good and evil consequences of noble and humble birth, of
private and public station, of strength and weakness, of clever-
ness and dullness, and of all the natural and acquired gifts of
the soul, and study the composition of them j then he will
look at the nature of the soul, and from the consideration of
all this he will determine which is the better and which is the
worse life, and at last he will choose, giving the name of evil
to the life which will make his soul more unjust, and good to
the life which will make his soul more just ; all else he will
disregard. For this, as we have seen, is the best choice both
6 for this life and after death. Such an iron sense of
truth and right must a man take with him into the world
below, that there too he may be undazzled by the desire of
wealth or the other allurements of evil, lest, coming upon tyr-
annies and similar villainies, he do irremediable wrongs to
others and suffer yet worse himself; but let him know how to
choose the mean and avoid the extremes on either side, as far
as in him lies, not only in this life but in all that which is to
come. For this is the way of happiness.
THE REPUBLIC 407
And this was what the Interpreter said at the time, as the
messenger from the other world reported him to have spoken :
" Even for the last comer, if he chooses wisely and will live
diligently, there is appointed a happy and not undesirable ex-
istence. Let not the first be careless in his choice, and let
not the last despair. " As he spoke these words he who had the
first choice drew near and at once chose the greatest tyranny ;
his mind, having been darkened by folly and sensuality, he
did not well consider, and therefore did not see at first that
he was fated, among other evils, to devour his own children.
But, when he came to himself and saw what was in the lot,
he began to beat his breast and lament over his choice, for-
getting the proclamation of the Interpreter; for, instead of
blaming himself as the author of his calamity, he accused
chance and the gods, and everything rather than himself.
Now he was one of those who came from heaven, and in a
former life had dwelt in a well-ordered State, but his virtue
was a matter of habit only, and he had no philosophy. And
this was more often the fortune of those who came from
heaven, because they had no experience of life ; whereas, in
general, the dwellers upon earth, who had seen and known
trouble, were not in a hurry to choose. And owing to this
inexperience of theirs, and also because the lot was a chance,
many of the souls exchanged a good destiny for an evil or an
evil for a good. For if a man had always from the first dedi-
cated himself to sound philosophy, and had been moderately
fortunate in the number of the lot, he might, as the messenger
reported, be happy in this life, and also his passage to another
life and return to this, instead of being rugged and under-
ground, would be smooth and heavenly. Most curious, he
said, was the spectacle of the election — sad and laughable and
strange ; the souls generally choosing according to ,
their condition in a previous life. There he saw the
soul that was once Orpheus 8 choosing the life of a swan out
of enmity to the race of women, hating to be born of a woman
* See Apology, note 51. By the power of his music Orpheus succeeded
in entering the world of the dead and regaining his beautiful young wife
Eurydice (u-ry'df-ce) on condition that he should not turn back to see if she
were following until they reached the upper air. He looked back, however,
and Eurydice was taken from him. In his grief he is said to have hated all
women and repelled the advances of those who tried to captivate him.
Angered by this, the Thracian women, under the excitement of" certain re-
ligious rites, tore him to pieces.
408 PLATO THE TEACHER
because they had been his murderers ; he saw also the soul of
Thamyris g choosing the life of a nightingale ; birds, on the
other hand, like the swan and other musicians, choosing to
be men, The soul which obtained the twentieth lot chose
the life of a lion, and this was the soul of Ajax 10 the son of
Telamon, who would not be a man, remembering the injus-
tice which was done him in the judgment of the arms. The
next was Agamemnon, 11 who took the life of an eagle, because,
like Ajax, he hated human nature on account of his sufferings.
About the middle was the lot of Atalanta, 12 she seeing the
great fame of an athlete, was unable to resist the temptation ;
and after her there came the soul of Epeus 13 the son of Pano-
peus passing into the nature of a woman cunning in the arts ;
and far away among the last who chose, the soul of the jester
Thersites 14 was putting on the form of a monkey. There
came also the soul of Odysseus 15 having yet to make a choice,
and his lot happened to be the last of them all. Now the
recollection of former toils had disenchanted him of ambition,
and he went about for a considerable time in search of the life
of a private man who had nothing to do ; he had some diffi-
culty in finding this which was lying about and had been neg-
lected by everybody else ; and when he saw it he said that he
would have done the same had he been first instead of last,
and that he was delighted at his choice. And not only did
men pass into animals, but I must also mention that there
were animals tame and wild who changed into one another
and into corresponding human natures, the good into the gen-
tle and the evil into the savage, in all sorts of combinations.
