PHAEDRUS.
PERSONS OF THE DIALOGUE.
| Socrates. | Phaedrus. |
Scene:—Under a plane-tree, by the banks of the Ilissus.
Steph. 227
Phaedrus.Socrates, Phaedrus.Phaedrus who has just left Lysias the orator, is about to take a walk in the country, when he meets Socrates.
SOCRATES. My dear Phaedrus, whence come you, and whither are you going?
Phaedrus. I have come from Lysias the son of Cephalus, and I am going to take a walk outside the wall, for I have been sitting with him the whole morning ; and our common friend Acumenus tells me that it is much more refreshing to walk in the open air than to be shut up in a cloister.
Soc. There he is right. Lysias then, I suppose, was in the town ?
Phaedr. Yes, he was staying with Epicrates, here at the house of Morychus ; that house which is near the temple of Olympian Zeus.
Soc. And how did he entertain you ? Can I be wrong in supposing that Lysias gave you a feast of discourse ? Phaedr. You shall hear, if you can spare time to accom- pany me.
Soc. And should I not deem the conversation of you and Lysias 'a thing of higher import,' as I may say in the words of Pindar, ' than any business ' ?
Phaedr. Will you go on ?
Soc. And will you go on with the narration ?
The theme of Lysias was a paradox about love. Phaedr. My tale, Socrates, is one of your sort, for love was the theme which occupied us—love after a fashion: Lysias has been writing about a fair youth who was being tempted, but not by a lover; and this was the point: he
