- Source
- Platonis Opera, Tomus I: Tetralogia I-II. Burnet, John, 1863-1928, editor. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1905.
- Translation
- AI-generated (gemini-3.5-flash) — machine translation; may contain errors
- Languages
- 日本語 · English · 简体中文 · 한국어
- CTS URN
- urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0059.tlg002.humanitext-grc2:40
- Generated
- Humanitext Reader · reader.humanitext.ai · 2026-10-27
Socrates addresses the jurors who voted for his acquittal, explaining that his "divine sign" did not oppose him at any point during the trial, which suggests that his impending death is actually a good thing. He argues that death is either a dreamless sleep or a migration of the soul, both of which are desirable outcomes.
ὑμῖν γὰρ ὡς φίλοις οὖσιν ἐπιδεῖξαι ἐθέλω τὸ νυνί μοι συμβεβηκὸς τί ποτε νοεῖ. ἐμοὶ γάρ, ὦ ἄνδρες δικασταί—ὑμᾶς γὰρ δικαστὰς καλῶν ὀρθῶς ἂν καλοίην—θαυμάσιόν τι γέγονεν. ἡ γὰρ εἰωθυῖά μοι μαντικὴ ἡ τοῦ δαιμονίου ἐν μὲν τῷ πρόσθεν χρόνῳ παντὶ πάνυ πυκνὴ ἀεὶ ἦν καὶ πάνυ ἐπὶ σμικροῖς ἐναντιουμένη, εἴ τι μέλλοιμι μὴ ὀρθῶς πράξειν. νυνὶ δὲ συμβέβηκέ μοι ἅπερ ὁρᾶτε καὶ αὐτοί, ταυτὶ ἅ γε δὴ οἰηθείη ἄν τις καὶ νομίζεται ἔσχατα κακῶν εἶναι· ἐμοὶ δὲ οὔτε ἐξιόντι ἕωθεν οἴκοθεν ἠναντιώθη τὸ τοῦ θεοῦ σημεῖον, οὔτε ἡνίκα ἀνέβαινον ἐνταυθοῖ ἐπὶ τὸ δικαστήριον, οὔτε ἐν τῷ λόγῳ οὐδαμοῦ μέλλοντί τι ἐρεῖν. καίτοι ἐν ἄλλοις λόγοις πολλαχοῦ δή με ἐπέσχε λέγοντα μεταξύ· νῦν δὲ οὐδαμοῦ περὶ ταύτην τὴν πρᾶξιν οὔτʼ ἐν ἔργῳ οὐδενὶ οὔτʼ ἐν λόγῳ ἠναντίωταί μοι. τί οὖν αἴτιον εἶναι ὑπολαμβάνω; ἐγὼ ὑμῖν ἐρῶ· κινδυνεύει γάρ μοι τὸ συμβεβηκὸς τοῦτο ἀγαθὸν γεγονέναι, καὶ οὐκ ἔσθʼ ὅπως ἡμεῖς ὀρθῶς ὑπολαμβάνομεν, ὅσοι οἰόμεθα κακὸν εἶναι τὸ τεθνάναι. μέγα μοι τεκμήριον τούτου γέγονεν· οὐ γὰρ ἔσθʼ ὅπως οὐκ ἠναντιώθη ἄν μοι τὸ εἰωθὸς σημεῖον, εἰ μή τι ἔμελλον ἐγὼ ἀγαθὸν πράξειν.1ἐννοήσωμεν δὲ καὶ τῇδε ὡς πολλὴ ἐλπίς ἐστιν ἀγαθὸν αὐτὸ εἶναι. δυοῖν γὰρ θάτερόν ἐστιν τὸ τεθνάναι· ἢ γὰρ οἷον μηδὲν εἶναι μηδὲ αἴσθησιν μηδεμίαν μηδενὸς ἔχειν τὸν τεθνεῶτα, ἢ κατὰ τὰ λεγόμενα μεταβολή τις τυγχάνει οὖσα καὶ μετοίκησις τῇ ψυχῇ τοῦ τόπου τοῦ ἐνθένδε εἰς ἄλλον τόπον. καὶ εἴτε δὴ μηδεμία αἴσθησίς ἐστιν ἀλλʼ οἷον ὕπνος ἐπειδάν τις καθεύδων μηδʼ ὄναρ μηδὲν ὁρᾷ, θαυμάσιον κέρδος ἂν εἴη ὁ θάνατος—ἐγὼ γὰρ ἂν οἶμαι, εἴ τινα ἐκλεξάμενον δέοι ταύτην τὴν νύκτα ἐν ᾗ οὕτω κατέδαρθεν ὥστε μηδὲ ὄναρ ἰδεῖν, καὶ τὰς ἄλλας νύκτας τε καὶ ἡμέρας τὰς τοῦ βίου τοῦ ἑαυτοῦ ἀντιπαραθέντα ταύτῃ τῇ νυκτὶ δέοι σκεψάμενον εἰπεῖν πόσας ἄμεινον καὶ ἥδιον ἡμέρας καὶ νύκτας ταύτης τῆς νυκτὸς βεβίωκεν ἐν τῷ ἑαυτοῦ βίῳ, οἶμαι ἂν μὴ ὅτι ἰδιώτην τινά, ἀλλὰ τὸν μέγαν βασιλέα2 εὐαριθμήτους ἂν εὑρεῖν αὐτὸν3 ταύτας πρὸς τὰς ἄλλας ἡμέρας καὶ νύκτας—εἰ οὖν τοιοῦτον ὁ θάνατός ἐστιν, κέρδος ἔγωγε λέγω· καὶ γὰρ οὐδὲν πλείων ὁ πᾶς χρόνος φαίνεται οὕτω δὴ εἶναι ἢ μία νύξ. εἰ δʼ αὖ οἷον ἀποδημῆσαί ἐστιν ὁ θάνατος ἐνθένδε εἰς ἄλλον τόπον, καὶ ἀληθῆ ἐστιν τὰ λεγόμενα, ὡς ἄρα ἐκεῖ εἰσι πάντες οἱ τεθνεῶτες, τί μεῖζον ἀγαθὸν τούτου εἴη ἄν, ὦ ἄνδρες δικασταί;
