Plato of Athens, who laid the foundations of the Western philosophical
tradition and in range and depth ranks among its greatest practitioners,
was born to a prosperous and politically active family circa 427 BC. In
early life an admirer of Socrates, Plato later founded the first
institution of higher learning in the West, the Academy, among whose
many notable alumni was Aristotle. Traditionally ascribed to Plato are
thirty-five dialogues developing Socrates' dialectic method and composed
with great stylistic virtuosity, together with the Apology and
thirteen letters.
The three works in this volume, though written at different stages of
Plato's career, are set toward the end of Socrates' life (from 416) and
explore the relationship between two people known as love (erōs) or
friendship (philia). In Lysis, Socrates meets two young men
exercising in a wrestling school during a religious festival. In
Symposium, Socrates attends a drinking party along with several
accomplished friends to celebrate the young tragedian Agathon's victory
in the Lenaia festival of 416: the topic of conversation is love. And in
Phaedrus, Socrates and his eponymous interlocutor escape the midsummer
heat of the city to the banks of the river Ilissus, where speeches by
both on the subject of love lead to a critical discussion of the current
state of the theory and practice of rhetoric.
This edition, which replaces the original Loeb editions by Sir Walter R.
M. Lamb and by Harold North Fowler, offers text, translation, and
annotation that are fully current with modern scholarship.
