The dialogues of Plato in five volumes, Vol. 2 (of 5) : $b Translated into English with analyses and introductions
Plato · en
_Phaed._ I will begin at the beginning, and endeavour to
repeat the entire conversation. On the previous days we
had been in the habit of assembling early in the morning at
the court in which the trial took place, and which is not far
from the prison. There we used to wait talking with one
another until the opening of the doors (for they were not
opened very early); then we went in and generally passed
the day with Socrates. On the last morning we assembled
sooner than usual, having heard on the day before when
we quitted the prison in the evening that the sacred ship
had come from Delos; and so we arranged to meet very
early at the accustomed place. On our arrival the jailer who
answered the door, instead of admitting us, came out and
told us to stay until he called us. ‘For the Eleven,’ he said,
‘are now with Socrates; they are taking off his chains, and
giving orders that he is to die to-day.’ He soon returned
and said that we might come in. On entering we found 60
Socrates just released from chains, and Xanthippè, whom
you know, sitting by him, and holding his child in her arms.
When she saw us she uttered a cry and said, as women will:
‘O Socrates, this is the last time that either you will converse
with your friends, or they with you.’ Socrates turned
to Crito and said: ‘Crito, let some one take her home.’
[Sidenote: Socrates, whose chains have now been taken off, is led by the
feeling of relief to remark on the curious manner in which pleasure and
pain are always conjoined.]
Some of Crito’s people accordingly led her away, crying out
and beating herself. And when she was gone, Socrates,
sitting up on the couch, bent and rubbed his leg, saying, as
he was rubbing: How singular is the thing called pleasure,
and how curiously related to pain, which might be thought
to be the opposite of it; for they are never present to a man
at the same instant, and yet he who pursues either is generally
compelled to take the other; their bodies are two, but they
are joined by a single head. And I cannot help thinking
that if Aesop had remembered them, he would have made a
fable about God trying to reconcile their strife, and how,
when he could not, he fastened their heads together; and
this is the reason why when one comes the other follows:
as I know by my own experience now, when after the pain
in my leg which was caused by the chain pleasure appears to
succeed.
[Sidenote: _Evenus the poet._]