For I want to show you, as being my friends, what in the world the thing that has now happened to me means. For to me, gentlemen of the jury—for in calling you judges I would call you rightly—something wonderful has happened. For my accustomed prophetic sign of the divine, in all former time, was always very frequent and opposed me even in very small matters, if I was about to do something not rightly. But now there has happened to me what you yourselves also see, these very things which someone might indeed think, and which are conventionally considered, to be the ultimate of evils. But to me neither when I went out from my house in the morning did the sign of the god oppose me, nor when I was coming up here to the court, nor anywhere in my speech when I was about to say anything. And yet in other speeches it often stopped me in the middle of my speaking; but now, nowhere in this entire affair, neither in any deed nor in any speech, has it opposed me. What then do I suppose to be the cause? I will tell you; for this thing that has happened to me is likely to be a good thing, and there is no way that we suppose rightly, as many of us as think that dying is an evil. A great proof of this has come to me; for there is no way that the accustomed sign would not have opposed me, unless I was about to fare well. Let us consider it also in this way, how great a hope there is that it is a good thing. For dying is one of two things: for either it is like being nothing and the dead person has no perception of anything, or, according to what is said, it happens to be a certain change and migration for the soul from this place here to another place. And if indeed there is no perception, but it is like a sleep when one sleeping sees not even a dream, death would be a wonderful gain. For I think that if someone, having selected that night in which he slept so soundly as not even to see a dream, and having set the other nights and days of his own life against this night, had to say after consideration how many days and nights he has lived in his own life better and more pleasantly than this night, I think not only some private person, but the Great King himself, would find these to be easily counted against the other days and nights. If, therefore, death is such, I at least call it a gain; for indeed all time appears to be no more in this way than a single night. But if, on the other hand, death is like a journey from here to another place, and what is said is true, that all the dead are indeed there, what greater good could there be than this, gentlemen of the jury?
- 40cεἰ μή τι ἔμελλον ἐγὼ ἀγαθὸν πράξειν
Meaning "unless I was about to fare well." The verb πράσσω (or πράττω) with an adverb or a neuter adjective means "to fare (well/ill)," expressing a state of being or outcome, rather than simply "to do/act." Here it refers to a favorable outcome (faring well).
- 40dμὴ ὅτι ἰδιώτην τινά, ἀλλὰ τὸν μέγαν βασιλέα
The phrase μὴ ὅτι ("not to speak of" or "not only") is an idiomatic construction that, when paired with a subsequent ἀλλά, introduces a strong contrast: "not only a private person, but even the Great King." It functions as an elliptical construction sharing the main verb (εὑρεῖν ἂν).
- 40dἐγὼ γὰρ ἂν οἶμαι... εὑρεῖν ἂν αὐτόν
The first ἂν immediately following the main verb οἶμαι anticipates the conditional (unreal) nature of the whole sentence and correlates with the second ἂν modifying the infinitive εὑρεῖν in the apodosis. This duplication (double ἂν) is common in long periods with parenthetical clauses (such as εἴ τινα... βεβίωκεν) to keep the conditional force clear.