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At a wrestling school in Athens, Socrates meets a group of boys and young men, among them the handsome Lysis and his friend Menexenus, and an admirer, Hippothales, who writes embarrassing poems in Lysis's praise. Socrates shows him how to talk to the boy instead and begins a conversation about friendship: do we love those who are like us or those who are unlike us? Are we friends of the good because we are bad, or because we are neither? The dialogue ends, characteristically, without an answer.
Context and significance
Written in the early fourth century BC, the Lysis is Plato's first exploration of friendship and love, themes he develops in the Symposium and the Phaedrus. Benjamin Jowett's translation keeps the talk light and natural.
About the author
Plato (c. 428–348 BC) was born into an aristocratic family in Athens and became the devoted student of Socrates. After his teacher's trial and execution in 399 BC, he travelled, returned to Athens and founded the Academy, a school that lasted for centuries and counted Aristotle among its students.
Almost all his writings are dialogues in which Socrates questions his fellow citizens about justice, love, knowledge and the soul, from the Apology to the Symposium and the Republic. Known to Arab philosophers as Aflatun, he was read closely by al-Farabi and Ibn Rushd, and Western philosophy has been called a series of footnotes to him.