From the book
Lysis
Plato · Diotimos Editions · 2026
Browse this book’s lexicon →Orientation
At a Glance
- The wordAidō means sing; perform or circulate praise in song.
- In LysisHippothales does not merely speak or write: he sings to his beloved, making his companions endure his remarkable voice.
- Reading contextIts aorist passive participle ᾀσθέντα means the things that have been sung.
- A place to readThe Greek example means “you compose and sing a song of praise about yourself.”
- English renderings
- Sing; perform or circulate praise in song
Meaning
Sing; perform or circulate praise in song.
Grammatical category: verb.
Use in the book
Hippothales does not merely speak or write: he sings to his beloved, making his companions endure his remarkable voice. Ctesippus says that the whole city already sings the family’s achievements, and that old women sing its ancestral legends.
Socrates then redirects the performance: praise of the beloved can become the lover’s own victory-song. The repeated verb binds public reputation, conventional inherited material, and private courtship together. Its aorist passive participle ᾀσθέντα means the things that have been sung.