He Welcomes the Combination
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Diotima — νέου ἐγκύμων ᾖ τὴν ψυχήν, ᾔθεος ὢν καὶ ἡκούσης τῆς ἡλικίας, τίκτειν τε καὶ γεννᾶν ἤδη ἐπιθυμῇ, ζητεῖ δὴ οἶμαι καὶ οὗτος περιιὼν τὸ καλὸν ἐν ᾧ ἂν γεννήσειεν· ἐν τῷ γὰρ αἰσχρῷ οὐδέποτε γεννήσει. τά τε οὖν σώματα τὰ καλὰ μᾶλλον ἢ τὰ αἰσχρὰ ἀσπάζεται ἅτε κυῶν, καὶ ἂν ἐντύχῃ ψυχῇ καλῇ καὶ γενναίᾳ καὶ εὐφυεῖ, πάνυ δὴ ἀσπάζεται τὸ συναμφότερον, καὶ πρὸς τοῦτον τὸν ἄνθρωπον εὐθὺς εὐπορεῖ λόγων περὶ ἀρετῆς καὶ περὶ οἷον χρὴ εἶναι
youth is pregnant in soul, being a young man, and when the age has come, he now desires to bear and beget, this one too, I think, goes about seeking the beautiful in which he might beget; for in the ugly he will never beget. So he welcomes beautiful bodies more than ugly ones, being pregnant, and if he meets a soul beautiful and noble and well-natured, he greatly welcomes the combination, and toward this person at once he is fluent in speeches about virtue and about what sort a man must be,
Diotima traces the soul-pregnant lover. When such a man, pregnant in soul from youth, comes to the age to bear and beget, he too goes about seeking the beautiful in which to beget — for in the ugly he never will. So he welcomes beautiful bodies over ugly, being pregnant; and if he meets a soul that is beautiful, noble, and well-natured, he greatly welcomes the two together, and at once toward that person he overflows with speeches about virtue and about what a man ought to be. Continued in 209c.
This is love turned generative and educational at the same moment. The lover's response to beauty is not to possess the beloved but to bring forth in his company — and what he brings forth are 'speeches about virtue and about what a man ought to be.' Eros becomes paideia: the lover educates the beloved, and in doing so gives birth to the virtue he was pregnant with. This is the model of philosophical love that will govern the ascent (209c will describe the pair rearing their shared 'offspring' together), and it is exactly the relationship Alcibiades will later say Socrates had with him — full of beautiful speeches, aimed at the soul, refusing the body. The 'combination' of beautiful body and beautiful soul is the last place particularity still matters; from here (210a) Diotima will lead the lover to see that the beauty in one body is akin to the beauty in all, and set him climbing toward the beauty that is no longer any body's at all.
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