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but of those who restrain and teach to honor justice until he himself, being admonished, learns to be temperate. It seems so, he said. Therefore, the chain is not a contributing cause of wrongdoing. It seems so. For it disciplines and makes men more just, being a remedy for the soul, a harsh and biting one, but a healing one. Clearly, he said. What then? Come, let us examine again the previous points. Did you not grant that the body is a prison for the soul because of the transgression? I do grant it, he said. 2.439 And that the soul sins with the body, if indeed adultery and murder and impiety seem to you to be sin, which the soul does with the body? He assented. But did we not agree that the prisoner cannot do wrong? We did agree, he said. And is prevented, being pained by the chains? Yes. And the flesh is a chain for the soul? He assented. But do we sin while in the flesh, with the flesh consenting with us in this? We do sin, he said. And he who is fettered cannot sin? And to this he also assented. For he is constrained? Yes. Not being permitted by the chain? Clearly. But the body is a co-worker toward sinning? Yes. But the chain restrains? He agreed. Therefore the body is not a chain, neither according to you nor according to another, I said, O Aglaophon, but a co-worker with the soul for either purpose, whether for good or for evil. He conceded. 24. Therefore, since these things are so, you must give an account, O Aglaophon, for what you first supposed. For you said before that the body is a bond, and a prison, and fetters for the soul. And do you see how what you said does not harmonize with these things? For how could they harmonize, if indeed it is necessary, my good friend, for the flesh to be considered a chain, and for the soul to use the chain as a co-worker and accomplice for injustice, which is impossible? For if it was given as a place of torment on account of sin, so that the soul, being pained, might be disciplined to honor God, how does the body cooperate and contend with it for doing wrong? For bonds and prisons and fetters, and in short all such punitive devices for correction, become hindrances from wrongdoing and sinning for those who are punished. For the bond is not given to the wrongdoer as a co-worker for injustice, so that he might do more wrong, but so that he might cease from wrongdoing, being tormented by the bonds. And for this reason judges fetter the wicked. For they are prevented, even if they do not wish it, from doing evil by their bonds; but to do evil is characteristic of those who are free and live