9 Thamyris (tham'y-ris) : a legendary Thracian bard. He challenged the
Muses to a trial of skill, was defeated, and deprived by them of sight and
the power of song.
10 See Apology, note 56. He is said to have killed himself because of his
defeat in the contest with Odysseus for the armor of Achilles.
11 Leader in the expedition of the Greeks against Troy. See Apology,
note 21.
13 Atalanta (St'a-lan'ta) : a huntress, beautiful and swift of foot.
13 Epeus [(e-pe'us), son of Panopeus (pan'o-peus)] : maker of the famous
wooden horse, which, filled with armed Greeks, was carried by the unsus-
pecting Trojans within their walls and proved their destruction. For at
night the men concealed within, opened the gates of Troy to the Greeks.
See Apology, note 21.
"Thersites (ther-si'-tez) : one of the Greeks who went to Troy; noted
for his impudent talk and insolent brawling ; said to have been killed by
Achilles because he ridiculed that hero's lament over a fallen foe.
16 See Apology, note 58.
THE REPUBLIC 409
All the souls had now chosen their lives, and they went in the
order of their choice to Lachesis, who sent with them the
genius whom they had severally chosen, to be the guardian of
their lives and the fulfiller of the choice ; this genius led the
souls first to Clotho, and drew them within the revolution of
the spindle impelled by her hand, thus ratifying the destiny of
each ; and then, when they were fastened, carried them to
Atropos, who spun the threads and made them irreversible ;
whence without turning round they passed beneath the ,
throne of Necessity ; and when they had all passed, they
marched on in a scorching heat to the plain of Forgetfulness,
which was a barren waste destitute of trees and verdure; and
then towards evening they encamped by the river of Negli-
gence, the water of which no vessel can hold ; of this they
were all obliged to drink a certain quantity, and those who
were not saved by wisdom drank more than was necessary j
and those who drank forgot all things. Now after they had
gone to rest, about the middle of the night there was a thun-
derstorm and earthquake, and then in an instant they were
driven all manner of ways like stars shooting to their birth.
He himself was hindered from drinking the water. But in
what manner or by what means he returned to the body he
could not say ; only, in the morning awaking suddenly, he
saw himself lying on the pyre.
And thus, Glaucon, the tale has been saved and has not per-
ished, and may be our salvation if we are obedient to the word
spoken ; and we shall pass safely over the river of Forgetful-
ness and our soul will not be defiled. Wherefore my counsel
is, that we hold fast to the heavenly way and follow after jus-
tice and virtue always, considering that the soul is immortal
and able to endure every sort of good and every sort of evil.
Thus shall we live dear to one another and to the gods, both
while remaining here and when, like conquerors in the games
who go round to gather gifts, we receive our reward. And it
shall be well with us both in this life and in the pilgrimage of
a thousand years which we have been reciting.
PH£DO
SUGGESTIONS ON THE STUDY OF THE PH/EDO
Instead of the ordinary form of Introduction the
following suggestions on the study of the Phaedo
are submitted.
I. Do not study the dialogue first of all to see
whether you agree with the arguments or conclu-
sions of Socrates. Try first to hear him out, just as
if you were with him in the prison, and to appreci-
ate sympathetically the course and the spirit of his
argument about immortality.
II. Do not begin by a formal study of the dia-
logue. Read it through at least once just as you
would read a novel, to get the story, and general
sense and spirit of the whole.
III. Study of the formal arguments for immor-
tality : Read first very thoughtfully the account of
the doctrine of ideas, the doctrine of the pre-exist-
ence of the soul, and the doctrine of reminiscence in
the Introduction, page xxvi. If you have other
books to read on these subjects, so much the better.
Then write out as briefly and clearly as possible the
five formal arguments for immortality, as they are
given in the text and summaries.
Note: The first and fifth arguments seemed to
one of the hearers (103) inconsistent. Jowett thinks
them really inconsistent.
