The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from Symposium by Plato: of the gods, which is an honour to him; and a proof of his claim to this
honour is, that of his parents there is no memorial; neither poet nor
prose-writer has ever affirmed that he had any. As Hesiod says:--
'First Chaos came, and then broad-bosomed Earth,
The everlasting seat of all that is,
And Love.'
In other words, after Chaos, the Earth and Love, these two, came into
being. Also Parmenides sings of Generation:
'First in the train of gods, he fashioned Love.'
And Acusilaus agrees with Hesiod. Thus numerous are the witnesses who
acknowledge Love to be the eldest of the gods. And not only is he the
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