A Democracy Dies

The story, told with a particularly human and dramatic quality, is of Athens during the period of the Peloponnesian War. It is the story of Alexias, a youthful athlete whose love affair with Lysis, a young man a few years his senior, may seem shocking to those unacquainted with Athenian sexual mores.

The reader also meets Socrates, Plato, Xenophon and others, and he meets them with an intimacy which lifts these greats out of the dryness of historical texts. We follow Socrates in his quest for goodness and Truth; we listen to his counsel; we witness his refusal to compromise with his principles. We come upon Plato as a young boy (and learn that the immortal name was only a nickname given a young wrestler, Aris-tokles).

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Frances Beck

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The story, told with a particularly human and dramatic quality, is of Athens during the period of the Peloponnesian War. It is the story of Alexias, a youthful athlete whose love affair with Lysis, a young man a few years his senior, may seem shocking to those unacquainted with Athenian sexual mores.

The reader also meets Socrates, Plato, Xenophon and others, and he meets them with an intimacy which lifts these greats out of the dryness of historical texts. We follow Socrates in his quest for goodness and Truth; we listen to his counsel; we witness his refusal to compromise with his principles. We come upon Plato as a young boy (and learn that the immortal name was only a nickname given a young wrestler, Aris-tokles).