While working in Athens in 2011, I began to wonder where the river Ilisos was: that river where Socrates and Phaedrus had their famous conversation. As I soon discovered, it had long since been canalized beneath the modern city Athens had become. We went to see what was left of it, in a vacant lot within the sprawl, and followed the dialogue for clues to where the actual dialogue might have taken place.
Thanks: Erin Sexton.