§12ὁ δὲ Σωκράτης παραπλήσιον ἔλεγεν εἶναι τὸν θάνατον ἤτοι τῷ βαθυτάτῳ ὕπνῳ ἢ ἀποδημίᾳ μακρᾷ καὶ πολυχρονίῳ ἢ τρίτον φθορᾷ τινι καὶ ἀφανισμῷ τοῦ τε σώματος καὶ τῆς ψυχῆς, κατʼ οὐδὲν δὲ τούτων κακὸν εἶναι.
And Socrates said that death is similar either to the deepest sleep, or to a long and multi-year travel abroad, or thirdly to a certain destruction and disappearance of both the body and the soul, and that according to none of these is it an evil.
καὶ καθʼ ἕκαστον ἐπεπορεύετο, καὶ πρῶτον τῷ πρώτῳ.
And he went through each of them, and first with the first.
εἰ γὰρ δὴ ὕπνος τίς ἐστιν ὁ θάνατος καὶ περὶ τοὺς καθεύδοντας μηδέν ἐστι κακόν, δῆλον ὡς οὐδὲ περὶ τοὺς τετελευτηκότας εἴη ἄν τι κακόν.
For if indeed death is a certain sleep and there is no evil concerning those who sleep, it is clear that neither would there be any evil concerning those who have died.
ἀλλὰ μὴν γʼ ὅτι ἥδιστός ἐστιν ὁ βαθύτατος τί δεῖ καὶ λέγειν;
But indeed, what need is there even to say that the deepest sleep is the most pleasant?
αὐτὸ γὰρ τὸ πρᾶγμα φανερόν ἐστι πᾶσιν ἀνθρώποις, μαρτυρεῖ δὲ καὶ Ὅμηρος ἐπʼ αὐτοῦ λέγων
"
νήγρετος ἥδιστός, θανάτῳ ἄγχιστα ἐοικώς
"
ἀλλαχοῦ δὲ καὶ ταῦτα λέγει
"
ἔνθʼ Ὕπνῳ ξύμβλητο, κασιγνήτῳ Θανάτοιο
"
καὶ
"
Ὕπνῳ καὶ Θανάτῳ διδυμάοσιν,
"
ὄψει τὴν ὁμοιότητα αὐτῶν δηλῶν τὰ γὰρ δίδυμα τὴν ὁμοιότητα μάλιστα παρεμφαίνει.
For the very matter is manifest to all men, and Homer also testifies to it, saying of it: "an unawakening sweetest sleep, most closely resembling death "and elsewhere he also says this: "there he met Sleep, the brother of Death "and: "to the twin brothers, Sleep and Death, "showing their similarity by their appearance; for twins especially manifest similarity.
πάλιν τὲ πού φησι τὸν θάνατον εἶναι
χάλκεον ὕπνον,
τὴν ἀναισθησίαν ἡμῶν αἰνιττόμενος.
And again, somewhere he says that death is "a bronze sleep," riddling our insensibility.
οὐκ ἀμούσως δʼ ἔδοξεν ἀποφήνασθαι οὐδʼ ὁ εἰπὼν
τὸν ὕπνον τὰ μικρὰ τοῦ θανάτου μυστήρια· προμύησις γὰρ ὄντως ἐστὶ τοῦ θανάτου ὁ ὕπνος.
And he who said that "sleep is the minor mysteries of death" seems to have declared it not ungracefully; for sleep is indeed a preliminary initiation into death.
πάνυ δὲ σοφῶς καὶ ὁ κυνικὸς Διογένης κατενεχθεὶς εἰς ὕπνον καὶ μέλλων ἐκλείπειν τὸν βίον, διεγείραντος αὐτὸν τοῦ ἰατροῦ καὶ πυθομένου μή τι περὶ αὐτὸν εἴη χαλεπόν,
οὐδέν
ἔφη· ὁ γὰρ ἀδελφὸς; τὸν, ἀδελφὸν προλαμβάνει §13εἴ γε μὴν ἀποδημίᾳ προσέοικεν ὁ θάνατος, οὐδʼ οὕτως ἐστὶ κακόν μήποτε δὲ καὶ τοὐναντίον ἀγαθόν.
And very wisely, when the Cynic Diogenes was falling asleep and was about to leave his life, his physician having awakened him and asked if anything was hard for him, "Nothing," he said; "for the brother is anticipating the brother." If indeed death resembles a travel abroad, not even so is it an evil; but perhaps even the contrary, a good.
