Phaedrus — Plato

p. 27to use every way of escaping death. For often in battle there is no duubf "that if a man will throw away his arms, and fall on his knees before his pursuers, he may escape death ; and in other dangers there are other ways of escaping death, if a man is willing to say and do anything. The difficulty, my friends, is not in avoiding death, but in avoiding unrighteousness ; for that runs faster than death.

I am old and move slowly, and the slower runner has overtaken me, and my accusers are keen and quick, and the faster runner, who is unrighteousness, has overtaken them. And now I depart hence condemned by you to suffer the penalty of death, and they too go their ways condemned by the truth to suffer the penalty of villainy and wrong ; and I must abide by my award-r-let "^ them abide by theirs.

I suppose that these things may be re garded as fated, — and I think that they are well. And now, O men who have condemned me, I would fain / prophesy to you ; for I am about to die, and that is the hour in which men are gifted with prophetic power. ^ And I prophesy to you who are my murderers, that immediately after my death punishment far heavier than you have inflicted on me will surely await you.

Me you have killed because you wanted to escape the accuser, and not to give an account of your lives. But that will not be as you suppose : far otherwise. For I say that there will be more accusers of you than there are now ; accusers whom hitherto I have restrained : and as they are younger they will be more severe with you, and you will be more offended at them.

For if you think that by killing men you can avoid the accuser censuring your lives, you are mistaken ; that is not a way of escape which is either possible or honorable ; the easiest and the noblest way is not to be crushing others, but to be improving yourselves. This is the prophecy which I utter before my departure to the judges who have condemned me.

Friends, who would have acquitted me, I would like also to talk with you about this thing which has happened, while the magistrates are busy, and before I go to the place at which I must die. Stay then a while, for we may as well talk with one another while there is time. You are my friends, and I should like to show you the meaning of this event ^ which has happened to me. O my judges — for you I may «• Compare Phaedo, 84-85.

p. 28truly call judges — I should like to tell you of a wonderful circumstance. Hitherto the familiar oracle^' within me has constantly been in the habit of opposing me even about trifles, if I was going to make a slip or error about anything ; and now as you see there has come upon me that which may be thought, and is generally believed to be, the last and worst evil.

But the oracle made no sign of opposition, either as I was leaving my house and going out in the morning, or when I was going up into this court, or while I was speaking, at anything which I was going to say ; and yet I have often —been stopped in the middle of a speech, but now in nothing I either said or did touching this matter has the oracle opposed me. What do I take to be the explanation of this ? I will tell you.

I regard this as a proof that what has happened to me is agopd, and that those of us who tTiink that death is an are in error. This is a great proof to me of what I am saying, for the customary sign would surely have opposed me had I been going to evil and not to good.

Let us reflect in another way, and we shall see that there is great reason to hope that death is a good, for one of two things : either death is a state of nothingness and utter unconsciousness, or, as men say, there is a change and migration of the soul from this world to another. Now if you suppose that there is no consciousness, but a sleep like the sleep of him who is undisturbed even by the sight of dreams, death will be an unspeakable gain.

For if a person were to select the night in which his sleep was undisturbed even by dreams, and were to compare with this the other days and nights of his life, and then were to tell us how many days and nights he had passed in the course of his life better and more pleasantly than this one, I think that any man, I will not say a private man, but even the great king ^ will not find many such days or nights, when compared with the others.

Now if death is like this, I say that to die is gain ; for eternity is then only a single night. But if death is the journey to another place, and there, as men say, all the dead are, what good, O my friends and judges, can be greater than this ?

If in- ^' deed when the pilgrim arrives in the world below, he is delivered from the professors of justice in this world, and finds the true judges who are said to give judgment there, Minos «» Compare Apology, 31. *■ The king of Persia.

p. 29and Rhadamanthus and iEacus** and Triptolemus,* and other sons of God who were righteous in their own life, that pilgrimage will be worth making. What would not a man give if he might converse with Orpheus ^ and Musaeus ® and Hesiod ® and Homer ^ ? Nay, if this be true, let me die again and again.

I, too, shall have a wonderful interest in a place where I can converse with Palamedes,® and Ajax ^ the son of Telamon, and other heroes of old, who have suffered death through an unjust judgment ; and there will be no small pleasure, as I think, in comparing my own sufferings with theirs.

Above all, I shall be able to continue my search into true and "^ false knowledge ; as in this world, so also in that ; I shall find out who is wise, and who pretends to be wise, and is not. What would not a man give, O judges, to be able to examine the leader of the great Trojan expedition ^'^ ; or Odysseus® or Sisyphus,* or numberless others, men and women too !

What infinite delight would there be in conversing with them and asking them questions ! For in that world they do not put a *• In the Gorgias, another of Plato's dialogues, Socrates relates the following myth. There was of old a law that the just and holy man should go after death to the Islands of the Blest, but the wicked man should go to Tartarus, the house of punishment. Now, it often happened that a soul went to the wrong place after death.

This was because judgment had been , passed before death, when the material bodies and garments of the judges and the judged formed a double veil, which prevented clear vision and correct jud|^ent As a remedy Zeus appointed his three sons, i^acus (e'acus), Mmos (mf'nos), and Khadamanthus (rSd'a-man'thus), to become after deaUi judges in the world below, where with naked souls they could pierce the naked souls of the dead, and the judgment would be just. •• Triptolemus (trTp-tfil'e-mus): a legendary character noted for his piety and beneficence. •> Orpheus (6r'fe-us): a celebrated mythical poet and musician.

See Protagoras, note 38. *> Musaeus (mu-se-us): a mythological musician, seer, and priest. See Protafforas, note 38. »* Hesiod (he'sf-od): a celebrated Greek poet, almost, if not quite, as ancient as Homer. Many works attributed to him are extant. »♦ See Apology, note 39. "Palamedes (jiSl'a-me'dez): a Greek hero of the Trojan War, noted for his wisdom and ingenuity. The Greeks attributed many inventions to him.

'••Ajax [Si'ySix, son of Telamon (tfl'a-mon)]: a Greek hero of suipassing strengUi and stature, second only to Achilles in bravery at the siege of Troy. " See Apology, note 21. ** Odysseus (d-dys's^s): one of the most illustrious Greek heroes of the Trojan War. noted for his courage and cunning.

The adventures of his twenty years of wandering on his return from Troy are related in Homer's Odyssey. ** Sisyphus (sls'I-ius), the legendary builder and King of Corinth.