From the book
Lysis
Plato · Diotimos Editions · 2026
Browse this book’s lexicon →Orientation
At a Glance
- The wordErythriaō means blush; reveal embarrassment visibly.
- In LysisHippothales blushes when Socrates asks who is beautiful in his eyes; he blushes still more after Socrates announces that his love is already far advanced.
- Reading contextHere attentive intellectual engagement, rather than the concealment of a beloved’s name, precedes the visible embarrassment.
- A place to readThe Greek example means “And, when asked, he blushed.”
- English renderings
- Blush; reveal embarrassment visibly
Meaning
Blush; reveal embarrassment visibly.
Grammatical category: verb.
Use in the book
Hippothales blushes when Socrates asks who is beautiful in his eyes; he blushes still more after Socrates announces that his love is already far advanced. The aorist ἠρυθρίασεν reports the visible response, while Ctesippus uses present ἐρυθριᾷς to tease him about it.
The blush answers the question without naming Lysis. It contrasts the lover’s current reluctance to speak with his habitual, excessive public praise. Read it as a narrated bodily reaction, not a named ethical doctrine of shame.
Lysis also blushes at 213d, after involuntarily agreeing that the inquiry has gone wrong. Here attentive intellectual engagement, rather than the concealment of a beloved’s name, precedes the visible embarrassment.