Socrates reminds Menexenus that the previous argument has led them to conclude that the friendly is not of like to like or of opposite to opposite, and he proposes that it is neither of like or of opposite. He needs to resort to a particular characteristic to exemplify what he means, and he chooses the good, a characteristic which has already been used in the argument. They settle on the friendly being of the neither-good-nor- bad to the good. Menexenus is clearly unable to remember that it had been agreed with Lysis that the good requires no friend since it is self-sufficient (this had led to the conclusion that the good is not the friend of the good, and hence that the friendly is not of like to like).

Here I read through Platonic dialogues, translating and commenting on the Greek text as I go.

The resulting analyses may be found at:

https://theplatoparadigm.com