unguarded, not of those who are fettered. But man first committed murder in the manner of Cain, he grew into disbelief, he attended to idols, he apostatized from God. And how was the body given to him as a bond? Or how did God, after man had sinned before the body, give him the body as a greater co-worker for injustice? And how, after the construction of the bond, is it said, 'Behold, I have set before your face life and death, choose life; the good and the evil, choose the good,' and 'If you are willing and you listen to me'? For these things were said to one as having free will and not as being led under bonds and necessity. So that it is established from every angle that one must not consider the body to be fetters or a prison or bonds, nor the souls prisoners of the earth for these reasons, with God condemning them to be bound with earthly fetters. For how could it be, when this cannot be demonstrated? And that is also manifestly absurd, to think that the body, in the life throughout the ages, will not be with the soul because it is a bond and fetters, so that we might not become eternal condemned prisoners of corruption, according to them, when we will be in the kingdom of light. For since the argument in which they defined the flesh to be 'a bond of the soul' has been sufficiently refuted and disproven, so too is refuted the statement: 'so that we may not be prisoners through it in the kingdom of light—which we are receiving—for this reason it will not rise again'. 25. For what other truth, then, clearer than what has been said, must be shown for the persuasion of those who are hard to please, which they will endure? But this of them

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ἀλλὰ συστελλόντων καὶ τὸ δίκαιον διδασκόντων τιμᾶν ἔστ' ἂν αὐτὸς μάθῃ νουθετούμενος σωφρονεῖν. Φαίνεται, ἔφη. Οὐδὲ τοίνυν παραίτιος ὁ δεσμὸς γίγνεται τοῦ πλημμελεῖν. Ἔοικε. Σωφρονίζει γὰρ καὶ ποιεῖ δικαιοτέρους ἀλεξιφάρμακον ὢν ψυχῆς, αὐστηρὸν μὲν καὶ δηκτικόν, ἀλλ' ἰατικόν. ∆ῆλον, ἔφη. Τί γάρ; φέρε, ἐξετάζωμεν πάλιν τὰ ἔμπροσθεν. οὐ δεσμὸν τὸ σῶμα διὰ τὴν παράβασιν δέδωκας εἶναι τῆς ψυχῆς; Καὶ δίδωμι, ἔφη. 2.439 Ἁμαρτάνειν δὲ τὴν ψυχὴν μετὰ σώματος, εἴπερ τὸ μοιχᾶσθαι φονεύειν τε καὶ ἀσεβεῖν ἁμαρτία σοι δοκεῖ, ἃ μετὰ τοῦ σώματος ἡ ψυχὴ ποιεῖ; Ἐπένευσεν. Ἀλλὰ τὸν δεσμώτην ὡμολογήσαμεν μὴ δύνασθαι ἀδικεῖν; Ὡμολογήσαμεν, ἔφη. Κωλύεσθαι δὲ ἀλγυνόμενον ὑπὸ τῶν δεσμῶν; Ναί. ∆εσμὸς δὲ ἡ σὰρξ τῆς ψυχῆς; Ἐπένευσεν. Ἀλλὰ ἁμαρτάνομεν ὄντες ἐν σαρκί, ὁμοδοξούσης ἡμῖν εἰς τοῦτο τῆς σαρκός; Ἁμαρτάνομεν, ἔφη. Ὁ δὲ πεπεδημένος οὐ δύναται ἁμαρτάνειν; Καὶ ἐνταῦθα ἐπένευσεν. Ἄγχεται γάρ; Ναί. Μὴ ἐώμενος ὑπὸ τοῦ δεσμοῦ; ∆ῆλον. Ἀλλὰ τὸ μὲν σῶμα πρὸς τὸ ἁμαρτῆσαι συνεργόν; Ναί. Εἴργει δὲ ὁ δεσμός; Συνέφη. Οὐκ ἄρα τὸ σῶμα δεσμός, οὔτε κατὰ σὲ οὔτε κατὰ ἄλλον, ἔφην, ὦ Ἀγλαοφῶν, ἀλλὰ πρὸς ἑκάτερον τῇ ψυχῇ συνεργόν, εἴτε πρὸς τὸ ἀγαθὸν εἴτε πρὸς τὸ κακόν. Συνεχώρει. 