ady to kill and put an end
to themselves and their beloved. And he who follows in the train of any
other god, while he is unspoiled and the impression lasts, honours and
imitates him, as far as he is able; and after the manner of his God he
behaves in his intercourse with his beloved and with the rest of the
world during the first period of his earthly existence. Every one
chooses his love from the ranks of beauty according to his character,
and this he makes his god, and fashions and adorns as a sort of image
which he is to fall down and worship. The followers of Zeus desire that
their beloved should have a soul like him; and therefore they seek out
some one of a philosophical and imperial nature, and when they have
found him and loved him, they do all they can to confirm such a nature
in him, and if they have no experience of such a disposition hitherto,
they learn of any one who can teach them, and themselves follow in the
same way. And they have the less difficulty in finding the nature of
their own god in themselves, because they have been compelled to gaze
intensely on him; their recollection clings to him, and they become
possessed of him, and receive from him their character and disposition,
so far as man can participate in God. The qualities of their god they
attribute to the beloved, wherefore they love him all the more, and if,
like the Bacchic Nymphs, they draw inspiration from Zeus, they pour out
their own fountain upon him, wanting to make him as like as possible
to their own god. But those who are the followers of Here seek a royal
love, and when they have found him they do just the same with him; and
in like manner the followers of Apollo, and of every other god walking
in the ways of their god, seek a love who is to be made like him whom
they serve, and when they have found him, they themselves imitate their
god, and persuade their love to do the same, and educate him into the
manner and nature of the god as far as they each can; for no feelings of
envy or jealousy are entertained by them towards their beloved, but they
do their utmost to create in him the greatest likeness of themselves and
of the god whom they honour. Thus fair and blissful to the beloved is
the desire of the inspired lover, and the initiation of which I speak
into the mysteries of true love, if he be captured by the lover and
their purpose is effected. Now the beloved is taken captive in the
following manner:--

As I said at the begi