τὸ γὰρ ἀδούλωτον τῇ σαρκὶ καὶ τοῖς ταύτης πάθεσι διάγειν, ὑφʼ ὧν κατασπώμενος ὁ νοῦς τῆς θνητῆς ἀναπίμπλαται φλυαρίας, εὔδαιμόν τι καὶ μακάριον.
For to live unenslaved to the flesh and to its passions, by which the intellect being dragged down is filled with mortal nonsense, is something happy and blessed.
μυρίας μὲν γὰρ ἡμῖν
φησὶν ὁ Πλάτων
ἀσχολίας παρέχει τὸ σῶμα διὰ τὴν ἀναγκαίαν τροφὴν ἔτι δʼ ἐάν τινες νόσοι προσπέσωσιν, ἐμποδίζουσιν ἡμῖν τὴν τοῦ ὄντος θήραν, ἐρώτων δὲ καὶ ἐπιθυμιῶν καὶ φόβων καὶ εἰδώλων παντοδαπῶν καὶ φλυαρίας ἐμπίπλησιν ἡμᾶς, ὥστε τὸ λεγόμενον ὡς ἀληθῶς τῷ ὄντι ὑπʼ αὐτοῦ οὐδὲ φρονῆσαι ἡμῖν ἐγγίγνεται οὐδέποτʼ οὐδέν.
"For infinite," says Plato, "occupations the body provides us because of the necessary food; and further, if any diseases fall upon us, they hinder us from our hunt for what is, and they fill us with loves and desires and fears and all kinds of phantoms and nonsense, so that, as the saying truly is, in reality because of it, it never becomes possible for us to think of anything at all.
καὶ γὰρ πολέμους καὶ στάσεις καὶ μάχας οὐδὲν ἄλλο παρέχει ἢ τὸ σῶμα καὶ αἱ τούτου ἐπιθυμίαι· διὰ γὰρ τὴν τῶν χρημάτων κτῆσιν πάντες οἱ πόλεμοι γίγνονται· τὰ δὲ χρήματα ἀναγκαζόμεθα κτᾶσθαι διὰ τὸ σῶμα, δουλεύοντες τῇ τούτου θεραπείᾳ· καὶ ἐκ τούτου ἀσχολίαν ἄγομεν φιλοσοφίας πέρι διὰ ταῦτα πάντα.
For indeed wars and factions and battles nothing else provides but the body and its desires; for because of the acquisition of wealth all wars happen; and we are compelled to acquire wealth because of the body, being slaves to its service; and from this we keep lack of leisure concerning philosophy because of all these things.
τὸ δʼ ἔσχατον πάντων, ὅτι ἐάν τις ἡμῖν καὶ σχολὴ γένηται ἀπʼ αὐτοῦ καὶ τραπώμεθα πρὸς τὸ σκοπεῖν τι, ἐν ταῖς ζητήσεσι πανταχοῦ παραπῖπτον θόρυβον παρέχει καὶ ταραχὴν καὶ ἐκπλήττει, ὥστε μὴ δύνασθαι ὑπʼ αὐτοῦ καθορᾶν τἀληθές, ἀλλὰ τῷ ὄντι ἡμῖν δέδεικται ὅτι εἰ μέλλομέν ποτε καθαρῶς τι εἴσεσθαι, ἀπαλλακτέον αὐτοῦ καὶ αὐτῇ τῇ ψυχῇ θεατέον αὐτὰ τὰ πράγματα· καὶ τότε, ὡς ἔοικεν, ἡμῖν ἔσται οὗ ἐπιθυμοῦμεν καὶ οὗ φαμεν ἐρᾶν (ἔστι δὲ φρόνησις), ἐπειδὰν τελευτήσωμεν, ὡς ὁ λόγος σημαίνει, ζῶσι δʼ οὔ.
And the last of all, that even if some leisure comes to us from it and we turn to contemplate something, in our investigations falling in everywhere it provides noise and trouble and confounds us, so that we are unable because of it to perceive the truth, but in reality it has been shown to us that if we are ever going to know anything purely, we must be released from it and with the soul itself contemplate the things themselves; and then, as it seems, we shall have that of which we desire and of which we say we are lovers (and this is wisdom), when we have died, as the argument indicates, but not while living.
