Phaedrus

Phaedrus says he can only summarize Lysias’s speech—until Socrates spots the scroll hidden beneath his cloak.

On a hot summer day outside Athens, the two friends follow the Ilissus to a shady plane-tree, where the sound of cicadas mingles with talk of love and persuasion. Phaedrus reads Lysias’s clever case for choosing a non-lover over a lover; Socrates listens, questions, and is soon drawn into answering with speeches of his own. What begins as a contest over which suitor is safer opens onto a deeper puzzle: can words move the soul without knowing what is true?

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