batch.motif.greek-plato-phaedrus-jowett-gutenberg-l2389-l2457
---
record_id: batch.motif.greek-plato-phaedrus-jowett-gutenberg-l2389-l2457
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/greek/project-gutenberg/phaedrus-jowett.md
passage_locator:
label: PHAEDRUS / INTRODUCTION. / ON THE DECLINE OF GREEK LITERATURE. / PHAEDRUS;
lines 2389-2457
start: '2389'
end: '2457'
translation: Phaedrus
notes: Generated from OpenAI Batch run motif-extraction-2026-04-28-high-priority;
human review required.
canonical_text:
quote: ''
summary: The passage describes beauty as uniquely visible through sight, contrasts
the corrupted or uninitiated response to earthly beauty with the recently initiated
lover's awe before a godlike beloved, and explains love as the soul's painful
and joyful growth of wings when encountering beauty. The beloved becomes an object
of reverence and the healer of the lover's pain. A closing couplet contrasts mortal
and immortal names for love, linking love with wings.
language: English
quote_policy: summarized
literal_observations:
- id: obs:1
text: Beauty is described as seen among celestial forms and also found on earth,
shining through sight.
category: attribute
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
- id: obs:2
text: Sight is described as the most piercing bodily sense, while wisdom is said
not to be seen by sight.
category: attribute
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
- id: obs:3
text: A person who is not newly initiated or has become corrupted does not easily
rise from this world to true beauty in the other world.
category: action
evidence_refs:
- ev:2
- id: obs:4
text: A recently initiated spectator who sees a godlike face or form is amazed,
shudders, and feels awe.
category: action
evidence_refs:
- ev:2
- ev:3
- id: obs:5
text: The lover looks on the beloved's face as if it were a god and would sacrifice
to the beloved as to a divine image if not restrained by fear of appearing mad.
category: action
evidence_refs:
- ev:3
- id: obs:6
text: Beauty is said to enter through the eyes as an effluence that moistens and
warms the wing, causing the wing to grow from the soul.
category: sequence
evidence_refs:
- ev:4
- id: obs:7
text: When parted from the beloved, the soul's moisture fails, the passages of the
wing dry and close, and the soul becomes pained and maddened.
category: sequence
evidence_refs:
- ev:5
- id: obs:8
text: When the soul sees the beautiful one again and bathes in the waters of beauty,
its constraint is loosened and it is refreshed.
category: sequence
evidence_refs:
- ev:5
- id: obs:9
text: The lover will not forsake the beautiful one and esteems him above family,
companions, property, and former proprieties.
category: relationship
evidence_refs:
- ev:5
- id: obs:10
text: The passage states that mortals call this state love, while gods have another
name connected with wings.
category: speech
evidence_refs:
- ev:6
figures:
- id: fig:1
name_or_label: Beauty
description: Beauty is personified as a shining presence seen with celestial forms
and visible on earth through sight.
role_refs:
- role:1
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
- id: fig:2
name_or_label: Wisdom
description: Wisdom is described as not visible through bodily sight, though its
loveliness would be transporting if it had a visible image.
role_refs:
- role:2
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
- id: fig:3
name_or_label: Uninitiated or corrupted beholder
description: A person who does not easily rise to the sight of true beauty and responds
to the earthly namesake of beauty with bodily pleasure.
role_refs:
- role:3
evidence_refs:
- ev:2
- id: fig:4
name_or_label: Recently initiated lover
description: A spectator of many glories in the other world who responds to a godlike
beloved with awe, reverence, bodily agitation, longing, and devotion.
role_refs:
- role:4
evidence_refs:
- ev:2
- ev:3
- ev:5
- id: fig:5
name_or_label: Beloved or beautiful one
description: A person with a godlike face or form, seen as an expression of divine
beauty and treated as an object of worship and a physician for the lover's pain.
role_refs:
- role:5
- role:6
evidence_refs:
- ev:3
- ev:5
- id: fig:6
name_or_label: Soul
description: The soul is described as once wholly winged and as undergoing pain,
warmth, moisture, wing-growth, desire, and refreshment through beauty.
role_refs:
- role:7
evidence_refs:
- ev:4
- ev:5
- id: fig:7
name_or_label: Love
description: The state described is called love by men and is given an immortal
name associated with wings in quoted lines attributed to apocryphal Homeric writings.
role_refs:
- role:8
evidence_refs:
- ev:6
roles:
- id: role:1
label: visible divine beauty
assigned_to:
- fig:1
basis: Beauty is called the loveliest and most palpable to sight and is linked with
celestial forms.
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
- id: role:2
label: unseen wisdom
assigned_to:
- fig:2
basis: The passage states that wisdom is not seen by bodily sight and lacks a visible
image.
