by

Plato

Translated by Benjamin Jowett


PERSONS OF THE DIALOGUE: Socrates, who is the narrator, Menexenus,
Hippothales, Lysis, Ctesippus.

SCENE: A newly-erected Palaestra outside the walls of Athens.


I was going from the Academy straight to the Lyceum, intending to take the
outer road, which is close under the wall. When I came to the postern gate
of the city, which is by the fountain of Panops, I fell in with
Hippothales, the son of Hieronymus, and Ctesippus the Paeanian, and a
company of young men who were standing with them. Hippothales, seeing me
approach, asked whence I came and whither I was going.

I am going, I replied, from the Academy straight to the Lyceum.

Then come straight to us, he said, and put in here; you may as well.

Who are you, I said; and where am I to come?

He showed me an enclosed space and an open door over against the wall. And
there, he said, is the building at which we all meet: and a goodly company
we are.