PHAEDRUS

PHAEDRUS

by Plato

translated by Benjamin Jowett

PHAEDRUS

PERSONS OF THE DIALOGUE: SOCRATES; PHAEDRUS. Scene: Under a

plane-tree, by the banks of the Ilissus.

Socrates. My dear Phaedrus, whence come you, and whither are you

going?

Phaedrus. I 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 accompany 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?

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 ingeniously proved that the non-lover should be

accepted rather than the lover.

Soc. O that is noble of him! I wish that he would say the poor man

rather than the rich, and the old man rather than the young one;

then he would meet the case of me and of many a man; his words would

be quite refreshing, and he would be a public benefactor. For my part,

I do so long to hear his speech, that if you walk all the way to

Megara, and when you have reached the wall come back, as Herodicus

recommends, without going in, I will keep you company.

Phaedr. What do you mean, my good Socrates? How can you imagine that

my unpractised memory can do justice to an elaborate work, which the

greatest rhetorician of the age spent a long time in composing.

Indeed, I cannot; I would give a great deal if I could.

Soc. I believe that I know Phaedrus about as well as I know

myself, and I am very sure that the speech of Lysias was repeated to

him, not once only, but again and again;-he insisted on hearing it

many times over and Lysias was very willing to gratify him; at last,

when nothing else would do, he got hold of the book, and looked at

what he most wanted to see,-this occupied him during the whole

morning; -and then when he was tired with sitting, he went out to take

a walk, not until, by the dog, as I believe, he had simply learned

by heart the entire discourse, unless it was unusually long, and he

went to a place outside the wall that he might practise his lesson.

There he saw a certain lover of discourse who had a similar

weakness;-he saw and rejoiced; now thought he, "I shall have a partner

in my revels." And he invited him to come and walk with him. But

when the lover of discourse begged that he would repeat the tale, he

gave himself airs and said, "No I cannot," as if he were indisposed;

although, if the hearer had refused, he would sooner or later have

been compelled by him to listen whether he would or no. Therefore,

Phaedrus, bid him do at once what he will soon do whether bidden or

not.