Second speech of Socrates (244a–257b)[edit] Madness (244a–245c)[edit] Socrates begins by discussing madness. If madness is all bad, then the preceding speeches would have been correct, but in actuality, madness given as a gift of the gods provides us with some of the best things we have.[Note 19] There are, in fact, several kinds of divine madness (theia mania), of which he cites four examples: From Apollo, the gift of prophecy; From Dionysus, the mystic rites and relief from present hardship; From the Muses, poetry; From Aphrodite, love. As they must show that the madness of love is, indeed, sent by a god to benefit the lover and beloved in order to disprove the preceding speeches, Socrates embarks on a proof of the divine origin of this fourth sort of madness. It is a proof, he says, that will convince "the wise if not the clever" - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phaedrus_%28dialogue%29