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Plato Bilingual Anthology : LOVERS

from Phaedrus, * 255a-257a, translated by B. Jowett

Greek Fonts / Plato Complete works / Plato Concept

Page 5

At last they pass out of the body, unwinged, but eager to soar, and thus obtain no mean reward of love and madness. For those who have once begun the heavenward pilgrimage may not go down again to darkness and the journey beneath the earth, but they live in light always; happy companions in their pilgrimage, and when the time comes at which they receive their wings they have the same plumage because of their love.

Thus great are the heavenly blessings which the friendship of a lover will confer upon you, my youth. Whereas the attachment of the non-lover, which is alloyed with a worldly prudence and has worldly and niggardly ways of doling out benefits, will breed in your soul those vulgar qualities which the populace applaud, will send you bowling round the earth during a period of nine thousand years, and leave, you a fool in the world below.

ἐν δὲ τῇ τελευτῇ ἄπτεροι μέν͵ ὡρμηκότες δὲ πτεροῦσθαι ἐκβαίνουσι τοῦ σώματος͵ ὥστε οὐ σμικρὸν ἆθλον τῆς ἐρωτικῆς μανίας φέρονται· εἰς γὰρ σκότον καὶ τὴν ὑπὸ γῆς πορείαν οὐ νόμος ἐστὶν ἔτι ἐλθεῖν τοῖς κατηργμένοις ἤδη τῆς ὑπουρανίου πορείας͵ ἀλλὰ φανὸν βίον διάγοντας εὐδαιμονεῖν μετ΄ ἀλλήλων πορευομένους͵ καὶ ὁμοπτέρους ἔρωτος χάριν͵ ὅταν γένωνται͵ γενέσθαι.

Ταῦτα τοσαῦτα͵ ὦ παῖ͵ καὶ θεῖα οὕτω σοι δωρήσεται ἡ παρ΄ ἐραστοῦ φιλία· ἡ δὲ ἀπὸ τοῦ μὴ ἐρῶντος οἰκειότης͵ σωφροσύνῃ θνητῇ κεκραμένη͵ θνητά τε καὶ φειδωλὰ οἰκονομοῦσα͵ ἀνελευθερίαν ὑπὸ πλήθους ἐπαινουμένην ὡς ἀρετὴν τῇ φίλῃ ψυχῇ ἐντεκοῦσα͵ ἐννέα χιλιάδας ἐτῶν περὶ γῆν κυλινδουμένην αὐτὴν καὶ ὑπὸ γῆς ἄνουν παρέξει.

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Reference address : https://ellopos.net/elpenor/greek-texts/ancient-greece/plato-lovers.asp?pg=5