24. Οὐκοῦν οὕτω δὴ τούτων ἐχόντων ἀπολόγησαι, ὦ Ἀγλαοφῶν, πρὸς ἃ πρῶτον ὑπέθου. ἔφης γὰρ δεσμὸν καὶ εἱρκτὴν καὶ πέδας τὸ σῶμα τῆς ψυχῆς ἐν τοῖς ἔμπροσθεν. καὶ ὁρᾷς ὡς οὐ συνᾴδουσι τούτοις ἃ ἔφης; πῶς γὰρ συνᾴδοιεν, εἴπερ γε ἀνάγκη, ὦ ἄριστε, δεσμὸν μὲν τὴν σάρκα νομίζεσθαι, τὴν δὲ ψυχὴν συνεργῷ πρὸς ἀδικίαν χρῆσθαι καὶ συμπράκτορι τῷ 2.440 δεσμῷ, ὅπερ ἀδύνατον; εἰ γὰρ διὰ τὴν ἁμαρτίαν βασανιστήριον ἐδόθη, πρὸς τὸ ἀλγυνθεῖσαν εἰς τὸ τιμᾶν τὸν θεὸν παιδευθῆναι τὴν ψυχήν, πῶς συνεργεῖ καὶ συναγωνίζεται τὸ σῶμα αὐτῇ πρὸς τὸ ἀδικεῖν; δεσμοὶ γὰρ καὶ φυλακαὶ καὶ πέδαι καὶ συλλήβδην αἱ τοιαῦται πᾶσαι πρὸς ἐπανόρθωσιν τιμωροὶ μηχαναὶ ἐφεκτικαὶ τοῦ ἀδικεῖν καὶ ἁμαρτάνειν τοῖς κολαζομένοις γίγνονται. οὐ γὰρ ὅπως ὁ ἀδικήσας ἀδικήσῃ πλέον, συνεργὸς αὐτῷ πρὸς τὸ ἀδικεῖν ὁ δεσμὸς δίδοται, ἀλλ' ὅπως λήξῃ τοῦ ἀδικεῖν, βασανιζόμενος διὰ τῶν δεσμῶν. καὶ γὰρ οἱ δικασταὶ ταύτῃ πεδοῦσι τοὺς φαύλους. κωλύονται γάρ, κἂν μὴ βούλωνται, κακοποιεῖν ὑπὸ τῶν δεσμῶν· ἐλευθεριαζόντων δὲ τὸ κακουργεῖν ἐστι καὶ ζώντων ἀφυλάκτως, ἀλλ' οὐ πεπεδημένων. ὁ δὲ ἄνθρωπος πρῶτον μὲν ἐφόνευσε κατὰ τὸν Κάϊν, ηὐξήθη πρὸς ἀπιστίαν, εἰδώλοις προσέσχεν, ἀπεστάτησε θεοῦ. καὶ πῶς αὐτῷ δεσμὸς τὸ σῶμα ἐδόθη; ἢ πῶς ὁ θεὸς μετὰ τὸ πρὸ σώματος ἀνομῆσαι τὸν ἄνθρωπον συνεργὸν πρὸς ἀδικίαν αὐτῷ μείζονα τὸ σῶμα ἔδοτο; πῶς δὲ καὶ μετὰ τὴν κατασκευὴν τοῦ δεσμοῦ τό «ἰδού, πρὸ προσώπου σου» λέγεται «τέθεικα τὴν ζωὴν καὶ τὸν θάνατον, ἔκλεξαι τὴν ζωήν, τὸ ἀγαθὸν καὶ τὸ πονηρόν, ἔκλεξαι τὸ ἀγαθόν» καί «ἐὰν θέλητε καὶ εἰσακούσητέ μου». ταῦτα γὰρ ὡς αὐτεξουσιάζοντι καὶ οὐχ ὡς ὑπὸ δεσμὰ καὶ ἀνάγκην ἀγομένῳ ἐρρήθη. ὥστε ἐκ παντὸς συνίστασθαι μήτε πέδας ἢ φυλακὴν ἢ δεσμοὺς δεῖν νομίζειν τὸ σῶμα μήτε δεσμώτιδας γῆς διὰ ταῦτα τὰς ψυχάς, χοϊκαῖς κατακρίνοντος αὐτὰς τοῦ θεοῦ δεθῆναι πέδαις. πῶς γάρ, ὁπότε μὴ δύναται ἀποδειχθῆναι τοῦτο; ἄτοπον δὲ κἀκεῖνο προφανῶς τὸ οἴεσθαι τὸ σῶμα ἐν τῇ κατὰ τοὺς αἰῶνας διαγωγῇ μὴ συνέσεσθαι τῇ 2.441 ψυχῇ διὰ τὸ δεσμὸν αὐτὸ καὶ πέδας εἶναι, ἵνα μὴ αἰώνιοι γενώμεθα κατάκριτοι δεσμῶται κατ' αὐτοὺς φθορᾶς, ἐν τῇ βασιλείᾳ τοῦ φωτὸς ἐσόμενοι. λελυμένου γὰρ ἱκανῶς καὶ ἐξελεγχθέντος τοῦ λόγου, ἐν ᾧ «δεσμὸν τῆς ψυχῆς» ὡρίσαντο εἶναι τὴν σάρκα, λέλυται καὶ τό· «ἵνα μὴ δεσμῶται δι' αὐτὴν ἐν τῇ βασιλείᾳ τοῦ φωτὸς-ἢν ἀπολαμβάνωμεν-ἐσόμεθα, διὰ τοῦτο οὐκ ἀναστήσεται». 25. Ποταπὸν γὰρ λοιπὸν εἰς πειθὼ τοῖς δυσχεραίνουσιν ἕτερον ἀλήθευμα χρὴ δεικνύναι τῶν εἰρημένων ἐναργέστερον, οὗ ἀνέξονται; ἀλλὰ ταύτην μὲν αὐτῶν τὴν