KNOW THYSELFboth a lover and a beloved” (204c). Socrates also includes many details
about Lysis’ beauty and how he and the characters respond to it in his
narrative (207a– b).
Socrates’ narrative in the Charmides also focuses the audience’s at-
tention on the appearance of a beautiful youth and the intense erotic
response to that beauty. He tells his friend: “All the company seemed
to be enamored of him. Amazement and confusion reigned when he
entered, and a second troop of lovers followed behind him. That grown
men like ourselves should have been a ffected in this way was not sur pr is -
ing, but I observed the boys and saw that all of them, down to the very
smallest, turned and looked at him as if he had been a statue” (154b).
The entire narrative of the Protagoras occurs in response to the
friend’s relentless query about Socrates’ and Alcibiades’ relationship
(309a– c). Socrates the narrator reinforces that interest by mentioning
the erotic relationship between Pausanias and Agathon (315e) and re-
ferring to how Alcibiades intercedes on his behalf (336c– e). The ap-
pearance of Hippocrates in Socrates’ bedroom early in the dialogue
also adds to the erotic framing of his narrative (310b). Indeed, when
Hippocrates bursts into Socrates’ bedroom and asks, “Socrates, are you
asleep or awake” (310b), he asks the very same question that Alcibiades
claims to have asked Socrates in his attempt to seduce him (Symposium
218c).
The Euthydemus is also fi lled with erotic overtones. For example,
Socrates mentions the lovers of Clinias (273b, 274d) and Ctesippus’
desire to look at Clinias (274c) at the very beginning of his narrative
and Ctesippus’ anger on his behalf later (283e). While not absent from
the dramatic context of the Republic, eros is considered in more general
philosophic and political terms in that dialogue. Nonetheless, Socrates
does mention Glaucon’s lover (368a), sexual relations between the citi-
zens (372a and throughout book 5), and all the kisses awarded to the
valorous guardians (468c).
As a narrator, Socrates interlaces his narratives with these erotic
details. He wants his audience to hear about the philosophical conversa-
tions that occur with the erotic allegiances of the characters in mind.
These references to eros give an emotional shading to Socrates’ narra-
tive portrayal of his practice of philosophy. What philosophical purpose
might their inclusion serve? Perhaps Plato wishes to suggest that Socrates
sees an emotion, like eros, as key to understanding both his own sense
of self-knowledge and the importance that emotions play in human in-
teraction. At the very least, the prevalence of erotic themes in his narra-
tive frame should direct our attention to the other emotional responses
that Socrates includes in his narratives: blushing and laughter.