Who is Phaedrus from Symposium and what is their importance?

Phaedrus gives the first speech at the Symposium in praise of the god, Love. He emphasizes that love gives the lover and the beloved the courage to fight to the death. He uses the warrior Achilles as an example of this, in that Achilles killed Hector in revenge of the death of his lover Patroclus. Phaedrus says that Love is the most ancient of the gods.