413
414 PLATO THE TEACHER
Note on the argument from reminiscence: How we
get pure abstract ideas, such as those found in pure
mathematics, has been a standing question in philos-
ophy. Plato held, as we see, that we remember
such ideas from a former existence. Some modern
philosophers have held that we are born with these
ideas or with natural capacities which always lead
us to them. Others have held that all such ideas
are gained by experience. Some hold that the ex-
periences of our ancestors are born in us as instinc-
tive tendencies which give rise to these ideas. The
last view has more in common with that of Plato
than may at first appear ; for, according to this view,
the individual has a kind of pre-existence in his
ancestors, and his most abstract ideas are organic
memories from that ancestral pre-existence. The
modern theory does not, however, represent the
soul as having existed individually before birth and
so does not suggest an individual existence after
death.
IV. Besides working out the formal arguments
for immortality, Plato suggests his belief in respect
to it by many incidents of the story. In some cases
the connection between the incident and the argu-
ment is plain, in other cases, less so.
(i.) Consider each of the following incidents to
see what, if any, connection it has with Socrates' be-
lief as shown in the dialogue as a whole, {a) The
message to Evenus (61 and following); {b) The di-
rection about the care of his sons (115) ; (c) The an-
swer to Crito about his burial (115); (d) The answer
to Crito's proposal that he postpone his death to the
last legal moment (116).
THE STUDY OF THE PH^EDO 415
(2.) Collect a series of quotations from the dia-
logue which show the state of Socrates' feeling, and
consider the connection of this feeling in presence
of death, with his professed belief.
(3.) More difficult points: (a) Read 89,90, and 91,
to where the argument is resumed. Note Socrates'
advice against misology or despair of reason. Read
with special care the paragraph beginning, " Yes,
Phasdo, he replied," etc., in 90. What connection
do you find between Socrates' reason why we should
not be misologists and his belief as shown in the dia-
logue as a whole ? (b) Read the paragraph in 91 be-
ginning " Let us then," etc. This paragraph appears
to be a confession of doubt and of willingness to have
his arguments for immortality overthrown. Is this
confession real or affected ? If it is affected, is it
consistent with Socrates' character and professions ?
If it is real, is it consistent with the rest of the dia-
logue ? (V) Read from 78 to the end of 83. What is
the deepest reason given here for loving good and
for not loving evil ?
Note : Taking the dialogue as a whole, it is evi-
dent that Plato's belief in immortality rests upon his
conviction that beyond the world which appears to
our senses, which is full of change, of illusion, and
of evil, there is a world which is eternal and good ;
that the soul belongs by its deepest nature to that
eternal and good world ; and that by purging the
soul from thoughts of this present evil world, and by
feeding the soul upon that which is eternal and good,
we may escape from this miserable changing exist-
ence, into our true estate with God. To know the
divine is to embrace it and to assimilate the divine
4l6 PLATO THE TEACHER
— is to be divine ; and to be divine is to be eternal.
" This is life eternal that ye might know God and
Jesus Christ whom he hath sent." Plato comes
nearer to seeing this than does many a Christian.
PH/EDO-dfe^^^^
PERSONS OF THE DIALOGUE.*
Ph.^edo, who is the narrator of APOLLODORUS.
the Dialogue to Simmias.
ECHECRATES of Phlius. CEBES.
Socrates. Crito.
Attendant of the Prison.
Scene : — The Prison of Socrates.
Place of the Narration: — Phlius.*
Echecrates. Were you yourself, Phaedo, in the prison S t e nh
with Socrates on the day when he drank the poison ? 3 p g J
Phc&do. Yes, Echecrates, I was.
Ech. I wish that you would tell me about his death. What
did he say in his last hours ? We were informed that he died
by taking poison, but no one knew anything more; for no Phli-
asian ever goes to Athens now, and a long time has elapsed
since any Athenian found his way to Phlius, and therefore we
had no clear account.
Ph
trial ? 5 *
1 Phaedo (fe'do) : a Greek philosopher, said to have been brought to Athens
as a slave in his youth and ransomed by one of the friends of Socrates.
Later he founded a school of philosophy.
Echecrates (e-kek'ra-tez) : not mentioned elsewhere in Plato.
Apollodorus. See Symposium, note i.
Simmias (sfm'mf-as) : a native of Thebes, educated in the Pythagorean
philosophy, which taught the doctrine of the pre-existence of the soul. Hence
his readiness to accept Socrates' argument based on that doctrine. He is
said to have written twenty-three dialogues, all of which are lost.
Cebes (se'bez) : a Greek philosopher, native of Thebes. He wrote three
dialogues, one of which, called Pinax, or The Picture, has been preserved.
