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XII

The narrower circles are filled with unmixed fire, and those
surrounding them with night, and in the midst of these rushes
their portion of fire. In the midst of these circles is the divinity that directs
the course of all things; for she rules over all painful birth and all begetting,

5 driving the female to the embrace of the male, and the male to that of the female.

XIII

First of all the gods she contrived Eros.

XIV

Shining by night with borrowed light, wandering round the earth.

XV

Always straining her eyes to the beams of the sun.

XVa

[Parmenides in his verse called the Earth] rooted-in-water

ὑδατόριζον εἶπειν τὴν γῆν

XVI

Approximate translation, original below

For as at any time the mixture of the much wandering body is,
So does mind come to men. For the same thing
 Is that the nature of the body thinks
 In each and in all men; for the full is thought.

Ὡς γὰρ ἕκαστος ἔχει κρᾶσιν μελέων πολυπλάγκτων,
τὼς νόος ἀνθρώποισι παρίσταται· τὸ γὰρ αὐτό
ἔστιν ὅπερ φρονέει μελέων φύσις ἀνθρώποισιν
καὶ πᾶσιν καὶ παντί· τὸ γὰρ πλέον ἐστὶ νόημα.

XVII

On the right boys; on the left girls.

XVIII

When woman and man mix the seeds of Love,
The power which is formed in the veins out of different blood,
 If it maintains proper proportion, produces well-formed bodies.
For if the powers, when the seeds are being mixed, fight
 And do not constitute a unity in the body in which the mixture has taken place, then cruelly
Will they torment the nascent sex with double seed.

XIX

Thus, according to men’s opinions, did things come into
being, and thus they are now. In time (they think) they will
grow up and pass away. To each of these things men have
assigned a fixed name.