Thrasyllus of Mendes' Platonic Canon

Thrasyllys of Mendes arranged Platonic works into tetralogies¹, grouping them into themes and editorializing the names of the dialogues with the interlocutor and the subject.

Next to each dialogue is Diogenes’ original classification of that dialogue. See Diogenes’ Taxonomy of Platonic Dialogues for more information about types of dialogues.

1. First tetralogy——What the life of a philosopher will be
   1. Euthyphro, or On Holiness (tentative)
   2. Apology (ethical)
   3. Crito, or On What is to be Done (ethical)
   4. Phaedo, or On the Soul (ethical)
2. Second tetralogy
   1. Cratylus, or On the Correctness of Names (logical)
   2. Theaetetus, or On Knowledge (tentative)
   3. Sophist, or On Being (logical)
   4. Statesman, or On Monarchy
3. Third tetralogy (logical)
   1. Parmenides, or On Ideas (logical)
   2. Philebus, or On Pleasure (ethical)
   3. Symposium, or On the Good (ethical)
   4. Phaedrus, or On Love (ethical)
4. Fourth tetralogy
   1. Alcibiades I, or On the Nature of Man (obstetric)
   2. Alcibiades II, or On Prayer (obstetric)
   3. Hipparchus, or The Lover of Gain (ethical)
   4. The Rival Lovers, or On Philosophy
5. Fifth tetralogy (ethical)
   1. Theages, or On Philosophy (obstetric)
   2. Charmides, or On Temperance (tentative)
   3. Laches, or On Courage (obstetric)
   4. Lysis, or On Friendship (obstetric)
6. Sixth tetralogy
   1. Euthydemus, or The Eristic (refutative)
   2. Protagoras, or Sophists (critical)
   3. Gorgias, or On Rhetoric (refutative)
   4. Meno, or On Virtue (tentative)
7. Seventh tetralogy
   1. Hippias Major, or On Beauty (refutative)
   2. Hippias Minor, or On Falsehood (refutative)
   3. Ion, or On the Iliad (tentative)
   4. Menexenus, or The Funeral Oration (ethical)
8. Eighth tetralogy
   1. Clitophon, or Introduction (ethical)
   2. Republic, or On Justice (political)
   3. Timaeus, or On Nature (physical treatise)
   4. Critias, or Story of Atlantis (ethical)
9. Ninth tetralogy
   1. Minos, or On Law (political)
   2. Laws, or On Legislation (political)
   3. Epinomis, or Nocturnal Council or Philosopher (political)
   4. Letters (ethical)