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Plato – Phaedrus

SOCRATES: ………. there is also a madness which is a divine gift, and the source of the chiefest blessings granted to men. For prophecy is a madness, and the prophetess at Delphi and the priestesses at Dodona when out of their senses have conferred great benefits on Hellas, both in public and private life, ………………..the ancient inventors of names .. would never have connected prophecy ..which foretells the future and is the noblest of arts, with madness, if they had deemed madness to be a disgrace or dishonour;--they must have thought that there was an inspired madness which was a noble thing; ………… madness [is] superior to a sane mind for the one is only of human, but the other of divine origin.

Again, where plagues and mightiest woes have bred in certain families, ….there madness has entered with holy prayers and rites, and by inspired utterances, found a way of deliverance for those who are in need; ……………….

The third kind is the madness of those who are possessed by the Muses; which taking hold of a delicate and virgin soul, and there inspiring frenzy, awakens lyrical and all other numbers……….. But he who, having no touch of the Muses' madness in his soul, … thinks that he will get into the temple by the help of art--he, I say, and his poetry are not admitted; the sane man disappears and is nowhere when he enters into rivalry with the madman.

I might tell of many other noble deeds which have sprung from inspired madness. And therefore, let no one frighten or flutter us by saying that the temperate friend is to be chosen rather than the inspired, but let him further show that love is not sent by the gods for any good to lover or beloved; …. And we, on our part, will prove in answer to him that the madness of love is the greatest of heaven's blessings………………