From the book
Lysis
Plato · Diotimos Editions · 2026
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At a Glance
- The wordHermaea is the festival being celebrated at the wrestling-school.
- In LysisThe celebration explains why the boys and young men are mixed together in the same place.
- Reading contextIt thus frames both the opportunity for conversation and its practical ending.
- A place to readThe Greek example means “since they are celebrating the Hermaea.”
- English renderings
- Hermaea; the festival being celebrated at the wrestling-school
Meaning
Hermaea; the festival being celebrated at the wrestling-school.
Grammatical category: proper noun, neuter plural.
Use in the book
The celebration explains why the boys and young men are mixed together in the same place. On entering, Socrates finds that the sacrifices and associated preparations have largely finished and the adorned boys are playing. The festival is therefore an active condition of the meeting, not merely a decorative date. The supplied edition identifies it as the festival of Hermes.
The festival returns at the close: the tutors seem to have been drinking at the Hermaea and insist on taking the boys home (223a–b). It thus frames both the opportunity for conversation and its practical ending.