singularly fond of listening. And moreover, as they are keeping the Hermaea, boys
and men are all mixed up together today. ... on entering we found that the boys
had finished their sacrifices and, the ceremony now being pretty well over, were
playing together at knucklebones, all in their holiday dress. The greater part were
carrying on their game in the court outside, but some of them were in a corner of
the dressing room, playing at odd and even with a number of bones which they
drew out of small baskets.
(Plato, Lysis, 206c–e)Boys and men were generally separated for the purposes of exercise but on this
occasion the palaestrais evidently a setting for ceremonies, a festival of Hermes,
followed by playtime, a high day and holiday for the boys of Athens.
Finally, the palaestrais evidently a place for the contemplation and celebration
of the body beautiful. In the company of his friend Critias in the palaestra, Socrates
catches sight of a strikingly beautiful youth and enquires about him. Critias informs
him that he is his nephew, who is looking for a cure for headaches. He is invited over
and is evidently a star attraction.
Great amusement was occasioned by everyone making room and pushing with
might and main at his neighbour in order to sit next to him, until at the two ends
of the row one had to get up and the other was rolled over sideways. And he came
and sat down between Critias and me. But I, my friend, was beginning to feel
awkward. My former bold belief in my powers of conversing naturally with him had
vanished. And when Critias told him that I was the person who had the cure, he
looked at me in an indescribable manner and made as though to ask me a
question. And all the people in the palaestracrowded about us, and at that
moment, my good friend, I caught sight of the inwards of his garment, and took
the flame. Then I could no longer contain myself. I thought how well Cydias
understood the nature of love, when, in speaking of a fair youth, he warns someone
‘not to bring the fawn in the sight of the lion to be devoured by him’, for I felt that
I had been overcome by a sort of beast-like appetite.
(Plato, Charmides, 154c–e)This is the prelude to a dialogue on the nature of sophrosyne, ‘self-control’.
The symposium
The symposium or drinking party was a key social institution taking place in the
andronor men’s quarters of private households particularly of the well-to-do. As it
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