Phaedrus — Plato

INTRODUCTION 139 close and joyful comradeship, I will ask him to walk with me. He has shown me the flash and smoke of Lysias' fireworks. Let us go into the clear where we can see the stars.

I believe that Plato says in this dialogue that the greatest thing in the world is such love as Socrates had for truth and for Phaedrus, and that the highest expression of this love is in such free face-to-face talk as they had together that day on the banks of the llissus.

PHy^DRUS PERSONS OF THE DIALOGUE. Socrates. PHiEDRUs.* Scene : — Under a plane-tree, by the banks of the Ilissus.

Socrates, My dear Phaedrus, whence come you, and - whither are you going ? ^L Phcedrus, I am come from Lysias^ the son of Cephalus, and I am going to take a walk outside the wall, fori have been with him ever since the early dawn, which is along while, and our common friend Acumenus * advises me to walk in the country ; he says that this is far more refreshing than walking in the courts. Soc, There he is right.

Lysias then, I suppose, was in the city? Phcedr, Yes, he was with Epicrates,* at the house of Morychus,® that house which is near the temple of Olympian Zeus.'' Soc, And how did he entertain you ? Can I be wrong in supposing that Lysias gave you a feast of discourse ? Phcedr, You shall hear, if you have leisure to stay and listen.

1 Phaedrus (fe'drfis) : our knowledge of Phaedrus is obtained principally from this dialogue. > Ilissus (i-lfs'sus) : a small river flowing through the east side of Athens. 3 Lysias (lisT-as) : an Athenian orator. The lather, Cephalus (c^f a-lush was on intimate terms wiUi Socrates, and his house was the scene of Plato s Republic. See Republic, I., note z. « The physician.

See Protagoras, note 18. » Epicrates (e-pfk'ra-tez) ; a politician. • Morychus (mo'rf-kus) : a tragic poet. 7 Zeus, supreme ruler of the universe, was supposed to have his throne on the highest peak of Mt Olympus, in Thessaly. 141

p. 142Soc. And would I not regard the conversation of you and Lysias as '* a thing of higher import/* as I may say in the words of Pindar,^ " than any business ? '* Fhcedr. Will you go on ? Soc, And will you go on with the narration ?

Phcedr, My tale, Socrates, is one of your sort, for the theme which occupied us was love, — after a fashion : Lysias imagined a fair youth who was being tempted, but not by a lover ; and this was the point : he ingeniously proved that the non-lover should be accepted rather than the lover. ^ Soc, O that is noble of him.

And I wish that he would say a poor man rather than a rich, and an old man rather than a young one ; he should meet the case of me, and all of us, and then his words would indeed be charming, and of public utility ; and I am so eager to hear them that if you walk all the way to Megara, and when you have reached the wall come back, as Herodicus *® recommends, without going in, I will not leave you. Phcedr. What do you mean, Socrates?

How can you imagine that I, who am quite unpracticed, can remember or do « justice to an elaborate work, which the greatest rhetorician of the day spent a long time in composing. Indeed, I cannot ; I would give a great deal if I could. Soc.

I believe that I know Phaedrus about as well as I know myself, and I am very sure that he heard the words of Lysias, not once only, but again and again he made him say them, and Lysias was very willing to gratify him ; at last, when nothing else would satisfy him, he got hold of the book, and saw what he wanted, — this was his morning*s occupation, — and then when he was tired with sitting, he went out to take a walk, not until, as I believe, he had simply learned by heart the entire discourse, which may not have been very long ; and as he was going to take a w^alk outside the wall in order that he might practice, he saw a certain lover of discourse who had 8 See Euthydemus, note 22. • Owing in part to the ignorance and seclusion of women, close companionships between men were common in ancient Greece.

Such relationships were in some cases entered into voluntarily, while in other cases the younger of the two was placed by parents or guardian in charge of the elder. The feeling between the two was sometimes slight, sometimes so intense as to be almost unintelligible to us. The influence of the relationship was sometimes highly beneficial and sometimes grossly corrupting. »" See Protagoras, note 30.