[Footnote 18: Respecting this view of Eros or Aphrodite, as a cosmical, all-pervading, procreative impulse, compare Euripides, Frag. Incert. 3, 6, assigned by Welcker (Griech. Trag. p. 737) to the lost drama--the first Hippolytus; also the beautiful invocation with which the poem of Lucretius opens, and the fragmentary exordium remaining from the poem of Parmenides.] [Side-note: Discourse of Sokrates from revelation of Diotima. He describes Eros as not a God, but an intermediate Dæmon between Gods and men, constantly aspiring to divinity, but not attaining it.] Sokrates treats most of the preceding panegyrics as pleasing fancies not founded in truth. In his representation (cited from Diotima) Eros is neither beautiful, nor good, nor happy; nor is he indeed a God at all. He is one of the numerous intermediate body of Dæmons, inferior to Gods yet superior to men, and serving as interpreting agents of communication between the two.[19] Eros is the offspring of Poverty and Resource (Porus).[20] He represents the state of aspiration and striving, with ability and energy, after goodness and beauty, but never actually possessing them: a middle condition, preferable to that of the person who neither knows that he is deficient in them, nor cares to possess them: but inferior to the condition of him who is actually in possession. Eros is always Love of something--in relation to something yet unattained, but desired: Eros is to be distinguished carefully from the object desired.[21] He is the parallel of the philosopher, who is neither ignorant nor wise: not ignorant, because genuine ignorance is unconscious of itself and fancies itself to be knowledge: not wise, because he does not possess wisdom, and is well aware that he does not possess it. He is in the intermediate stage, knowing that he does not possess wisdom, but constantly desiring it and struggling after it. Eros, like philosophy, represents this continual aspiration and advance towards a goal never attained.[22] [Footnote 19: Plato, Sympos. pp. 202-203.] [Footnote 20: What Sokrates says here in the Symposion about Eros is altogether at variance with what Sokrates says about Eros in Phædrus, wherein we find him speaking with the greatest reverence and awe about Eros as a powerful God, son of Aphroditê (Phædrus, pp. 242 D, 243 D, 257 A).] [Footnote 21: Plato, Symposion, pp. 199-200. [Greek: O( E)/rôs e)/rôs e)sti\n ou)deno\s ê(\ tino/s? Pa/nu me\n ou)=n e)/stin. . . . Po/teron o( E)/rôs e)kei/nou ou(= e)/stin e)/rôs, e)pithumei= au)tou= ê)\ ou)/? Pa/nu ge. . . . A)na/gkê to\ e)pithumou=n e)pithumei=n ou)= e)ndee/s e)stin, ê)\ mê\ e)pithumei=n, e)a\n mê\ e)ndee\s ê)=|.]]