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Plato Bilingual Anthology : STUDYING DEATH

from the Apology of Socrates, * 37e-38b, 40a-42a, translated by B. Jowett

from Phaedo, * 61.e-62.c, 64.c- 67.d, 79e-80a, 80.d-82.c, 84.a-84.b, translated by B. Jowett

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Page 18

Certainly. That soul, I say, herself invisible, departs to the invisible worldto the divine and immortal and rational: thither arriving, she lives in bliss and is released from the error and folly of men, their fears and wild passions and all other human ills, and forever dwells, as they say of the initiated, in company with the gods. Is not this true, Cebes?

Yes, said Cebes, beyond a doubt. But the soul which has been polluted, and is impure at the time of her departure, and is the companion and servant of the body always, and is in love with and fascinated by the body and by the desires and pleasures of the body, until she is led to believe that the truth only exists in a bodily form, which a man may touch and see and taste and use for the purposes of his lusts-the soul, I mean, accustomed to hate and fear and avoid the intellectual principle, which to the bodily eye is dark and invisible, and can be attained only by philosophy-do you suppose that such a soul as this will depart pure and unalloyed?

Παντάπασί γε. Οὐκοῦν οὕτω μὲν ἔχουσα εἰς τὸ ὅμοιον αὐτῇ τὸ ἀιδὲς ἀπέρχεται͵ τὸ θεῖόν τε καὶ ἀθάνατον καὶ φρόνιμον͵ οἷ ἀφικομένῃ ὑπάρχει αὐτῇ εὐδαίμονι εἶναι͵ πλάνης καὶ ἀνοίας καὶ φόβων καὶ ἀγρίων ἐρώτων καὶ τῶν ἄλλων κακῶν τῶν ἀνθρωπείων ἀπηλλαγμένῃ͵ ὥσπερ δὲ λέγεται κατὰ τῶν μεμυημένων͵ ὡς ἀληθῶς τὸν λοιπὸν χρόνον μετὰ θεῶν διάγουσα; οὕτω φῶμεν͵ ὦ Κέβης͵ ἢ ἄλλως;

Οὕτω νὴ Δία͵ ἔφη ὁ Κέβης. Ἐὰν δέ γε οἶμαι μεμιασμένη καὶ ἀκάθαρτος τοῦ σώματος ἀπαλλάττηται͵ ἅτε τῷ σώματι ἀεὶ συνοῦσα καὶ τοῦτο θεραπεύουσα καὶ ἐρῶσα καὶ γοητευομένη ὑπ΄ αὐτοῦ ὑπό τε τῶν ἐπιθυμιῶν καὶ ἡδονῶν͵ ὥστε μηδὲν ἄλλο δοκεῖν εἶναι ἀληθὲς ἀλλ΄ ἢ τὸ σωματοειδές͵ οὗ τις ἂν ἅψαιτο καὶ ἴδοι καὶ πίοι καὶ φάγοι καὶ πρὸς τὰ ἀφροδίσια χρήσαιτο͵ τὸ δὲ τοῖς ὄμμασι σκοτῶδες καὶ ἀιδές͵ νοητὸν δὲ καὶ φιλοσοφίᾳ αἱρετόν͵ τοῦτο δὲ εἰθισμένη μισεῖν τε καὶ τρέμειν καὶ φεύγειν͵ οὕτω δὴ ἔχουσαν οἴει ψυχὴν αὐτὴν καθ΄ αὑτὴν εἰλικρινῆ ἀπαλλάξεσθαι;

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