LYSIS

by PLATO



Translated by Benjamin Jowett




INTRODUCTION.

No answer is given in the Lysis to the question, 'What is Friendship?' any
more than in the Charmides to the question, 'What is Temperance?' There
are several resemblances in the two Dialogues: the same youthfulness and
sense of beauty pervades both of them; they are alike rich in the
description of Greek life. The question is again raised of the relation of
knowledge to virtue and good, which also recurs in the Laches; and Socrates
appears again as the elder friend of the two boys, Lysis and Menexenus. In
the Charmides, as also in the Laches, he is described as middleaged; in the
Lysis he is advanced in years.

The Dialogue consists of two scenes or conversations which seem to have no
relation to each other. The first is a conversation between Socrates and
Lysis, who, like Charmides, is an Athenian youth of noble descent and of
great beauty, goodness, and intelligence: this is carried on in the
absence of Menexenus, who is called away to take part in a sacrifice.
Socrates asks Lysis whether his father and mother do not love him very
much? 'To be sure they do.' 'Then of course they allow him to do exactly