At that moment it was possible to
behold Beauty in its clearness, when, with the choir of the
blessed following on, ourselves with Zeus, some with one, some
with another, of the gods, they looked upon a blissful vision
and view, and were made partakers in what it is meet and right
to call the most blessed of all mysteries; the which we
celebrated, sound and whole then, and untouched by the evil
things that awaited us in time to come, as being admitted to
mystic sights, whole and sound and at unity with themselves,
in pure light gazing on them, being ourselves pure, and
unimpressed by this we carry about now and call our body,
imprisoned like a fish in its shell.
Let memory be indulged thus far; for whose sake, in regret
for what was then, I have now spoken somewhat at length.
As regards Beauty, as I said, it both shone out, in its true
being, among those other eternal forms; and when we came down
hither we apprehended it through the clearest of all our bodily
senses, gleaming with utmost brightness. For sight comes to
us keenest of all our bodily senses, though Wisdom is not seen
by it. Marvellous loves, in truth, would that (namely, Wisdom)
have afforded, had it presented any manifest image of itself,
such as that of Beauty, had it reached our bodily vision--that,
and all those other amiable forms. But now Beauty alone has
had this fortune; so that it is the clearest, the most certain,
of all things; and the most lovable. Phaedrus, 249.+
NOTES
152. +Transliteration: noêtos topos. Pater's translation: "intellectual
world." Plato, Republic 508b and 517b.
153. +Transliteration: homoion homoiô. Pater's translation: "like to
like." Variants of the phrase occur in many of Plato's dialogues; see,
for example, Parmenides 132d.
153. +Transliteration: hypo logôn. Pater's translation: "under the
influence of . . . thought and language." Plato, Philebus 15d.
153. +Transliteration: kinei. Pater's translation: "sets in motion."
Plato, Philebus 15e.
154. +Transliteration: logos. Pater's contextual translation:
"definition." Plato, Philebus 15e.
154. +The passage begins at Philebus 15d.
161. +Transliteration: synagôgê . . . diairesis. Liddell and Scott
definition / E-text editor's translation: "." For example, Phaedrus
266b.
162. +Transliteration: Ti poiousa. Pater's translation: "by the doing
of what."
163. +Transliteration: chôristos. Pater's translation: "separable."
The term occurs often in Aristotle's Metaphysics. For example, see
Metaphysics 1090a.
165. +Transliteration: genos. Pater's translation: "seed, generation."
Liddell and Scott definition: "race, descent." Plato, Phaedrus 247a.
165. +Transliteration: akêratô. Pater's translation: "unmixed with
sense." Plato, Phaedrus 247a.