Phaedrus

Nonfiction | Essay / Speech | Adult

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Summary

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Prelude (227-230)

The Speech of Lysias (231-234)

Interlude—Socrates’s First Speech (234-241)

Interlude—Socrates’s Second Speech (242-245)

The Myth. The Allegory of the Charioteer and His Horses—Love Is the Regrowth of the Wings of the Soul—The Charioteer Allegory Resumed (246-257)

Introduction to the Discussion of Rhetoric—The Myth of the Cicadas (258-259)

The Necessity of Knowledge for a True Art of Rhetoric—The Speeches of Socrates Illustrate a New Philosophical Method (258-269)

A Review of the Devices and Technical Terms of Contemporary Rhetoric—Rhetoric as Philosophy—The Inferiority of the Written to the Spoken Word (269-277)

Recapitulation and Conclusion (277-279)

Key Figures

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

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Prelude (227-230)Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Summary: “Prelude”

Socrates meets Phaedrus outside the walls of Athens one morning. Phaedrus says that he has spent the night listening to a speech by Lysias, a famous Athenian. Phaedrus invites Socrates to walk with him and listen to Lysias’s speech as he remembers it. Socrates immediately accepts, declaring that his high regard for Lysias makes his speech a matter of the highest importance to him. Phaedrus calls Lysias “the best writer living” (22). Phaedrus reveals that the topic of their conversation was love. Lysias had apparently argued that “an admirer who is not in love is to be preferred to one who is” (22). Socrates discovers that Phaedrus is holding a written copy of the speech and is glad to be able to hear Lysias’s words themselves. The two decide to walk along the Ilissus River to find a suitable place to sit and read.

Phaedrus digresses by asking whether an ancient myth about the Ilissus is factual or imaginary. Socrates, when asked if he believes, suggests that the myth can be explained by more realistic means. However, he says, even if one can rationalize this myth, how can one go on to account for all the other myths— especially those that involve more fantastic creatures or events? Socrates concludes that until a man knows his own self better he should let these more frivolous questions wait.

Socrates lavishly praises the spot where they stop to rest along the river bank. Phaedrus questions why he speaks in this way as he rarely ventures outside the walls of Athens. Socrates replies that “the people in the city have something to teach me, but the fields and trees won’t teach me anything” (26). The two make themselves comfortable and Phaedrus begins to read Lysias’s speech.

Analysis: “Prelude”

This opening portion sets the stage for the several speeches that will follow. Though it may seem to be little more than a pretext for Phaedrus to begin reading the speech of Lysias, several themes that will appear in the ensuing discussion are hinted at here. Phaedrus, we learn, was going to try to recite Lysias’s speech from memory, until Socrates notices that he is carrying a written copy of the speech. This foreshadows the main theme of the second half of the dialogue: the relationship between the written and the spoken word. Interestingly, Socrates insists on hearing the written version of the speech read out loud; near the end of the dialogue, he makes several arguments for the inferiority of the written word. It seems that he wants to hear as authentic a version of Lysias’s speech as possible; however, his desire to hear the transcript read somewhat undermines his later claims. One might wonder, additionally, what Phaedrus was doing by concealing his copy of the speech, and why he had wanted to practice reciting the speech from memory.

The place that Socrates and Phaedrus decide to sit down and talk is significant as well. The spot they find, under a tree by the bank of the Ilissus River, seems to be an inviting place for nymphs and spirits. Though he boldly declares that the “the trees and fields won’t teach me anything” (22), Socrates will later claim to be inspired by the spirits that are native to the area. Whether this is really the case or not, the natural surroundings provide him with material for some of his myths and parables, including the myth of the cicadas. Trees, roots, and seeds will come to be important symbols as well, in the later discussion on rhetoric. In these ways, the action here serves a greater purpose than simply setting up the circumstances for the main dialogue that is to take place.