always raging against
yourself and everybody but Socrates.

APOLLODORUS: Yes, friend, and the reason why I am said to be mad, and
out of my wits, is just because I have these notions of myself and you;
no other evidence is required.

COMPANION: No more of that, Apollodorus; but let me renew my request
that you would repeat the conversation.

APOLLODORUS: Well, the tale of love was on this wise:--But perhaps I had
better begin at the beginning, and endeavour to give you the exact words
of Aristodemus:

He said that he met Socrates fresh from the bath and sandalled; and as
the sight of the sandals was unusual, he asked him whither he was going
that he had been converted into such a beau:--

To a banquet at Agathon's, he replied, whose invitation to his sacrifice
of victory I refused yesterday, fearing a crowd, but promising that I
would come to-day instead; and so I have put on my finery, because he is
such a fine man. What say you to going with me unasked?

I will do as you bid me, I replied.

Follow then, he said, and let us demolish the proverb:--

'To the feasts of inferior men the good unbidden go;'

instead of which our proverb will run:--

'To the feasts of the good the good unbidden go;'

and this alteration may be supported by the authority of Homer himself,
who not only demolishes but literally outrages the proverb. For, after
picturing Agamemnon as the most valiant of men, he makes Menelaus, who
is but a fainthearted warrior, come unbidden (Iliad) to the banquet of
Agamemnon, who is feasting and offering sacrifices, not the better to
the worse, but the worse to the better.

I rather fear, Socrates, said Aristodemus, lest this may still be my
case; and that, like Menelaus in Homer, I shall be the inferior person,
who

'To the feasts of the wise unbidden goes.'

But I shall say that I was bidden of you, and then you will have to make
an excuse.

'Two going together,'

he replied, in Homeric fashion, one or other of them may invent an
excuse by the way (Iliad).

This was the style of their conversation as they went along. Socrates
dropped behind in a fit of abstraction, and desired Aristodemus, who was
waiting, to go on before him. When he reached the house of Agathon
he found the doors wide open, and a comical thing happened. A servant
coming out met him, and led him at once into the banqueting-hall in
which the guests were reclining, for the banquet was about to begin.
Welcome, Aristodemu