From the book
Lysis
Plato · Diotimos Editions · 2026
Browse this book’s lexicon →Orientation
At a Glance
- The wordPhilos means friend; dear, loved, or valued; an attached or affectionate person.
- In LysisThe adjective does not by itself settle the direction of the relation.
- Reading contextVocative ὦ φίλε, “my friend”, elsewhere may simply be a familiar mode of address.
- A place to readThe Greek example means “the one loving [a friend] of the one loved, or the one loved of the one loving.”
- English renderings
- Friend; dear, loved, or valued; an attached or affectionate person
Meaning
Friend; dear, loved, or valued; an attached or affectionate person.
Grammatical category: adjective, also used as a noun.
Use in the book
The adjective does not by itself settle the direction of the relation. At 212a–213c2 Socrates tests whether φίλος names the person loving, the person loved, or both when affection is reciprocal. The active and passive alternatives depend on the participles of φιλέω, not on a change in the spelling of φίλος.
With things, especially neuter φίλον, “dear” or “valued” often makes the ordinary sense clearer than English “friend”. The edition nevertheless uses “friend” consistently so that the same Greek word remains visible. That translation policy should not make wine, wisdom, medicine, or health into persons capable of returning affection. Solon’s verse at 212e and the parents’ φίλτατα, “dearest”, at 213a make the ordinary affective sense especially clear.
Grammatical gender matters. ὁ φίλος can designate a friend or the person called a friend; τὸ φίλον can designate what is dear or valued. Dative and genitive constructions both express relations, which this edition usually marks as “friend to” and “friend of”. Grammar alone does not resolve the philosophical alternatives.
The final ὁ φίλος asks what the friend is, while the speakers still take themselves to be friends. At 223b no tested definition has been secured. Vocative ὦ φίλε, “my friend”, elsewhere may simply be a familiar mode of address.