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Socrates — οὖν τὸν λόγον, ὦ Φαῖδρε, εἰ μὲν βούλει, ὡς ἐγκώμιον εἰς ἔρωτα νόμισον εἰρῆσθαι, εἰ δέ, ὅτι καὶ ὅπῃ χαίρεις ὀνομάζων, τοῦτο ὀνόμαζε.
Aristodemus — εἰπόντος δὲ ταῦτα τοῦ Σωκράτους τοὺς μὲν ἐπαινεῖν, τὸν δὲ Ἀριστοφάνη λέγειν τι ἐπιχειρεῖν, ὅτι ἐμνήσθη αὐτοῦ λέγων ὁ Σωκράτης περὶ τοῦ λόγου· καὶ ἐξαίφνης τὴν αὔλειον θύραν κρουομένην πολὺν ψόφον παρασχεῖν ὡς κωμαστῶν, καὶ αὐλητρίδος φωνὴν ἀκούειν.
Agathon — τὸν οὖν Ἀγάθωνα, παῖδες, φάναι,
So this speech, Phaedrus, if you wish, consider it spoken as an encomium to Eros; or, by whatever name you are pleased to call it, call it that. When Socrates had said this, some praised, but Aristophanes attempted to say something, because Socrates, in speaking, had mentioned him about his speech; and suddenly the courtyard door, being knocked, made a great noise as of revellers, and they heard the voice of a flute-girl. So Agathon: Boys, he said,
Socrates ends: let this speech, Phaedrus, if you wish, count as an encomium to Eros; or, by whatever name you please to call it, call it that. When he had finished, some praised him, and Aristophanes tried to say something — because Socrates, in speaking, had mentioned his speech. And suddenly the courtyard door was knocked with a great noise, as of revellers, and they heard the voice of a flute-girl. So Agathon: 'Boys,' he said — the entrance of Alcibiades has begun.
Two touches close the philosophical half of the dialogue and open its dramatic reversal. First, Aristophanes stirs to object — because Socrates (through Diotima, at 205e) had answered his myth of the other-half by insisting love is of the good, not the kindred; Plato marks that the comic poet is not satisfied, leaving the quarrel between them alive. Second, and decisively, comes exaiphnēs — 'suddenly' — the very word that named the flash of the vision of Beauty (210e), now used for the crash of a drunken fist on the door. The timing is exquisite: at the instant the ascent to Beauty itself is complete, the flute-girl's music and a mob of revellers break in, and with them Alcibiades — beautiful, drunk, garlanded, the living embodiment of the bodily eros the ladder left behind. The dialogue turns from Beauty in the abstract to the most beautiful man in Athens, and from Diotima's serene teaching to Alcibiades' anguished confession of what it was actually like to love, and be refused by, Socrates. The theory has been given; now comes the test.
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