ΦΑΙΔΩΝ
Thomas Taylor (1804)
Plato · Thomas Taylor (1804)
The Phaedo recounts the last hours of Socrates, who, awaiting the cup of hemlock, spends his final day arguing for the immortality of the soul. Calm and even cheerful, he gives the famous definition of philosophy as a 'practice of death' — the lifelong freeing of the soul from the body — and offers a series of arguments that the soul, akin to the changeless Forms, cannot perish.
It is one of Plato's supreme achievements, weaving the theory of Forms, the doctrine of recollection, and the transmigration of souls into the moving drama of a good man's death. The dialogue closes with Socrates' serene last words and the narrator's verdict that he was the best and wisest of men.
From the Plato Scroll Encyclopedia · open this entry in the reader
Echecrates: Were you present, Phædo, with Socrates that day when he drank the poison in prison? or did you hear an account of it from any other?
Phædo: I myself, Echecrates, was present.
Echecrates: What then was his discourse previous to his death? and how did he die? for I should be very glad to hear the account: for scarcely does any one of the Phliasian citizens now visit Athens; and it is some time since any stranger has arrived from thence who might afford us some clear information about these particulars. All indeed that we heard was, that he died through drinking the poison; but he who acquainted us with this had nothing further to say about other particulars of his death.
Phædo: What! did you not hear the manner in which he was tried?
Echecrates: Yes: a certain person related this to us; and we wondered, as his sentence was passed so long ago, that he should not die till a considerable time after. What then, Phædo, was the reason of this?
Phædo: A certain fortune happened to him, Echecrates: for, the day before his trial, the stern of that ship was crowned which the Athenians send every year to Delos.
Echecrates: But what is the meaning of this?
Phædo: This is the ship, as the Athenians say, in which Theseus formerly carried the twice seven young children to Crete, and preserved both them and himself. The Athenians, therefore, as it is reported, then vowed to Apollo, that if the children were preserved, they would lead every year a sacred spectacle to Delos; which, from that time, they regularly send every year to the God. As soon, therefore, as the preparations for the sacred spectacle commence, the law orders that the city shall be purified, and that no one shall be put to death by a public decree till the ship has arrived at Delos, and again returned to Athens. But this sometimes takes a long time in accomplishing, when the winds impede their passage; but the festival itself commences when the priest of Apollo has crowned the stern of the ship. Now this, as I told you, took place on the day preceding the trial; and on this account that length of time happened to Socrates in prison between his sentence and his death.
Echecrates: And what, Phædo, were the circumstances respecting his death? what were his sayings and actions? and who of his familiars were present with him? or would not the magistrates suffer that any should be admitted to him, so that he died deprived of the presence of his friends?
Phædo: By no means; but some, and indeed many, were present with him.
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The Athenian who turned Socratic conversation into a written philosophy and founded the Academy.
Plato was born around 428 BCE into a wealthy and politically prominent Athenian family; through his mother Perictione the family traced kinship to the lawgiver Solon, and his relatives Critias and Charmides were among the oligarchs of the Thirty. A late tradition says his given name was Aristocles and that 'Plato' — from the word for 'broad' — was a nickname. He grew up during the long agony of the Peloponnesian War and came of age amid the violence and disillusion that followed Athens' defeat.
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