 
>1< | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 LYSIS, OR FRIENDSHIP
by Plato
380 BC
translated by Benjamin Jowett
New York, C. Scribner's Sons, [1871]
PERSONS OF THE DIALOGUE: SOCRATES, who is the narrator; MENEXENUS;
HIPPOTHALES; LYSIS; CTESIPPUS. Scene: A newly-erected Palaestra
outside the walls of Athens.
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.
Ctesippus said: I like to see you blushing, Hippothales, and
hesitating to tell Socrates the name; when, if he were with you but
for a very short time, you would have plagued him to death by
talking about nothing else. Indeed, Socrates, he has literally
deafened us, and stopped our ears with the praises of Lysis; and if he
is a little intoxicated, there is every likelihood that we may have
our sleep murdered with a cry of Lysis. His performances in prose
are bad enough, but nothing at all in comparison with his verse; and
when he drenches us with his poems and other compositions, it is
really too bad; and worse still is his manner of singing them to his
love; he has a voice which is truly appalling, and we cannot help
hearing him: and now having a question put to him by you, behold he is
blushing.
Who is Lysis? I said: I suppose that he must be young; for the
name does not recall any one to me.
Why, he said, his father being a very well known man, he retains his
patronymic, and is not as yet commonly called by his own name; but,
although you do not know his name, I am sure that you must know his
face, for that is quite enough to distinguish him.
But tell me whose son he is, I said.
He is the eldest son of Democrates, of the deme of Aexone.
Ah, Hippothales, I said; what a noble and really perfect love you
have found! I wish that you would favour me with the exhibition
which you have been making to the rest of the company, and then I
shall be able to judge whether you know what a lover ought to say
about his love, either to the youth himself, or to others.
Nay, Socrates, he said; you surely do not attach any importance to
what he is saying.
Do you mean, I said, that you disown the love of the person whom
he says that you love?
No; but I deny that I make verses or address compositions to him.
He is not in his right mind, said Ctesippus; he is talking nonsense,
and is stark mad.
O Hippothales, I said, if you have ever made any verses or songs
in honour of your favourite, I do not want to hear them; but I want to
know the purport of them, that I may be able to judge of your mode
of approaching your fair one.
Ctesippus will be able to tell you, he said; for if, as he avers,
the sound of my words is always dinning in his ears, he must have a
very accurate knowledge and recollection of them. >1< | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10
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