kiss? Let me tell you. On the instant you will lose your freedom, the
indenture of your bondage will be signed; it will be yours on compulsion
to spend large sums on hurtful pleasures; you will have scarcely a
moment's leisure left for any noble study; you will be driven to concern
yourself most zealously with things which no man, not even a madman,
would choose to make an object of concern.

Xen. O Heracles! how fell a power to reside in a kiss!

Soc. Does it surprise you? Do you not know that the tarantula, which is
no bigger than a threepenny bit, (13) has only to touch the mouth and it
will afflict its victim with pains and drive him out of his senses.

(13) Lit. "a half-obol piece." For the {phalaggion} see Aristot. "H.
A." ix. 39, 1.

Xen. Yes, but then the creature injects something with its bite.

Soc. Ah, fool! and do you imagine that these lovely creatures infuse
nothing with their kiss, simply because you do not see the poison? Do
you not know that this wild beast which men call beauty in its bloom is
all the more terrible than the tarantula in that the insect must first
touch its victim, but this at a mere glance of thebeholder, without even
contact, will inject something into him--yards away--which will make
him man. And may be that is why the Loves are called "archers," because
these beauties wound so far off. (14) But my advice to you, Xenophon,
is, whenever you catch sight of one of these fair forms, to run
helter-skelter for bare life without a glance behind; and to you,
Critobulus, I would say, "Go abroad for a year: so long time will it
take to heal you of this wound."

(14) L. Dindorf, etc. regard the sentence as a gloss. Cf. "Symp." iv.
26 ({isos de kai... entimoteron estin}).

Such (he said), in the affairs of Aphrodite, as in meats and drinks,
should be the circumspection of all whose footing is insecure. At least
they should confine themselves to such diet as the soul would dispense
with, save for some necessity of the body; and which even so ought
to set up no disturbance. (15) But for himself, it was clear, he was
prepared at all points and invulnerable. He found less difficulty in
abstaining from beauty's fairest and fullest bloom than many others from
weeds and garbage. To sum up: (16) with regard to eating and drinking
and these other temptations of the sense, the equipment of his soul made
him independent; he could boast honestly that in his moderate fashion
(17) his plea