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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 17

And are we to suppose that the soul, which is invisible, in passing to the true Hades, which like her is invisible, and pure, and noble, and on her way to the good and wise God, whither, if God will, my soul is also soon to go-that the soul, I repeat, if this be her nature and origin, is blown away and perishes immediately on quitting the body as the many say? That can never be, dear Simmias and Cebes. The truth rather is that the soul which is pure at departing draws after her no bodily taint, having never voluntarily had connection with the body, which she is ever avoiding, herself gathered into herself (for such abstraction has been the study of her life). And what does this mean but that she has been a true disciple of philosophy and has practised how to die easily? And is not philosophy the practice of death?

Ἡ δὲ ψυχὴ ἄρα͵ τὸ ἀιδές͵ τὸ εἰς τοιοῦτον τόπον ἕτερον οἰχόμενον γενναῖον καὶ καθαρὸν καὶ ἀιδῆ͵ εἰς Ἅιδου ὡς ἀληθῶς͵ παρὰ τὸν ἀγαθὸν καὶ φρόνιμον θεόν͵ οἷ͵ ἂν θεὸς θέλῃ͵ αὐτίκα καὶ τῇ ἐμῇ ψυχῇ ἰτέον͵ αὕτη δὲ δὴ ἡμῖν ἡ τοιαύτη καὶ οὕτω πεφυκυῖα ἀπαλλαττομένη τοῦ σώματος εὐθὺς διαπεφύσηται καὶ ἀπόλωλεν͵ ὥς φασιν οἱ πολλοὶ ἄνθρωποι; πολλοῦ γε δεῖ͵ ὦ φίλε Κέβης τε καὶ Σιμμία͵ ἀλλὰ πολλῷ μᾶλλον ὧδ΄ ἔχει· ἐὰν μὲν καθαρὰ ἀπαλλάττηται͵ μηδὲν τοῦ σώματος συνεφέλκουσα͵ ἅτε οὐδὲν κοινωνοῦσα αὐτῷ ἐν τῷ βίῳ ἑκοῦσα εἶναι͵ ἀλλὰ φεύγουσα αὐτὸ καὶ συνηθροισμένη αὐτὴ εἰς ἑαυτήν͵ ἅτε μελετῶσα ἀεὶ τοῦτο τὸ δὲ οὐδὲν ἄλλο ἐστὶν ἢ ὀρθῶς φιλοσοφοῦσα καὶ τῷ ὄντι τεθνάναι μελετῶσα ῥᾳδίως· ἢ οὐ τοῦτ΄ ἂν εἴη μελέτη θανάτου;

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Reference address : https://ellopos.net/elpenor/greek-texts/ancient-greece/plato-death.asp?pg=17