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.