εἰ γὰρ μὴ οἷόν τε μετὰ τοῦ σώματος μηδὲν καθαρῶς γνῶναι, δυοῖν θάτερον, ἢ οὐδαμοῦ ἔστι κτήσασθαι τὸ εἰδέναι ἢ τελευτήσασι τότε γὰρ αὐτὴ καθʼ αὑτὴν ἔσται ἡ ψυχὴ χωρὶς τοῦ σώματος, πρότερον δʼ οὔ.
For if it is not possible with the body to know anything purely, one of two things: either nowhere is it possible to acquire knowledge, or for those who have died; for then the soul will be itself by itself apart from the body, but not before.
καὶ ἐν ᾧ ἂν ζῶμεν, οὕτως, ὡς ἔοικεν, ἐγγυτάτω ἐσόμεθα τοῦ εἰδέναι, ἐὰν ὅτι μάλιστα μηδὲν ὁμιλῶμεν τῷ σώματι μηδὲ κοινωνῶμεν, ὅτι μὴ πᾶσα ἀνάγκη, μηδὲ ἀναπιμπλώμεθα τῆς τούτου φύσεως, ἀλλὰ καθαρεύωμεν ἀπʼ αὐτοῦ, ἕως ἂν ὁ θεὸς αὐτὸς ἀπολύσῃ ἡμᾶς.
And while we live, thus, as it seems, we shall be nearest to knowing, if as much as possible we do not associate with the body nor have communion with it, except what is absolute necessity, nor be filled with its nature, but keep pure from it, until the god himself releases us.
καὶ οὕτω μὲν ἀπαλλαττόμενοι τῆς τοῦ σώματος ἀφροσύνης, ὡς τὸ εἰκός, μετὰ τοιούτων ἐσόμεθα, διʼ ἡμῶν αὐτῶν πᾶν τὸ εἰλικρινὲς ὁρῶντες· τοῦτο δʼ ἐστὶ τὸ ἀληθές.
And thus being released from the folly of the body, as is likely, we shall be with such as are pure, seeing through ourselves all that is unmixed; and this is the truth.
μὴ καθαρῷ γὰρ καθαροῦ ἐφάπτεσθαι μὴ οὐ θεμιτὸν ᾖ. ὥστʼ εἰ καὶ προσέοικε μετάγειν εἰς ἕτερον τόπον ὁ θάνατος, οὐκ ἔστι κακόν· μήποτε γὰρ καὶ τῶν ἀγαθῶν ἀναφαίνηται, καθάπερ ἀπέδειξεν ὁ Πλάτων.
For it is not permitted for the unpure to touch the pure." So that even if death resembles a change to another place, it is not an evil; for perhaps it may even appear as one of the goods, just as Plato demonstrated.
διὸ καὶ πάνυ δαιμονίως ὁ Σωκράτης πρὸς τοὺς δικαστὰς τοιαῦτʼ ἔφη
τὸ γὰρ δεδιέναι, ὦ ἄνδρες, τὸν θάνατον οὐδὲν ἄλλο ἐστὶν ἢ δοκεῖν σοφὸν εἶναι μὴ ὄντα· δοκεῖν γὰρ εἰδέναι ἐστὶν ἃ οὐκ οἶδεν.
Therefore also very divinely Socrates said to the judges such things: "For to fear death, O men, is nothing else than to seem to be wise while not being so; for it is to seem to know what one does not know.
οἶδε μὲν γὰρ οὐδεὶς; τὸν θάνατον οὐδʼ εἰ τυγχάνει τῷ ἀνθρώπῳ μέγιστον πάντων ὄν τῶν ἀγαθῶν, δεδίασι δʼ ὡς εὖ εἰδότες ὅτι μέγιστον τῶν κακῶν ἐστιν. οὐκ ἀπᾴδειν δʼ ἔοικε τούτων οὐδʼ ὁ εἰπών
"
μηδεὶς φοβείσθω θάνατον ἀπόλυσιν πόνων,
"
ἀλλὰ καὶ κακῶν τῶν μεγίστων.
For no one knows death, not even if it happens to be for man the greatest of all goods, but they fear it as if knowing well that it is the greatest of evils." And he who said this seems not to disagree with these: "Let no one fear death, which is a release from labors, "but also from the greatest evils.