Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- PART I AN ANALYSIS OF THE LYSIS
- 1 203a1–207b7: the cast assembles, and the main conversation is set up
- 2 207b8–210d8 (Socrates and Lysis): do Lysis' parents really love him?
- 3 210e1–213c9: Socrates and Menexenus – how does one get a friend?
- 4 213d1–216b9: Socrates and Lysis again, then Menexenus – poets and cosmologists on what is friend of what (like of like; or opposite of opposite?)
- 5 216c1–221d6: what it is that loves, what it really loves, and why
- 6 221d6–222b2: the main argument reaches its conclusion
- 7 222b3–e7: some further questions from Socrates about the argument, leading to (apparent) impasse
- 8 223a1–b8: the dialogue ends – people will say that Socrates and the boys think they are friends, but that they haven't been able to discover what ‘the friend’ is
- 9 203a1–207b7 revisited
- PART II THE THEORY OF THE LYSIS
- Epilogue
- Translation of the Lysis
- Bibliography
- Index of names
- Index of subjects
8 - 223a1–b8: the dialogue ends – people will say that Socrates and the boys think they are friends, but that they haven't been able to discover what ‘the friend’ is
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 22 September 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- PART I AN ANALYSIS OF THE LYSIS
- 1 203a1–207b7: the cast assembles, and the main conversation is set up
- 2 207b8–210d8 (Socrates and Lysis): do Lysis' parents really love him?
- 3 210e1–213c9: Socrates and Menexenus – how does one get a friend?
- 4 213d1–216b9: Socrates and Lysis again, then Menexenus – poets and cosmologists on what is friend of what (like of like; or opposite of opposite?)
- 5 216c1–221d6: what it is that loves, what it really loves, and why
- 6 221d6–222b2: the main argument reaches its conclusion
- 7 222b3–e7: some further questions from Socrates about the argument, leading to (apparent) impasse
- 8 223a1–b8: the dialogue ends – people will say that Socrates and the boys think they are friends, but that they haven't been able to discover what ‘the friend’ is
- 9 203a1–207b7 revisited
- PART II THE THEORY OF THE LYSIS
- Epilogue
- Translation of the Lysis
- Bibliography
- Index of names
- Index of subjects
Summary
The dialogue ends with a concrete illustration of the theme of the first conversation between Socrates and Lysis in 207–10 – about the way Lysis' parents refuse to allow him to do what he wants, even handing him over to a slave for the slave to do whatever he wants with him. The slave-guardian in charge of him (see 208c) comes to get him (and Menexenus' to get him), so cutting the conversation short. But this, given the content of the conversation, begins to look like a genuine case of stopping him from doing what he wants, insofar as it brings to an end an opportunity to philosophize (to express his own philosophia, his ‘love of wisdom’: 213d), that activity which alone promises to get him the wisdom that he and everyone else desires. And these guardians are the very ones whose job it is to take the boys to the teacher's (208c again):
223a1 When I'd said that, I had it in mind at that point (ēdē) to disturb some other member of the older set; and then the guardians came up, like gods of some sort, Menexenus' and Lysis' guardians, with the boys' brothers with them, and called out to tell them to leave 223a5 for home (for by now it was late). Now at first both we and the people standing around tried to fend them off; but when they took no notice of us, addressed us angrily in broken Greek and 223b1 went on calling the boys just the same, and what's more looked to us difficult to engage with having had a bit to drink at the Hermaea festival – well, we gave in to them and broke up our get-together (tēn sunousian).
(223a1–b3)- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Plato's Lysis , pp. 185 - 188Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2005