“As the Wolf Loves the Lamb”: Need, Desire, Envy, and Generosity in Plato’s Phaedrus

Abstract

The Phaedrus's Palinode ascribes to the wing the double function of lifting the soul towards truth while itself being nourished by truth. The paper concentrates on the role Socrates ascribes to the wing in the structure and 'physiology' of the soul-mortal and divine-as well as on the role it plays in Socrates' subsequent phenomenological description of falling in love. The experience of love described in Socrates e' first speech-an experience dominated by envy-is examined in light of Socrates' Palinode, by reference to Socrates' account of the different ways souls can relate to truth before incarnation.