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Therefore, bidding farewell to the honors of the multitude, I will try, while practicing the truth, in reality, as best I can, being the best man, both to live and, when I die, to die. And I exhort all other men, as far as I am able; and indeed I exhort you in return to this life, to this contest, which I say is in place of all the contests here; and I reproach you, because you are not able to help yourself, when 11.30 the trial and the judgment are upon you, which I was just now describing. But having come before that judge, the son of Aegina, when he, having seized you, leads you away, you will gape and be dizzy no less than I am here and you are there; and perhaps he will strike you dishonorably on the cheek and in every way treat you with contumely. Perhaps, then, these things seem to you to be a myth, as told by an old woman, and you will despise them; and it would be nothing surprising to despise these things, if in our searching we were able to find things better and truer than these; but now you see that you three, who are the wisest of the Greeks, you and Polus and Gorgias, are not able to prove that one must live any other life than this one, which appears to be advantageous there." 11.31 Such things in this dialogue he also discussed concerning matters there and very wisely exhorted to take care of these things, which free one from the punishments there. And in the Crito he introduces the laws saying to Socrates: "But, O Socrates, being persuaded by us, your nurturers, value neither children nor living nor anything else more than what is just, so that when you arrive in Hades you may have 11.32 all these things to say in your defense to the rulers there." And in the Apology he says that death is a good thing: "For let us consider," he said, "in this way, that there is great hope that it is a good thing. For to be dead is one of two things: either it is like being nothing at all and the dead person having no perception of anything; or, according to what is said, it happens to be a change and a migration of the soul from the place here to another." 11.33 But these things of his must be praised, even if he has some admixture of spurious doctrines, Rhadamanthus and Minos and the isles of the blessed, and indeed also that souls alone are punished, separated from their bodies. For these things are surely foreign to the doctrines of the truth; but he has some small excuse in a way, 11.34 not having partaken of the apostolic teaching. But transmigrations, which he purloined from the doctrines of Pythagoras, must be altogether avoided, O men. For indeed those doctrines are utterly ridiculous. For concerning the souls sent down