Lysis
- Language:
- English
- Translation:
- Benjamin Jowett
- Status:
- Complete work
- Authorship:
- Written by the author
- Condition of the text:
- Clean text
- Extent:
- ~8,840 words · 42 passages
Cite this work
- APAPlato. (n.d.). Lysis. SigPhi. https://sigphiai.com/en/works/plato/lysis
- MLAPlato. "Lysis." SigPhi, https://sigphiai.com/en/works/plato/lysis.
- ChicagoPlato. Lysis. SigPhi. https://sigphiai.com/en/works/plato/lysis.
What it is about
What is a friend, and what makes two people friends? Every combination is tried — like with like, opposite with opposite, the neither-good-nor-bad — and none accounts for friendship.
Context and history
The first text in Western philosophy given wholly to friendship, and the one Aristotle had in front of him when he wrote books VIII and IX of the Nicomachean Ethics, which do give an answer. Reading them in that order shows how a tradition gets built.
Editorial context, not a citable source: unlike the passages of the work itself, these statements cannot be checked against the corpus.
I was going from the Academy straight to the Lyceum, intending to take the outer road, which is close under the wall. When I came to the postern gate of the city, which is by the fountain of Panops, I fell in with Hippothales, the son of Hieronymus, and Ctesippus the Paeanian, and a company of young men who were standing with them. Hippothales, seeing me approach, asked whence I came and whither I was going. I am going, I replied, from the Academy straight to the Lyceum. Then come straight to us, he said, and put in here; you may as well. Who are you, I said; and where am I to come? He showed me an enclosed space and an open door over against the wall. And there, he said, is the building at which we all meet: and a goodly company we are. And what is this building, I asked; and what sort of entertainment have you? The building, he replied, is a newly erected Palaestra; and the entertainment is generally conversation, to which you are welcome. Thank you, I said; and is there any teacher there? Yes, he said, your old friend and admirer, Miccus. Indeed, I replied; he is a very eminent professor. Are you disposed, he said, to go with me and see them? Yes, I said; but I should like to know first, what is expected of me, and who is the favourite among you? Some persons have one favourite, Socrates, and some another, he said. And who is yours? I asked: tell me that, Hippothales. At this he blushed; and I said to him, O Hippothales, thou son of Hieronymus! do not say that you are, or that you are not, in love; the confession is too late; for I see that you are not only in love, but are already far gone in your love. Simple and foolish as I am, the Gods have given me the power of understanding affections of this kind. Whereupon he blushed more and more.← Back to Plato