Socrates looked up at him and said: 'Good-bye to you too, and we'll do as you say.' And to us he added: 'What a civil man he is! 5 Throughout my time here he's been to see me, and sometimes talked with me, and been the best of fellows; and now how generous of him to weep for me! But come on, Crito, let's obey him: let someone bring in the poison, if it has been prepared; if not, let the man prepare it.'
Crito said: 'But Socrates, I think the sun is still on the mountains e and hasn't yet gone down. And besides, I know of others who've taken the draught long after the order had been given them, and after dining well and drinking plenty, and even in some cases enjoying themselves with those they fancied. Be in no hurry, then: there's 5 still time left.'
Socrates said: 'It's reasonable for those you speak of to do those things—because they think they gain by doing them; for myself, it's reasonable not to do them; because I think I'll gain nothing by taking the draught a little later: I'll only earn my own ridicule by 117 clinging to life, and being sparing when there's nothing more left. Go on now; do as I ask, and nothing else.'
Hearing this, Crito nodded to the boy who was standing nearby. The boy went out, and after spending a long time away he returned, 5 bringing the man who was going to administer the poison, and was carrying it ready-pounded in a cup. When he saw the man, Socrates said: 'Well, my friend, you're an expert in these things: what must one do?'
'Simply drink it,' he said, 'and walk about till a heaviness comes over your legs; then lie down, and it will act of itself.' And with this b he held out the cup to Socrates.
He took it perfectly calmly, Echecrates, without a tremor, or any change of colour or countenance; but looking up at the man, and fixing him with his customary stare, he said: 'What do you say to 5 pouring someone a libation from this drink? Is it allowed or not?'
'We only prepare as much as we judge the proper dose, Socrates,' he said.
c 'I understand,' he said; 'but at least one may pray to the gods, and so one should, that the removal from this world to the next will be a happy one; that is my own prayer: so may it be.' With these words he pressed the cup to his lips, and drank it off with good humour and without the least distaste. 5 Till then most of us had been fairly well able to restrain our tears; but when we saw he was drinking, that he'd actually drunk it, we could do so no longer. In my own case, the tears came pouring out in spite of myself, so that I covered my face and wept for myself— not for him, no, but for my own misfortune in being deprived of d such a man for a companion. Even before me, Crito had moved away, when he was unable to restrain his tears. And Apollodorus, who even earlier had been continuously in tears, now burst forth 5 into such a storm of weeping and grieving, that he made everyone present break down except Socrates himself.
But Socrates said: 'What a way to behave, my strange friends! Why, it was mainly for this reason that I sent the women away, so e that they shouldn't make this sort of trouble; in fact, I've heard one should die in silence. Come now, calm yourselves and have strength.'
When we heard this, we were ashamed and checked our tears. He walked about, and when he said that his legs felt heavy he lay down 5 on his back—as the man told him—and then the man, this one who'd given him the poison, felt him, and after an interval examined his feet and legs; he then pinched his foot hard and asked if he could feel it, 118 and Socrates said not. After that he felt his shins once more; and moving upwards in this way, he showed us that he was becoming cold and numb. He85 went on feeling him, and said that when the coldness reached his heart, he would be gone. 5 By this time the coldness was somewhere in the region of his abdomen, when he uncovered his face—it had been covered over— and spoke; and this was in fact his last utterance: 'Crito,' he said, 'we owe a cock to Asclepius: please pay the debt, and don't neglect it.'
10 'It shall be done,' said Crito; 'have you anything else to say?'
To this question he made no answer, but after a short interval he stirred, and when the man uncovered him his eyes were fixed; when he saw this, Crito closed his mouth and his eyes.
And that, Echecrates, was the end of our companion, a man 15 who, among those of his time we knew, was-so we should say—the best, the wisest too, and the most just.
NOTES
The events dramatized in the Phaedo took place in 399 B.C., when Plato was in his twenties. The dialogue portrays the execution of Socrates, which followed his conviction by an Athenian court on charges of 'impiety' and 'corrupting the young'. It thus forms a sequel to the episodes from his trial and imprisonment presented in the Apology and Crito.
Plato's version of his master's death is a philosophical memoir rather than a biographical record. The death scene is made the occasion of a philosophical discussion which can hardly be authentic. But the discussion is perfectly matched to the events in which it is framed. Thought and action are interfused throughout in the manner typical of Plato's maturity as a philosopher-dramatist. The date of composition is uncertain, but the work is usually assigned to Plato's 'middle period'. It was probably written more than a decade after the events it purports to depict.
In these notes the name 'Socrates' will generally refer to the dramatic personage, not to the historical figure, and without prejudice to the question of how far the views under discussion were Plato's own. It is not unreasonable to attribute to him the general position and main theses of 'Socrates' in this work. But he need not be taken to endorse every argument he puts into Socrates' mouth. The work is not an exposition of his doctrines, but a meditation upon the issues it raises, and a stimulus to the reader to explore them for himself.
1. PROLOGUE (57al—59c7)
The opening conversation between Phaedo and Echecrates takes place at Phlius, a small town in the Peloponnese. It was a centre of Pythagorean philosophy, of which Echecrates was an adherent, and which colours the thought of much of the dialogue. Of Phaedo of Elis, who tells the story, little is known. Possibly it was he who gave the original account of Socrates' death to Plato himself. There will be two interludes later (88c8-89a8, 102a3-9), which revert briefly to the present scene, reminding us that the main dialogue is narrated.
57al-b3. 'How did he meet his end?': the primary meaning of the verb in this question (a6) is 'to end'. Hence it commonly means 'end one's life'. Here, as at 58c9 and 58e4, the imperfect tense suggests that the question concerns Socrates' whole conduct of his death, and not merely the terminal event. Cf. 58c6—'the circumstances of the death itself. The dialogue will examine the concept of death in the context of this particular death.
Another common word for 'die' appears at 57b2—'he died by drinking poison'. It is sometimes used as a passive form of the verb for 'kill', and thus could, here and at 58a5, mean 'he was put to death'. Both verbs recur often in the dialogue, but they have not been distinguished elsewhere in the translation, and have generally been rendered 'die'. See also note 4 and on 71d5—e3.
58a6—c5. In explaining the deferment of Socrates' execution as due to the festival of Apollo, Phaedo touches on two important religious themes: (1) human service to the gods, and (2) purification.
Socrates himself will be represented throughout as the true servant of Apollo (60d2, 61b2-3, 85b4-5). He thus embodies the principle enunciated later that to be ruled is mortal, to rule divine (80a, cf.94e4—5).
The concept of purification pervades the whole dialogue, and strengthens the Pythagorean associations suggested by its characterization and setting. See, e.g., 65e6, 66d—e, 67a—c, 69c, 80d—e, 82c— d, 114cl—3. It is ironical that Athens's concern for her 'purity' should have delayed Socrates' death. His execution was to afford the release of soul from body in which his own 'purification' would be perfected.