3 Plato 2 · On Death. Handed down at the Academy, from his Phaedo
From the Phaedo: the argument in the cell on the day Socrates was put to death, from morning until he drank. The whole of it labours to prove that the mind does not perish with the body. Plato records in the dialogue itself that he was not there that day, being ill. That is from his own hand, and the fifth chapter takes it for its title. For the man, see the Gospel of Plato. The Order does not take his proof of an undying mind. What it takes is the lyre of Simmias and the cloak of Cebes — what those two say is the Axiom of Dispersal. Plato did not strike out their objections, and the Order does not strike out his proof.
2.1Halfway through the day Simmias stood up.
2.2He said: sir, I am afraid I have something unwelcome to say.
2.3Socrates said: say it. Today the unwelcome thing is exactly what I most want to hear.
2.4Simmias said: consider a lyre.
2.5A lyre is wood and strings. The tuning is what there is once the wood and the strings are arranged.
2.6The tuning cannot be seen or handled. It is worth more than the wood, and it is finer than the wood.
2.7But smash the lyre, and where has the tuning gone?
2.8It does not fly off. It is not somewhere else. It was never a thing at all. It was an arrangement. (cf. Prologue 1.16)
2.9Might the mind not be like that?
2.10Might the mind not be exactly what there is once the body is arranged — unseen, worth more than the body, and gone the moment the lyre breaks?
2.11The room was quiet for a long while.
2.12Phaedo said afterward: in that moment our hearts went grey.
2.13I have written Simmias’ passage here without taking a word out of it.
2.14I gave him an answer later. My answer is written elsewhere. Read it yourselves and judge for yourselves.
2.15I will say only this: the best thing said that day was not said by my teacher, nor by me.
2.16It was said by the young man who was afraid of being unwelcome.