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
- id: role:3
label: failed beholder of true beauty
assigned_to:
- fig:3
basis: The uninitiated or corrupted person cannot easily rise to true beauty and
pursues pleasure instead.
evidence_refs:
- ev:2
- id: role:4
label: initiated lover-beholder
assigned_to:
- fig:4
basis: The recently initiated spectator remembers otherworldly glories and reacts
with awe and longing to the beloved's beauty.
evidence_refs:
- ev:2
- ev:3
- id: role:5
label: godlike beloved
assigned_to:
- fig:5
basis: The beloved's face or form is called godlike and an expression of divine
beauty.
evidence_refs:
- ev:3
- id: role:6
label: healer of love-pain
assigned_to:
- fig:5
basis: The beloved is called the physician who alone can assuage the lover's pain.
evidence_refs:
- ev:5
- id: role:7
label: wing-growing sufferer
assigned_to:
- fig:6
basis: The soul is described as growing wings, suffering pain in absence, and being
refreshed by renewed sight of beauty.
evidence_refs:
- ev:4
- ev:5
- id: role:8
label: winged love
assigned_to:
- fig:7
basis: The quoted lines connect love with being winged or with the movement and
growth of wings.
evidence_refs:
- ev:6
symbols:
- id: sym:1
label: shining beauty
literal_form: Beauty shining among celestial forms and through earthly sight
associated_figures:
- fig:1
taxonomy_refs: []
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
- id: sym:2
label: sight and eyes
literal_form: The clearest aperture of sense; beauty received through the eyes
associated_figures:
- fig:1
- fig:4
- fig:6
taxonomy_refs: []
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
- ev:4
- id: sym:3
label: wings of the soul
literal_form: A wing that moistens, warms, swells, and grows from the soul
associated_figures:
- fig:6
- fig:7
taxonomy_refs: []
evidence_refs:
- ev:4
- ev:6
- id: sym:4
label: moisture and waters of beauty
literal_form: Moisture of the wing and the soul bathing in the waters of beauty
associated_figures:
- fig:1
- fig:5
- fig:6
taxonomy_refs:
- water
evidence_refs:
- ev:4
- ev:5
- id: sym:5
label: heat and perspiration
literal_form: Unusual heat and perspiration when the lover gazes on the beloved
associated_figures:
- fig:4
- fig:6
taxonomy_refs: []
evidence_refs:
- ev:4
- id: sym:6
label: image of a god
literal_form: The beloved regarded as the image of a god to whom sacrifice might
be offered
associated_figures:
- fig:5
taxonomy_refs: []
evidence_refs:
- ev:3
scenes:
- id: scene:1
label: Beauty visible through sight
summary: Beauty is described as seen in company with celestial forms and as uniquely
visible on earth through the clearest bodily sense, while wisdom remains unseen.
figure_refs:
- fig:1
- fig:2
symbol_refs:
- sym:1
- sym:2
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
- id: scene:2
label: Contrasting responses to earthly beauty
summary: The uninitiated or corrupted beholder fails to rise to true beauty and
pursues pleasure, whereas the recently initiated spectator feels awe before a
godlike form.
figure_refs:
- fig:3
- fig:4
- fig:5
symbol_refs:
- sym:1
- sym:6
evidence_refs:
- ev:2
- ev:3
- id: scene:3
label: Growth of the soul's wings
summary: The lover gazes on the beloved, receives beauty through the eyes, experiences
heat and moisture, and the soul's wings begin to grow.
figure_refs:
- fig:4
- fig:5
- fig:6
symbol_refs:
- sym:2
- sym:3
- sym:4
- sym:5
evidence_refs:
- ev:4
- id: scene:4
label: Absence, pain, renewed vision, and refreshment
summary: In separation from the beloved, the soul dries, closes, throbs, and is
pained; when it beholds the beautiful one again, it is refreshed in the waters
of beauty.
figure_refs:
- fig:4
- fig:5
- fig:6
symbol_refs:
- sym:3
- sym:4
evidence_refs:
- ev:5
- id: scene:5
label: Naming of love as winged
summary: The described state is called love among mortals, and quoted lines give
it a divine name associated with wings.
figure_refs:
- fig:7
symbol_refs:
- sym:3
evidence_refs:
- ev:6
candidate_motifs:
- id: motif:1
label: Initiated vision of otherworldly beauty
taxonomy_refs:
- initiation
basis: The passage explicitly contrasts the uninitiated or corrupted person with
the recently initiated spectator who has seen many glories in the other world.
evidence_refs:
- ev:2
confidence: high
cautions: The passage is philosophical and allegorical rather than a narrative initiation
rite.
