Who is Eryximachus from Great Dialogues and what is their importance?

Eryximachus is a doctor . He is present in "The Symposium", and he approaches the subject of love by making an analogy to his own trade. The body, he claims, has within it two loves, the love of health and the love of disease. The role of the doctor is to encourage the first and discourage the second and thus bring about health. This general pattern extends to other arts, too, where there is a duality of a good and bad love.