into bodies, he said in the Phaedo that these, as is likely, will enter into such characters as they have happened to have practiced 11.35 in this life: "What sort of characters do you mean, O Socrates? {-} For example, that those who have practiced gluttony and insolence and love of drink, and have not been cautious, are likely to enter the species of donkeys and of beasts, are they not? {-} What you say is very likely. {-} And that those who have preferred injustice and tyrannies and plunderings enter the species of wolves and hawks and kites; or where else would we say such souls go? {-} Doubtless, 11.36 said Cebes, into such as these." And not to be lengthy by saying everything, one can find him saying that the souls of those who have practiced civic virtue are transmigrated into bees and wasps and ants, and indeed into the human race. But these things are not only worthy of laughter, but also are directly 11.37 contrary to what he has already said. For in those passages he said souls are punished, some being cast into the Acheron and into the Acherusian lake, and others into the Styx and Cocytus and Pyriphlegethon; and that those who have sinned incurably in Tartarus are always carried about with the streams of the Pyriphlegethon, while those who have committed curable offenses, being carried by the wave, entreat those wronged by them, appearing on the bank, and are again carried away by the wave into the lake; but here he said that those who had been enslaved to pleasures become donkeys, and those who had loved a tyrannical and rapacious life into those of wolves and hawks and

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Χαίρειν οὖν ἐάσας τὰς τιμὰς τῶν πολλῶν ἀνθρώπων, τὴν ἀλήθειαν ἀσκῶν πειράσομαι τῷ ὄντι, ὡς ἂν δύνωμαι, βέλτιστος ὤν, καὶ ζῆν, καὶ ἐπειδὰν ἀποθνῄσκω, ἀποθνῄσκειν. Παρακαλῶ δὲ καὶ τοὺς ἄλλους ἅπαντας ἀνθρώπους, καθ' ὅσον δύναμαι· καὶ δὴ σὲ ἀντιπαρακαλῶ ἐπὶ τοῦτον τὸν βίον, τὸν ἀγῶνα τοῦτον, ὅν φημι ἀντὶ πάντων τῶν ἐνθάδε ἀγώνων εἶναι· καὶ ὀνειδίζω σε, ὅτι οὐχ οἷός τε εἶ σαυτῷ βοηθῆσαι, ὅταν 11.30 ἡ δίκη σοι ᾖ καὶ ἡ κρίσις, ἣν νῦν ἔλεγον. Ἀλλ' ἐλθὼν παρὰ τὸν δικαστὴν ἐκεῖνον, τὸν τῆς Αἰγίνης υἱόν, ἐπειδάν σε ἐπιλαβόμενος ἐκεῖνος ἄγῃ, χασμήσει καὶ ἰλιγγιάσεις οὐδὲν ἧττον ἢ ἐγὼ ἐνθάδε καὶ σὺ ἐκεῖ· καί σε ἴσως τυπτήσει καὶ ἐπὶ κόρρης ἀτίμως καὶ πάντως προπηλακιεῖ. Τάχα δ' οὖν ταυτὶ μῦθός σοι δοκεῖ λέ γεσθαι, ὥσπερ ὑπὸ γραός, καὶ καταφρονήσεις αὐτῶν· καὶ οὐδέν γ' ἂν ἦν θαυμαστὸν καταφρονεῖν τούτων, εἰ ἐπιζητοῦντες εἴχομεν τούτων βελτίω καὶ ἀληθέστερα εὑρεῖν· νῦν δὲ ὁρᾷς, ὅτι τρεῖς ὄντες ὑμεῖς, οἵπερ σοφώτατοί ἐστε τῶν Ἑλλήνων, σύ τε καὶ Πῶλος καὶ Γοργίας, οὐκ ἔχετε ἀποδεῖξαι, ὡς χρὴ ἄλλον τινὰ βίον ζῆν ἢ τοῦτον, ὅσπερ ἐκεῖσε φαίνεται ξυμφέρων." 