of arts
or handicrafts, is mean and vulgar. Now these spirits or intermediate
powers are many and divine, and one of them is Love." "And who," I
said, "was his father, and who his mother?" "The tale," she said,
"will take time; nevertheless I will tell you. On the birthday of
Aphrodite there was a feast of the gods, at which the god Poros or
Plenty, who is the son of Metis or Discretion, was one of the guests.
When the feast was over, Penia or Poverty, as the manner was, came
about the doors to beg. Now Plenty, who was the worse for Nectar
(there was no wine in those days), came into the garden of Zeus and
fell into a heavy sleep; and Poverty, considering her own straitened
circumstances, plotted to have him for a husband, and accordingly she
lay down at his side and conceived Love, who partly because he is
naturally a lover of the beautiful, and because Aphrodite is herself
beautiful, and also because he was born on Aphrodite's birthday is her
follower and attendant. And as his parentage is, so also are his
fortunes.

"In the first place, he is always poor, and anything but tender and
fair, as the many imagine him; and he is hard-featured and squalid,
and has no shoes nor a house to dwell in; on the bare earth exposed he
lies under the open heaven, in the streets, or at the doors of houses,
taking his rest; and like his mother, he is always in distress. Like
his father too, whom he also partly resembles, he is always plotting
against the fair and the good; he is bold, enterprising, strong, a
hunter of men, always at some intrigue or other, keen in the pursuit
of wisdom, and never wanting resources; a philosopher at all times,
terrible as an enchanter, sorcerer, sophist; for as he is neither
mortal nor immortal, he is alive and flourishing at one moment when he
is in plenty, and dead at another moment, and again alive by reason of
his father's nature. But that which is always flowing in is always
flowing out, and so he is never in want and never in wealth, and he is
also in a mean between ignorance and knowledge. The truth of the
matter is just this: No god is a philosopher or seeker after wisdom,
for he is wise already; nor does any one else who is wise seek after
wisdom. Neither do the ignorant seek after wisdom. For herein is the
evil of ignorance, that he who is neither good nor wise is
nevertheless satisfied; he feels no want, and has therefore no
desire." "But who then, Diotima," I said, "are the lovers of wisdo