Reading room

Phaedrus

Socrates

The only Platonic dialogue set outside the city: on the banks of the Ilissus, Socrates and Phaedrus compare speeches about love. Socrates sets out the myth of the soul's winged chariot and divine madness, and in the final part criticises writing, which cannot defend itself or answer those who question it: a page often read as explaining why Socrates did not write.