§96ΦΑΙΔ. ἐγὼ οὖν σοι δίειμι περὶ αὐτῶν, ἐὰν βούλῃ, τά γε ἐμὰ πάθη· ἔπειτα ἄν τί σοι χρήσιμον φαίνηται ὧν ἂν λέγω, πρὸς τὴν πειθὼ περὶ ὧν δὴ λέγεις χρήσῃ. ἀλλὰ μήν, ἔφη ὁ Κέβης, βούλομαί γε. ἄκουε τοίνυν ὡς ἐροῦντος.
Phaedo: "I will, then, relate to you my own experiences about these things, if you wish; then, if anything I say should appear useful to you, you may use it to help persuade us of the things you say." "Indeed," said Cebes, "I certainly do wish it." "Listen, then, with the understanding that I am going to speak.
ἐγὼ γάρ, ἔφη, ὦ Κέβης, νέος ὢν θαυμαστῶς ὡς ἐπεθύμησα ταύτης τῆς σοφίας ἣν δὴ καλοῦσι περὶ φύσεως ἱστορίαν· ὑπερήφανος γάρ μοι ἐδόκει εἶναι, εἰδέναι τὰς αἰτίας ἑκάστου, διὰ τί γίγνεται ἕκαστον καὶ διὰ τί ἀπόλλυται καὶ διὰ τί ἔστι.
For, Cebes," he said, "when I was young, I was wonderfully eager for that wisdom which they call 'inquiry into nature'; for it seemed to me a magnificent thing to know the causes of everything, why each thing comes to be, why it perishes, and why it exists.
καὶ πολλάκις ἐμαυτὸν ἄνω κάτω μετέβαλλον σκοπῶν πρῶτον τὰ τοιάδε· ἆρ’ ἐπειδὰν τὸ θερμὸν καὶ τὸ ψυχρὸν σηπεδόνα τινὰ λάβῃ, ὥς τινες ἔλεγον, τότε δὴ τὰ ζῷα συντρέφεται;
And often I turned myself upside down, examining first of all questions like these: Is it when the hot and the cold undergo a kind of fermentation, as some used to say, that living creatures are then nurtured?
καὶ πότερον τὸ αἷμά ἐστιν ᾧ φρονοῦμεν, ἢ ὁ ἀὴρ ἢ τὸ πῦρ;
And is it blood with which we think, or air, or fire?
ἢ τούτων μὲν οὐδέν, ὁ δ’ ἐγκέφαλός ἐστιν ὁ τὰς αἰσθήσεις παρέχων τοῦ ἀκούειν καὶ ὁρᾶν καὶ ὀσφραίνεσθαι, ἐκ τούτων δὲ γίγνοιτο μνήμη καὶ δόξα, ἐκ δὲ μνήμης καὶ δόξης λαβούσης τὸ ἠρεμεῖν, κατὰ ταῦτα γίγνεσθαι ἐπιστήμην;
Or is it none of these, but is the brain that which provides the senses of hearing, seeing, and smelling, and from these memory and opinion arise, and from memory and opinion, when they have acquired stability, in this way knowledge comes to be?
καὶ αὖ τούτων τὰς φθορὰς σκοπῶν, καὶ τὰ περὶ τὸν οὐρανόν τε καὶ τὴν γῆν πάθη, τελευτῶν οὕτως ἐμαυτῷ ἔδοξα πρὸς ταύτην τὴν σκέψιν ἀφυὴς εἶναι ὡς οὐδὲν χρῆμα.
And again, examining the destructions of these things, and the occurrences in the heavens and on earth, in the end I judged myself to be as utterly unsuited for this kind of inquiry as anything could be.
τεκμήριον δέ σοι ἐρῶ ἱκανόν· ἐγὼ γὰρ ἃ καὶ πρότερον σαφῶς ἠπιστάμην, ὥς γε ἐμαυτῷ καὶ τοῖς ἄλλοις ἐδόκουν, τότε ὑπὸ ταύτης τῆς σκέψεως οὕτω σφόδρα ἐτυφλώθην, ὥστε ἀπέμαθον καὶ ταῦτα ἃ πρὸ τοῦ ᾤμην εἰδέναι, περὶ ἄλλων τε πολλῶν καὶ διὰ τί ἄνθρωπος αὐξάνεται.
And I will tell you a sufficient proof of this: for those very things which I previously understood clearly, as it seemed to myself and to others, I was then so greatly blinded by this inquiry that I unlearned even those things which I thought I knew before, about many other things and especially about why a human being grows.
τοῦτο γὰρ ᾤμην πρὸ τοῦ παντὶ δῆλον εἶναι, ὅτι διὰ τὸ ἐσθίειν καὶ πίνειν· ἐπειδὰν γὰρ ἐκ τῶν σιτίων ταῖς μὲν σαρξὶ σάρκες προσγένωνται, τοῖς δὲ ὀστοῖς ὀστᾶ, καὶ οὕτω κατὰ τὸν αὐτὸν λόγον καὶ τοῖς ἄλλοις τὰ αὐτῶν οἰκεῖα ἑκάστοις προσγένηται, τότε δὴ τὸν ὀλίγον ὄγκον ὄντα ὕστερον πολὺν γεγονέναι, καὶ οὕτω γίγνεσθαι τὸν σμικρὸν ἄνθρωπον μέγαν.
For previously I thought this was plain to everyone, that it was because of eating and drinking; for whenever, from food, flesh is added to flesh, and bones to bones, and in the same way, according to the same principle, the other parts have their own appropriate elements added to each of them, then indeed the bulk which was small becomes large afterwards, and thus the small man becomes big.
οὕτως τότε ᾤμην· οὐ δοκῶ σοι μετρίως; ἔμοιγε, ἔφη ὁ Κέβης.
That was what I thought then; does it not seem reasonable to you?" "To me indeed it does," said Cebes.
σκέψαι δὴ καὶ τάδε ἔτι.
"Consider, then, these things as well.
ᾤμην γὰρ ἱκανῶς μοι δοκεῖν, ὁπότε τις φαίνοιτο ἄνθρωπος παραστὰς μέγας σμικρῷ μείζων εἶναι αὐτῇ τῇ κεφαλῇ, καὶ ἵππος ἵππου· καὶ ἔτι γε τούτων ἐναργέστερα, τὰ δέκα μοι ἐδόκει τῶν ὀκτὼ πλέονα εἶναι διὰ τὸ δύο αὐτοῖς προσεῖναι, καὶ τὸ δίπηχυ τοῦ πηχυαίου μεῖζον εἶναι διὰ τὸ ἡμίσει αὐτοῦ ὑπερέχειν. νῦν δὲ δή, ἔφη ὁ Κέβης, τί σοι δοκεῖ περὶ αὐτῶν;
For I thought I was sufficiently correct in my opinion, whenever a tall man standing by a short man appeared to be larger by a head, and a horse larger than a horse; and even clearer than these, ten seemed to me to be more than eight because of the addition of two to them, and the two-cubit measure to be larger than the one-cubit measure because it exceeded it by a half." "But now," said Cebes, "what is your opinion about them?"