From the book
Lysis
Plato · Diotimos Editions · 2026
Browse this book’s lexicon →Orientation
At a Glance
- The wordPoiēma means poem; a particular composed work.
- In LysisCtesippus complains about the ποιήματα with which Hippothales overwhelms his listeners.
- Reading contextThe earlier excessive poems of courtship now have an argumentative counterpart; the comparison questions the adequacy of an elaborate account.
- A place to readThe Greek example means “he was recounting it in a certain poem.”
- English renderings
- Poem; a particular composed work
Meaning
Poem; a particular composed work.
Grammatical category: noun, neuter.
Use in the book
Ctesippus complains about the ποιήματα with which Hippothales overwhelms his listeners. A specific poem later recounts the family ancestor’s reception of Heracles. Here the noun denotes the products of composing, whereas ποίησις names the activity and ποιητής the maker.
These poems are conspicuous for inherited family praise rather than distinctive observation of Lysis. Socrates declines to hear the meters themselves: he wants the thought and the lover’s way of addressing the boy, which are relevant to the poem’s effect.
At 221d the word returns as a comparison for the argument itself: perhaps what they called a friend was idle talk, “like a long poem put together”. The earlier excessive poems of courtship now have an argumentative counterpart; the comparison questions the adequacy of an elaborate account.