Lysis

The dialogue takes place in Athens and involves a conversation between Socrates, the boys Lysis and Menexenus, and Hippothales, who is in unrequited love with Lysis.

Socrates engages in a dialectical examination of the concept of friendship, proposing and critiquing various definitions.

The dialogue considers whether the lover or the beloved is the friend, whether like is the friend of like or unlike, and other hypotheses, ultimately concluding without a definitive answer to what constitutes a friend.