<b>Phaedrus by Plato</b>&nbsp;written by&nbsp;Plato, is a dialogue between Plato&#39;s&nbsp;protagonist,&nbsp;Socrates, and&nbsp;Phaedrus, an interlocutor in&nbsp;several dialogues. The&nbsp;<i>Phaedrus</i>&nbsp;was presumably composed around 370 BCE, about the same time as Plato&#39;s&nbsp;<i>Republic</i>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<i>Symposium</i>. Although ostensibly about the topic of&nbsp;love, the discussion in the dialogue revolves around the art of&nbsp;rhetoric&nbsp;and how it should be practiced, and dwells on subjects as diverse as&nbsp;metempsychosis&nbsp;(the Greek tradition of&nbsp;reincarnation) and&nbsp;erotic love.<br /><br />One of the dialogue&#39;s central passages is the famous&nbsp;Chariot Allegory, which presents the human soul as composed of a charioteer, a good horse tending upward to the divine, and a bad horse tending downward to material embodiment.<br /><br />The dialogue consists of a series of three speeches on the topic of love that serves as the subject to construct a discussion on the proper use of rhetoric. They encompass discussions of the&nbsp;soul,&nbsp;madness,&nbsp;divine&nbsp;inspiration, and the practice and mastery of an&nbsp;art.<br /><br />As they walk out into the countryside, Socrates tries to convince Phaedrus to repeat the speech of Lysias which he has just heard. Phaedrus makes several excuses, but Socrates suspects strongly that Phaedrus has a copy of the speech with him.<br /><br />Saying that while Lysias is present, he would never allow himself to be used as a training partner for Phaedrus to practice his own speech-making on, he asks Phaedrus to expose what he is holding under his cloak. Phaedrus gives in and agrees to perform Lysias&#39; speech.