Lysis

Key Facts

full title  ·  Lysis, or Friendship

author  ·  Plato

language  ·  Ancient Greek

time and place written  ·  Athens, c.380 BCE (exact year unknown)

speaker  ·  Socrates (469–399 BCE), Plato's mentor.

other main characters  ·  Hippothales, Ctessipus (both friends of Socrates), Lysis (a boy, Hippothales sought-after beloved), and Menexenus (Lysis's friend).

translation used in this note  ·  Benjamin Jowett, with some corrections by Eugene O'Connor.

setting  ·  The festival of the Hermaea (a feast in honor of the god Hermes), in an Athenian temple.

primary topic of the dialogue  ·  Friendship

other topics  ·  Passionate love, desire, likeness, and the relationship between understanding and freedom.

conclusion to the dialogue  ·  Aporia; nothing is decided.