Phaedo Begins His Account

Echecrates: 57a Were you there yourself, Phaedo, with Socrates on the day he drank the poison in the prison, or did you hear about it from someone else?

Phaedo: I was there myself, Echecrates.

Echecrates: Then what did he say before his death? And how did he die? I would be glad to hear. For hardly any of the citizens of Phlius¹ go to Athens these days, and no visitor has come from there for a long time 57b who could give us any clear account of these things, except that he drank the poison and died. Of the rest no one could tell us anything.

Phaedo: 58a So you did not even hear how the trial went?

Echecrates: Yes, someone told us about that, and we were surprised that he evidently died long after the trial was over. Why was that, Phaedo?

Phaedo: It was a matter of chance, Echecrates. It so happened that on the day before the trial the stern of the ship that the Athenians send to Delos had been garlanded.

Echecrates: And what ship is that?

Phaedo: It is the ship, so the Athenians say, in which Theseus once sailed to Crete with the famous "twice seven",² 58b and saved them, and was saved himself. At that time, the story goes, they vowed to Apollo that if they were saved they would send a sacred mission to Delos every year; and ever since, down to this day, they have sent it to the god year after year. Once the mission has begun, their law requires the city to keep itself pure for its whole duration, and no one may be publicly put to death until the ship has reached Delos and come back again. Sometimes this takes a long time, when the winds happen to hold 58c them back. The mission begins when the priest of Apollo garlands the stern of the ship, and this, as I say, happened on the day before the trial. That is why Socrates spent a long time in prison between his trial and his death.

Echecrates: And what about his death itself, Phaedo? What was said and done, and which of his friends were with him? Or did the authorities not allow them to be present, so that he died alone, without his friends?

Phaedo: 58d Not at all. Some of them were there — many, in fact.

Echecrates: Then please be so good as to tell us everything as clearly as you can, unless you happen to be busy.

Phaedo: No, I have time, and I will try to tell you the whole story. For to remember Socrates, whether I am speaking of him myself or listening to someone else, is always the greatest of pleasures to me.

Echecrates: Well, Phaedo, you have listeners who feel just as you do. So try to go through everything as exactly as you can.

Phaedo: For my part, being there was a strange experience. I felt no pity, as one might when present at the death of a friend. The man seemed to me happy, Echecrates, both in his bearing and in his words, so fearlessly and nobly did he meet his end. It came to me that even in going to Hades he was not going without a share of divine favour, and that when he arrived there he would fare well, 59a if ever any man did. That is why I felt no pity at all, as would seem natural for one present at a time of mourning; nor, on the other hand, the pleasure we used to feel in our philosophical discussions — though our talk that day was of that kind. It was a quite extraordinary feeling, an unaccustomed blend of pleasure and pain together, as I thought that in a little while he was going to die. All of us who were there were in much the same state, sometimes laughing, sometimes weeping, and one of us above all, Apollodorus — 59b you know the man and his ways, I think.

Echecrates: Of course I do.

Phaedo: He was quite overcome, and I myself was shaken, and so were the others.

Echecrates: And who happened to be there, Phaedo?

Phaedo: Of the Athenians there was this Apollodorus, and Critobulus and his father, and also Hermogenes, Epigenes, Aeschines and Antisthenes. Ctesippus of Paeania was there too, and Menexenus, and some other Athenians. Plato, I believe, was ill.³

Echecrates: Were any foreigners present?

Phaedo: 59c Yes: Simmias of Thebes, and Cebes, and Phaedondes; and from Megara, Euclides and Terpsion.

Echecrates: What about Aristippus and Cleombrotus? Were they there?

Phaedo: No; they were said to be in Aegina.⁴

Echecrates: Was anyone else there?

Phaedo: I think those were about all.

1. A small city in the north-eastern Peloponnese, home to a community of Pythagorean philosophers to which Echecrates belonged. ↩
2. According to legend, Athens had to send seven young men and seven maidens to Crete to be devoured by the Minotaur. Theseus went with them, killed the monster and brought them home. ↩
3. Critobulus was Crito's son. Aeschines and Antisthenes later wrote Socratic dialogues of their own. Plato names himself only three times in all his works, here and twice in the Apology. ↩
4. An island a few hours' sail from Athens. Aristippus of Cyrene, who later taught a philosophy of pleasure, and Cleombrotus were both followers of Socrates. ↩