴτιον εἶναι τούτου τοῦ ἔρωτος καὶ τῆς ἐπιθυμίας; ἢ οὐκ αἰσθάνῃ ὡς δεινῶς διατίθεται πάντα τὰ θηρία ἐπειδὰν γεννᾶν ἐπιθυμήσῃ, καὶ τὰ πεζὰ καὶ τὰ πτηνά, νοσοῦντά τε
And it is necessary to desire it with the good, from what we agreed, if indeed love is of the good being one's own forever. It is necessary, then, from this argument, that love be also of immortality. All this she taught me whenever she made discourses about love, and once she asked: what do you think, Socrates, is the cause of this love and desire? Or do you not perceive how terribly affected all the beasts are when they desire to beget, both the land-beasts and the winged, all falling sick
Diotima draws the conclusion: if love is of the good being one's own forever, then by the argument it must also be of immortality. All this she taught Socrates whenever she discoursed on love. And once she asked him: what do you think is the cause of this love and desire? Don't you see how terribly all the animals are affected when they long to beget — the beasts of the land and the birds alike — all falling sick with love? Continued in 207b.
To prove it is no mere human ideal, Diotima turns to the animals. The beasts, land and winged, are seized by erōs when they come to beget, and behave 'terribly' — sickening, mating, then (207b) fighting the strongest and starving themselves to feed their young. The point is that this drive cannot be explained by human calculation (logismos): the animals have no reasoning, yet they spend their lives, even die, for offspring they will not outlive to enjoy. The only explanation is the one the argument gave — mortal nature reaching for immortality the only way it can, by leaving another in its place. Plato uses biology as evidence for metaphysics: the universal instinct to reproduce is the visible face of the soul's love of the eternal, and it prepares the human cases (fame, poems, laws) and the ascent still to come.
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