- id: motif:2
label: Ascent from earthly beauty to true beauty
taxonomy_refs:
- ascent
basis: The uncorrupted goal is described as rising out of this world to the sight
of true beauty in the other world.
evidence_refs:
- ev:2
confidence: medium
cautions: The passage describes an intellectual or spiritual ascent, not a physical
journey.
- id: motif:3
label: Beloved as divine image and object of worship
taxonomy_refs:
- divine_beloved
basis: The beloved's face is viewed as that of a god, and the lover would sacrifice
to him as to the image of a god.
evidence_refs:
- ev:3
confidence: high
cautions: The beloved is treated as godlike by the lover; the passage does not state
that the beloved is literally a deity.
- id: motif:4
label: Winged soul transformed by beauty
taxonomy_refs:
- ascent
basis: The soul is described as once wholly winged and as growing wings when it
receives beauty through the eyes.
evidence_refs:
- ev:4
- ev:6
confidence: high
cautions: The taxonomy link to ascent is inferential from wings and rising; the
passage's immediate focus is love and recollection of beauty.
- id: motif:5
label: Love-sickness healed by the beloved
taxonomy_refs: []
basis: The soul suffers pain, sleeplessness, and madness in separation, but is refreshed
by seeing the beloved, who is called the physician able to assuage the pain.
evidence_refs:
- ev:5
confidence: high
cautions: No supplied taxonomy family directly corresponds to love-sickness or healing
by the beloved.
- id: motif:6
label: Divine and mortal names for love
taxonomy_refs: []
basis: The passage states that men call the condition love, while the gods have
a different name linked to wings.
evidence_refs:
- ev:6
confidence: medium
cautions: The quoted Homeric attribution is described as apocryphal within the passage.
comparison_claims: []
evidence:
- id: ev:1
type: summary
locator: 2389-2400
quote_or_summary: Beauty is said to have been seen with celestial forms and to shine
on earth through sight; wisdom is not seen by sight.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/greek/project-gutenberg/phaedrus-jowett.md
rights_note: Public domain source text; concise summary used.
- id: ev:2
type: summary
locator: 2401-2411
quote_or_summary: The uninitiated or corrupted person does not easily rise to true
beauty, while the recently initiated spectator has seen many glories in the other
world.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/greek/project-gutenberg/phaedrus-jowett.md
rights_note: Public domain source text; concise summary used.
- id: ev:3
type: quote
locator: 2412-2420
quote_or_summary: The lover looks on the beloved's face “as of a god” and would
sacrifice to him “as to the image of a god.”
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/greek/project-gutenberg/phaedrus-jowett.md
rights_note: Public domain source text; short quotation used.
- id: ev:4
type: summary
locator: 2420-2435
quote_or_summary: As the lover gazes, beauty comes through the eyes; the wing moistens,
warms, melts open, and begins to grow through the soul.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/greek/project-gutenberg/phaedrus-jowett.md
rights_note: Public domain source text; concise summary used.
- id: ev:5
type: summary
locator: 2436-2451
quote_or_summary: In absence the soul dries, closes, throbs, and is pained; seeing
the beautiful one again refreshes it in the waters of beauty, and the beloved
becomes the healer of the pain.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/greek/project-gutenberg/phaedrus-jowett.md
rights_note: Public domain source text; concise summary used.
- id: ev:6
type: quote
locator: 2452-2457
quote_or_summary: "“Mortals call him fluttering love, But the immortals call him
winged one” because wing-growth or wing-motion is necessary to him."
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/greek/project-gutenberg/phaedrus-jowett.md
rights_note: Public domain source text; short quotation used.
confidence:
extraction: high
motif_candidates: medium
comparison_claims: uncertain
notes: Literal extraction is well supported by the supplied passage. Motif taxonomy
assignments are cautious because the passage is philosophical-allegorical and
not a conventional myth narrative. No external comparison claims were made.
reviewer_status:
status: needs_review
reviewer: ''
reviewed_at: ''
notes: Machine-generated draft from OpenAI Batch; not human-reviewed.
extracted_by: openai_batch:gpt-5.5
extracted_at: '2026-04-28'
notes: |-
Used only the supplied passage and metadata. Comparison claims left empty because the passage does not itself support a specific cross-text or cross-tradition comparison beyond internal mortal/divine naming.
batch_run_id=motif-extraction-2026-04-28-high-priority
custom_id=motif_extract:greek-plato-phaedrus-jowett-gutenberg__l2389-l2457
passage_sha256=16801c6f6483bab5c11751dedf5e0c5889a340d43657f8d7ae5fe62e136af18b