From the book
Lysis
Plato · Diotimos Editions · 2026
Browse this book’s lexicon →Orientation
At a Glance
- The wordTyptō means strike, beat; used of animals and of punishment.
- In LysisSocrates asks whether Lysis may strike the mules with a whip; the permitted person is instead the muleteer.
- Reading contextThe exchange is comic, but its concrete threat also reinforces how little control the supposedly favored son possesses.
- A place to readThe Greek example means “I would be beaten if I touched them.”
- English renderings
- Strike, beat; used of animals and of punishment
Meaning
Strike, beat; used of animals and of punishment.
Grammatical category: verb.
Use in the book
Socrates asks whether Lysis may strike the mules with a whip; the permitted person is instead the muleteer. Lysis later says that he would himself be beaten if he touched his mother’s equipment.
The shift turns the boy from imagined agent to possible recipient of a blow. His reply pairs τυπτοίμην and ἁπτοίμην, “I might be beaten” and “I might touch,” a rhyme noted by the edition. The exchange is comic, but its concrete threat also reinforces how little control the supposedly favored son possesses.