Phaedrus 230b · 230b
By Hera, a Lovely Spot
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Socrates — νὴ τὴν Ἥραν, καλή γε ἡ καταγωγή· ἥ τε πλάτανος αὕτη μάλ᾽ ἀμφιλαφής τε καὶ ὑψηλή
The famous city-dweller is charmed in spite of himself. Socrates, who claims to learn nothing outside the walls, stops and admires — a spreading plane tree, deep shade, a cool spring, the smell of blossom. Plato is painting the loveliest setting in his whole corpus, and letting Socrates be, for once, a lover of a place.
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The setting
Phaedrus leads Socrates to a shaded place by the Ilissus to sit and read. Socrates — the reluctant city-dweller — is unexpectedly enchanted by it, and breaks into praise of the setting.
A note on this passage
The description is not decoration. Under this <em>plátanos</em> — the broad shade-tree named for its wide leaves — the entire Phaedrus will unfold: the myth of the soul's wings, the ascent toward Beauty. Plato roots that upward flight in a real, sensuous, shaded riverbank, and marks the moment with <em>kalós</em>, 'beautiful' — the one word that, for a Greek, is also 'noble' and 'good.' The lovely spot and the good conversation are, quietly, the same word; the ascent to Beauty itself begins in being charmed by a beautiful place.
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