§80ΦΑΙΔ. ὅρα δὴ καὶ τῇδε ὅτι ἐπειδὰν ἐν τῷ αὐτῷ ὦσι ψυχὴ καὶ σῶμα, τῷ μὲν δουλεύειν καὶ ἄρχεσθαι ἡ φύσις προστάττει, τῇ δὲ ἄρχειν καὶ δεσπόζειν·
Phaedo: ““Look at it also in this way: when soul and body are in the same place, nature commands the one to serve and be ruled, and the other to rule and be master.
καὶ κατὰ ταῦτα αὖ πότερόν σοι δοκεῖ ὅμοιον τῷ θείῳ εἶναι καὶ πότερον τῷ θνητῷ;
And in this light, again, which of the two seems to you to be similar to the divine, and which to the mortal?
ἢ οὐ δοκεῖ σοι τὸ μὲν θεῖον οἷον ἄρχειν τε καὶ ἡγεμονεύειν πεφυκέναι, τὸ δὲ θνητὸν ἄρχεσθαί τε καὶ δουλεύειν; ἔμοιγε. ποτέρῳ οὖν ἡ ψυχὴ ἔοικεν; δῆλα δή, ὦ Σώκρατες, ὅτι ἡ μὲν ψυχὴ τῷ θείῳ, τὸ δὲ σῶμα τῷ θνητῷ. σκόπει δή, ἔφη, ὦ Κέβης, εἰ ἐκ πάντων τῶν εἰρημένων τάδε ἡμῖν συμβαίνει, τῷ μὲν θείῳ καὶ ἀθανάτῳ καὶ νοητῷ καὶ μονοειδεῖ καὶ ἀδιαλύτῳ καὶ ἀεὶ ὡσαύτως κατὰ ταὐτὰ ἔχοντι ἑαυτῷ ὁμοιότατον εἶναι ψυχή, τῷ δὲ ἀνθρωπίνῳ καὶ θνητῷ καὶ πολυειδεῖ καὶ ἀνοήτῳ καὶ διαλυτῷ καὶ μηδέποτε κατὰ ταὐτὰ ἔχοντι ἑαυτῷ ὁμοιότατον αὖ εἶναι σῶμα.
Or does it not seem to you that the divine is by nature suited to rule and lead, while the mortal is suited to be ruled and to serve?”” ““It seems so to me.”” ““To which, then, is the soul similar?”” ““It is clear, Socrates, that the soul is similar to the divine, and the body to the mortal.”” ““Consider then, Kebes,” he said, “whether from all that has been said these are our conclusions: that the soul is most similar to the divine, immortal, intelligible, uniform, indissoluble, and ever unchanged in its relation to itself, while the body is most similar to the human, mortal, multiform, unintelligible, dissoluble, and never unchanged in its relation to itself.
ἔχομέν τι παρὰ ταῦτα ἄλλο λέγειν, ὦ φίλε Κέβης, ᾗ οὐχ οὕτως ἔχει; οὐκ ἔχομεν. τί οὖν;
Have we anything else to say against this, dear Kebes, by which it is not so?”” ““We have not.”” ““What then?
