Lysis | Page 3

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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 as he likes.' 'Of course not:
the very slaves have more liberty than he has.' 'But how is this?' 'The
reason is that he is not old enough.' 'No; the real reason is that he is not
wise enough: for are there not some things which he is allowed to do,
although he is not allowed to do others?' 'Yes, because he knows them,
and does not know the others.' This leads to the conclusion that all men
everywhere will trust him in what he knows, but not in what he does
not know; for in such matters he will be unprofitable to them, and do
them no good. And no one will love him, if he does them no good; and
he can only do them good by knowledge; and as he is still without
knowledge, he can have as yet no conceit of knowledge. In this manner

Socrates reads a lesson to Hippothales, the foolish lover of Lysis,
respecting the style of conversation which he should address to his
beloved. After the return of Menexenus, Socrates, at the request of
Lysis, asks him a new question: 'What is friendship? You, Menexenus,
who have a friend already, can tell me, who am always longing to find
one, what is the secret of this great blessing.' When one man loves
another, which is the friend--he who loves, or he who is loved? Or are
both friends? From the first of these suppositions they are driven to the
second; and from the second to the third; and neither the two boys nor
Socrates are satisfied with any of the three or with all of them. Socrates
turns to the poets, who affirm that God brings like to like (Homer), and
to philosophers (Empedocles), who also assert that like is the friend of
like. But the bad are not friends, for they are not even like themselves,
and still less are they like one another. And the good have no need of
one another, and therefore do not care about one another. Moreover
there are others who say that likeness is a cause of aversion, and
unlikeness of love and friendship; and they too adduce the authority of
poets and philosophers in support of their doctrines; for Hesiod says
that 'potter is jealous of potter, bard of bard;' and subtle doctors tell us
that 'moist is the friend of dry, hot of cold,' and the like. But neither can
their doctrine be maintained; for