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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from Symposium by Plato: women is regarded by him as almost on an equality with that of men; and he
makes the singular remark that the gods favour the return of love which is
made by the beloved more than the original sentiment, because the lover is
of a nobler and diviner nature.
There is something of a sophistical ring in the speech of Phaedrus, which
recalls the first speech in imitation of Lysias, occurring in the Dialogue
called the Phaedrus. This is still more marked in the speech of Pausanias
which follows; and which is at once hyperlogical in form and also extremely
confused and pedantic. Plato is attacking the logical feebleness of the
sophists and rhetoricians, through their pupils, not forgetting by the way
to satirize the monotonous and unmeaning rhythms which Prodicus and others
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