11.31 Τοιαῦτα κἀν τῷδε τῷ διαλόγῳ καὶ περὶ τῶν αὐτόθι διεξῆλθε καὶ σοφῶς μάλα παρῄνεσεν ἐπιμεληθῆναι τούτων, ἃ τῶν ἐκεῖ κολαστηρίων ἐλευθεροῖ. Κἀν τῷ Κρίτωνι δὲ τοὺς νόμους εἰσάγει λέγοντας τῷ Σωκράτει· "Ἀλλ' ὦ Σώκρατες, πειθόμενος ἡμῖν τοῖς σοῖς τροφεῦσι, μήτε παῖδας περὶ πλείονος ποιοῦ μήτε τὸ ζῆν μήτε ἄλλο μηδὲν πρὸ τοῦ δικαίου, ἵνα εἰς Ἅιδου ἐλθὼν ἔχῃς 11.32 ταῦτα πάντα ἀπολογήσασθαι τοῖς ἐκεῖ ἄρχουσιν." Ἐν δὲ τῇ Ἀπολογίᾳ καὶ ἀγαθὸν εἶναι λέγει τὸν θάνατον· "Ἐννοήσωμεν" γὰρ ἔφη "καὶ τῇδε, ὡς πολλὴ ἐλπίς ἐστιν ἀγαθὸν αὐτὸ εἶναι. ∆υοῖν γὰρ θάτερόν ἐστι τὸ τεθνάναι· ἢ γὰρ οἷον μηδέν τι εἶναι μηδὲ αἴσθησιν μηδεμίαν μηδενὸς ἔχειν τὸν τεθνεῶτα· ἢ καὶ κατὰ τὰ λεγόμενα μεταβολή τις τυγχάνει οὖσα καὶ μετοίκησις τῆς ψυχῆς τοῦ τόπου τοῦ ἐνθένδε εἰς ἄλλον." 11.33 Ἀλλὰ ταῦτα μὲν αὐτοῦ ἐπαινετέον, εἰ καί τινα ἐπιμιξίαν ἔχει τῶν νόθων δογμάτων, τὸν Ῥαδάμανθυν καὶ τὸν Μίνω καὶ τὰς μακάρων νήσους, καὶ μέντοι καὶ τὸ μόνας κολάζεσθαι τὰς ψυχὰς τῶν σωμάτων κεχωρισμένας. Ταῦτα γάρ που τῶν τῆς ἀληθείας δογμάτων ἀλλότρια· ἔχει δέ τινα σμικρὰν ἀμηγέπη ξυγγνώμην, 11.34 τῆς ἀποστολικῆς διδασκαλίας οὐ μετασχών. Τὰς δὲ μετενσωμα τώσεις, ἃς ἐκ τῶν Πυθαγόρου δογμάτων ἐκεῖνος ὑφείλετο, παν τάπασιν, ὦ ἄνδρες, φευκτέον. Κομιδῇ γάρ τοι ἐκεῖνα τὰ δόγματα καταγέλαστα. Περὶ γὰρ δὴ τῶν ψυχῶν τῶν εἰς τὰ σώματα καταπεμπομένων ἐν τῷ Φαίδωνι ἔφη, ὡς ἐνδοῦνται αὗται, ὥσπερ εἰκός, εἰς τὰ τοιαῦτα ἤθη, οἷα ἄττα ἂν καὶ μεμελετηκυῖαι τυγ 11.35 χάνωσιν ἐν τῷδε τῷ βίῳ· "Τὰ ποῖα δὴ ταῦτα λέγεις, ὦ Σώκρατες; {-} Οἷον τοὺς μὲν γαστριμάργους τε καὶ ὕβρεις καὶ φιλοποσίας μεμελετηκότας καὶ μὴ διευλαβουμένους εἰς τὰ τῶν ὄνων γένη καὶ τῶν θηρίων εἰκὸς ἐνδύεσθαι, ἢ οὐχί; {-} Πάνυ γε εἰκὸς λέγεις. {-} Τοὺς δὲ ἀδικίας καὶ τυραννίδας καὶ ἁρπαγὰς προτετιμηκότας εἰς τὰ τῶν λύκων τε καὶ ἱεράκων καὶ ἰκτίνων γένη· ἢ ποῖ ἂν ἄλλοσε φαῖμεν τὰς τοιαύτας ἰέναι; {-} Ἀμέλει, 11.36 ἔφη ὁ Κέβης, εἰς τὰ τοιαῦτα." Καὶ ἵνα μὴ πάντα λέγων μηκύνω, ἔστιν εὑρεῖν αὐτὸν λέγοντα τῶν τὴν πολιτικὴν ἀρετὴν ἠσκηκότων τὰς ψυχὰς εἰς μελίττας μετενσωματουμένας καὶ σφῆκας καὶ μύρμηκας καὶ εἴς γε τὸ ἀνθρώπειον γένος. Ταῦτα δὲ οὐ μόνον γέλωτος ἄξια, ἀλλὰ καὶ οἷς ἤδη εἴρηκεν ἄντικρυς 11.37 ἐναντία. Ἐν ἐκείνοις μὲν γὰρ ἔφη κολάζεσθαι τὰς ψυχάς, τὰς μὲν εἰς τὸν Ἀχέροντα καὶ εἰς τὴν Ἀχερουσίαν λίμνην, τὰς δὲ εἰς τὴν Στύγα καὶ Κωκυτὸν καὶ Πυριφλεγέθοντα βαλλομένας· καὶ τοὺς μὲν ἀνίατα ἐπταικότας ἐν τῷ Ταρτάρῳ τοῖς τοῦ Πυρι φλεγέθοντος ἀεὶ ξυμπεριφέρεσθαι ῥεύμασι, τοὺς δέ γ' ἰάσιμα πλημμελήσαντας, φερομένους ὑπὸ τοῦ κύματος, ἀντιβολεῖν τοὺς ὑπὸ σφῶν ἠδικημένους, ἐπὶ τῆς ὄχθης φαινομένους, καὶ πάλιν ὑπὸ τοῦ κύματος εἰς τὴν λίμνην ἀπάγεσθαι· ἐνταῦθα δὲ τοὺς μὲν ταῖς ἡδυπαθείαις δεδουλευκότας ὄνους γίνεσθαι ἔφη, τοὺς δὲ τυραννικὸν καὶ ἁρπακτικὸν βίον ἠγαπηκότας εἰς τὰ τῶν λύκων τε καὶ ἱεράκων καὶ