Christopher PLANEAUX Socrates an Unreliable Narrator? The Dramatic Setting of the Lysis

The present study reconstructs as completely as possible the physical setting of Platoís dialogue Lysis, emphasizing the route Socrates traveled from the Academy to the Lyceum. Plato has Socrates outline a precise path, but a contradiction is present. Part I studies Socrates' description "straight to the Lyceum from the Academy by way of the road just outside the wall and under it." Surveying the topography shows this description to be at odds with the stated intent. ìStraightî to the Lyceum from the Academy would have been through the asty, past the agora, and through the Diochares Gates. Socrates instead walked wide of Athens-proper, around the polis by way of the outer wall, and approached the Lyceum from the north. The initial discontinuity is jarring and heightens the readerís awareness. One should thus be skeptical of Socratesís other statements. Part II concentrates on those other statements and uncovers that the opening is but one in a series of anomalies presented by the philosopher: i) Socrates professes ignorance about the construction of a new palaistra located near the Lyceum, even though a) the latter locale was a frequented haunt of Socrates and b) the former locale was a haunt of his close friend and eulogist, the sophist Miccus; and ii) Socrates professes ignorance of the young Lysis, even though Socrates knew both a) Lysisís family and b) Lysisís most ardent pursuer Hippothales. Socrates even notes that he "chanced-by" the new palaistra during a Hermaea, a ritual within the Anthesteria ñ one of the few days out of the Attic year when men could mingle unmolested about wrestling-schools among unescorted boys and youths. But Socrates exposes his deceptions: first, through his blatantly contradictory opening but also when he openly identifies the ìunknownî Lysis across the courtyard of a crowded wrestling-school. Part III stresses a recognizable pattern in Socratesís deceptions: he stresses above all else the accidental nature of his encounter at the Fountain of Penops, and, consequently, a careful audience must call the accidental nature itself into question. The paper concludes that the encounter was not accidental but that Socrates in all likelihood contrived the whole episode, purposely taking an indirect route to the Lyceum, so that he would pass by the new palaistra on the very day he knew he would be free to enter and converse with Hippothales and Lysis. Thus, the Lysisís setting is staged and unstable -- suggesting the dialogue is more complex than has been traditionally entertained.