Phaedrus

Phaedrus , son of Pythocles, of the Myrrhinus deme (Greek: Φαῖδρος Πυθοκλέους Μυῤῥινούσιος, Phaĩdros Puthokléous Murrhinoúsios; c. 444 – 393 BC), was an ancient Athenian aristocrat associated with the inner-circle of the philosopher Socrates. He was indicted in the profanation of the Eleusinian Mysteries in 415 BC during the Peloponnesian War, causing him to flee Athens.

He is best remembered for his depiction in the dialogues of Plato. His philosophically erotic role in his eponymous dialogue and the Symposium inspired later authors, from the ancient comedic playwright Alexis

Life Plato's Phaedrus, here in the original Greek from the Codex Clarkianus manuscript. Phaedrus, whose name translates to "bright" or "radiant" in particular how one might show light on something, "to reveal" at its earliest etymology, was born to a wealthy family sometime in the mid-5th century BC, and was the first cousin of Plato's stepbrother Demos. His depiction in the writing of Plato has led scholars to assume that he did not have his own system of philosophy, despite his interest in such contemporaneous movements as rhetoric, tragedy and sophism. He is present for the speeches delivered in Plato's Protagoras, whose dramatic date of 433/432 BC a major domestic event preceding the calamitous Sicilian Expedition in 415 BC. Inscribed records of the property confiscated from the profaners of the mysteries and a speech of Lysias further attest to his role in this event. Modern scholars such as Nussbaum and John Sallis have interpreted his character as an embodiment of the fecundity and potential tragedy of philosophical eroticism.