Crito : see Apology, note 35.
8 Phlius (fli'us) : a town about sixty miles west of Athens.
s Hemlock.
27 417
41 8 PLATO THE TEACHER
Ech. Yes ; some one told us about the trial, and we could
not understand why, having been condemned, he was put to
death, as appeared, not at the time, but long afterwards. What
was the reason of this ?
Phced. An accident, Echecrates. The reason was that the
stern of the ship which the Athenians sent to Delos happened
to have been crowned on the day before he was tried.
Ech. What is this ship ?
Phced. This is the ship in which, as the Athenians say, The-
seus 4 went to Crete when he took with him the fourteen youths,
and was the saviour of them and of himself. And they were
said to have vowed to Apollo at the time, that if they were
saved they would make an annual pilgrimage to Delos. Now
this custom still continues, and the whole period of the voyage
to and from Delos, beginning when the priest of Apollo crowns
the stern of the ship, is a holy season, during which the city is
not allowed to be polluted by public executions ; and often,
when the vessel is detained by adverse winds, there may be
a very considerable delay. As I was saying, the ship was
crowned on the day before the trial, and this was the reason
why Socrates lay in prison and was not put to death until long
after he was condemned.
Ech. What was the manner of his death, Phsedo ? What
was said or done ? And which of his friends had he with him?
Or were they not allowed by the authorities to be present ?
And did 'he die alone ?
Phced. No ; there were several of his friends with him.
Ech. If you have nothing to do, I wish that you would tell
me what passed, as exactly as you can.
Phced. I have nothing to do, and will try to gratify your
wish. For to me too there is no greater pleasure than to have
4 Theseus (the'sus) : a legendary Greek hero, one of whose exploits was
the slaying of a monster called the Minotaur (mm'o-taur). To this monster,
imprisoned in a cave of Crete, Athens had to send a yearly sacrifice of seven
youths and seven maidens. Theseus went voluntarily as one of these victims
to Crete and with the help of Ariadne (a'ri-ad'ne), the king's daughter, suc-
ceeded in slaying the Minotaur. The grateful Athenians preserved the ship
in which Theseus made his voyage and sent in it every year envoys and a sac-
rifice to Delos.
Delos (de'los), a small island of the /Egean, was sacred to the worship of
Apollo, one of the greatest and most beneficent of the Greek gods, who is
said to have been born there. The priest of Apollo decked the stern of the
vessel with garlands before it left port
PH^DO 419
Socrates brought to my recollection ; whether I speak myself
or hear another speak of him.
Ech. You will have listeners who are of the same mind with
you, and I hope that you will be as exact as you can.
Phced. I remember the strange feeling which came over
me at being with him. For I could hardly believe that I was
present at the death of a friend, and therefore I did not pity
him, Echecrates j his mien and his language were so noble and
fearless in the hour of death that to me he appeared blessed. I
thought that in going to the other world he could not be with-
out a divine call, and that he would be happy, if any man
ever was, when he arrived there ; and therefore I did not
pity him as might seem natural at such a time. But neither
could I feel the pleasure which I usually felt in philosophical
discourse (for philosophy was the theme of which we spoke).
I was pleased and I was also pained, because I knew that he
was soon to die, and this strange mixture of feeling was shared
by us all ; we were laughing and weeping by turns, espe-
cially the excitable Apollodorus — you know the sort of man ?
Ech. Yes.
Phced. He was quite overcome ; and I myself, and all of us
were greatly moved.
Ech. Who were present?
Phced. Of native Athenians there were, besides Apollo-
dorus, Critobulus and his father Crito, Hermogenes, Epigenes,
^Eschines, and Antisthenes ; likewise Ctesippus of the deme
of Paeania, Menexenus, and some others ; but Plato, if I am
not mistaken, was ill.
Ech. Were there any strangers ?
Phced. Yes, there were ; Simmias the Theban, and Cebes,
and Phaedondes ; Euclid and Terpsion, who came from Megara.