τούτων οὕτως ἐχόντων ἆρ’ οὐχὶ σώματι μὲν ταχὺ διαλύεσθαι προσήκει, ψυχῇ δὲ αὖ τὸ παράπαν ἀδιαλύτῳ εἶναι ἢ ἐγγύς τι τούτου; πῶς γὰρ οὔ; ἐννοεῖς οὖν, ἔφη, ἐπειδὰν ἀποθάνῃ ὁ ἄνθρωπος, τὸ μὲν ὁρατὸν αὐτοῦ, τὸ σῶμα, καὶ ἐν ὁρατῷ κείμενον, ὃ δὴ νεκρὸν καλοῦμεν, ᾧ προσήκει διαλύεσθαι καὶ διαπίπτειν καὶ διαπνεῖσθαι, οὐκ εὐθὺς τούτων οὐδὲν πέπονθεν, ἀλλ᾽ ἐπιεικῶς συχνὸν ἐπιμένει χρόνον, ἐὰν μέν τις καὶ χαριέντως ἔχων τὸ σῶμα τελευτήσῃ καὶ ἐν τοιαύτῃ ὥρᾳ, καὶ πάνυ μάλα· συμπεσὸν γὰρ τὸ σῶμα καὶ ταριχευθέν, ὥσπερ οἱ ἐν Αἰγύπτῳ ταριχευθέντες, ὀλίγου ὅλον μένει ἀμήχανον ὅσον χρόνον, ἔνια δὲ μέρη τοῦ σώματος, καὶ ἂν σαπῇ, ὀστᾶ τε καὶ νεῦρα καὶ τὰ τοιαῦτα πάντα, ὅμως ὡς ἔπος εἰπεῖν ἀθάνατά ἐστιν·
Since these things are so, does it not belong to the body to be quickly dissolved, and to the soul, on the contrary, to be altogether indissoluble, or nearly so?”” “““Of course.”” ““You reflect then,” he said, “that when a person dies, the visible part of him, the body, which lies in the visible world, and which we call a corpse, to which it belongs to be dissolved, to fall apart, and to be blown away, does not immediately suffer any of these things, but remains for a considerable time, and if someone dies with his body in a graceful state and at such an age, even for a very long time; for the body, when shrunk and embalmed, like those embalmed in Egypt, remains almost whole for an unspeakably long time;” “““and even if the body decays, some parts of it, bones and sinews and all such things, are nevertheless, so to speak, immortal.
ἢ οὔ; ναί. ἡ δὲ ψυχὴ ἄρα, τὸ ἀιδές, τὸ εἰς τοιοῦτον τόπον ἕτερον οἰχόμενον γενναῖον καὶ καθαρὸν καὶ ἀιδῆ, εἰς Ἅιδου ὡς ἀληθῶς, παρὰ τὸν ἀγαθὸν καὶ φρόνιμον θεόν, οἷ, ἂν θεὸς θέλῃ, αὐτίκα καὶ τῇ ἐμῇ ψυχῇ ἰτέον, αὕτη δὲ δὴ ἡμῖν ἡ τοιαύτη καὶ οὕτω πεφυκυῖα ἀπαλλαττομένη τοῦ σώματος εὐθὺς διαπεφύσηται καὶ ἀπόλωλεν, ὥς φασιν οἱ πολλοὶ ἄνθρωποι; πολλοῦ γε δεῖ, ὦ φίλε Κέβης τε καὶ Σιμμία, ἀλλὰ πολλῷ μᾶλλον ὧδ’ ἔχει· ἐὰν μὲν καθαρὰ ἀπαλλάττηται, μηδὲν τοῦ σώματος συνεφέλκουσα, ἅτε οὐδὲν κοινωνοῦσα αὐτῷ ἐν τῷ βίῳ ἑκοῦσα εἶναι, ἀλλὰ φεύγουσα αὐτὸ καὶ συνηθροισμένη αὐτὴ εἰς ἑαυτήν, ἅτε μελετῶσα ἀεὶ τοῦτο — τὸ δὲ οὐδὲν ἄλλο ἐστὶν ἢ ὀρθῶς φιλοσοφοῦσα καὶ τῷ ὄντι τεθνάναι μελετῶσα ῥᾳδίως· ἢ οὐ τοῦτ’ ἂν εἴη μελέτη θανάτου;
Is it not so?”” ““Yes.”” ““Then the soul, the unseen, which departs to another such place, noble, pure, and unseen, to Hades in truth, to the presence of the good and wise God, whither, if God wills, my own soul must also soon go—shall this soul of ours, being of such a nature and so constituted, upon being released from the body, be immediately blown away and destroyed, as the majority of people say?”” ““Far from it, dear Kebes and Simmias; but much rather is it thus: if it is released pure, dragging nothing of the body with it, since it had no communication with it willingly during life, but avoided it and gathered itself into itself, since it was always practicing this—and this is nothing other than philosophizing rightly and truly practicing dying easily; or would this not be the practice of death?””