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.
Socrates
There he is right. Lysias then, I suppose, was in the town?
Phaedrus
Yes, he was staying with Epicrates, here at the house of Morychus; that house which is near the temple of Olympian Zeus.
Socrates
And how did he entertain you? Can I be wrong in supposing that Lysias gave you a feast of discourse?
Phaedrus
You shall hear, if you can spare time to accompany me.
Socrates
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”?
Phaedrus
Will you go on?
Socrates
And will you go on with the narration?
Phaedrus
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.
Socrates