Ech. And was Aristippus there, and Cleombrotus ? 5
6 Hermogenes (her-moj'e-nez) ; Epigenes and ^Eschines : mentioned in
Apology, 33. Antisthenes (an-tTs'the-nez) ; Ctesippus: speaker in Euthyde-
mus ; Menexenus (me-nex'e nus) ; Phaedondes (fe-don'dez) ; Euclid (u'klld) ;
Terpsion (terp'si-on) ; Aristippus (ar-Ts-tip'us) ; Cleombrotus (klS-5m'brd-
tus). Of these the most important are Euclid, Aristippus and Antisthenes,
each of whom founded a school of philosophy. These are called minor
Socratic schools, because each of them partially represents the teaching and
spirit of Socrates. Plato perhaps means to censure Cleombrotus and Aristip-
pus for not being present, although so near (the island ^Egina (e-ji'na) and
its city of that name being but twenty miles from Athens, southwest). Cicero
says that Cleombrotus after reading this dialogue killed himself by throwing
himself into the sea.
420 PLATO THE TEACHER
Phced. No, they were said to be in ^Egina.
Ech. Any one else ?
Phced. I think that these were about all.
Ech. And what was the discourse of which you spoke ?
Phced. I will begin at the beginning, and endeavor to re-
peat the entire conversation. You must understand that we
had been previously in the habit of assembling early in the
morning at the court in which the trial was held, and which is
not far from the prison. There we remained talking with one
another until the opening of the prison doors (for they were not
opened very early), and then went in and generally passed the
day with Socrates. On the last morning the meeting was ear-
lier than usual ; this was owing to our having heard on the
previous evening that the sacred ship had arrived from Delos,
and therefore we agreed to meet very early at the accustomed
place. On our going to the prison, the jailer who answered the
door, instead of admitting us, came out and bade us wait and
he would call us. " For the eleven," 6 he said, " are now with
Socrates ; they are taking off his chains, and giving orders that
he is to die to-day. ' ' He soon returned and said that we might
come in. On entering we found Socrates just released
° from chains, and Xanthippe, 7 whom you know, sitting by
him, and holding his child in her arms. When she saw us she
uttered a cry and said, as women will: "O Socrates, this is
the last time that either you will converse with your friends, or
they with you." Socrates turned to Crito and said : ** Crito,
let some one take her home." Some of Crito' s people ac-
cordingly led her away, crying out and beating herself. And
when she was gone, Socrates, sitting up on the couch, began
to bend and rub his leg, saying, as he rubbed : How singular
is the thing called pleasure, and how curiously related to pain,
which might be thought to be the opposite of it ; for they
* See Apology, note 45.
' Xanthippe (zan-tTp'pe) : wife of Socrates. Her name has been prover-
bial in ancient and modern times as that of a shrew. Some find excuse for
her in her husband's neglect of his private affairs. Xenophon says that her
son became embittered on account of his mother's severity and that Socrates
reasoned with the son, reminding him ot the mother's many acts of self-sac-
rifice for her children. In the incident here related, her grief seems to us
much more creditable than the indifference of Socrates. Compare John
xix. 26 and 27: " When Jesus therefore saw his mother and the disciple
standing by whom he loved, he saith to his mother, Woman, behold thy son !
Then saith he to the disciple, Behold thy mother I And from that hour that
disciple took her unto his own home."
PH^EDO 42 1
never come to a man together, and yet he who pursues either
of them is generally compelled to take the other. They are
two, and yet they grow together out of one head or stem ; and
I cannot help thinking that if ^Esop 8 had noticed them, he
would have made a fable about God trying to reconcile their
strife, and when he could not, he fastened their heads together ;
and this is the reason why when one comes the other follows,
as I find in my own case pleasure comes following after the
pain in my leg which was caused by the chain.
Upon this Cebes said : I am very glad indeed, Socrates,
that you mentioned the name of ^Esop. For that reminds
me of a question which had been asked by others, and was
asked of me only the day before yesterday by Evenus 9 the
poet, and as he will be sure to ask again, you may as well tell
me what I should say to him, if you would like him to have an
answer. He wanted to know why you who never before wrote
a line of poetry, now that you are in prison are putting ^Esop
into verse, and also composing that hymn in honor of Apollo.
Tell him, Cebes, he replied, that I had no idea of rivaling
him or his poems ; which is the truth, for I knew that I could
not do that. But I wanted to see whether I could purge away
a scruple which I felt about certain dreams. In the course
of my life I have often had intimations in dreams "that I
should make music." The same dream came to me some-
times in one form, and sometimes in another, but always say-
ing the same or nearly the same words : Make and cultivate
music, said the dream. And hitherto I had imagined that
this was only intended to exhort and encourage me in the