Notes and Comments on Phaedo -- 42

6 September 2023

Notes and Comments on Phaedo – 42

Continuing with my series on Phaedo; I am using the Harold North Fowler translation published by the Loeb Classical Library

“When he had had finished speaking, Crito said: ‘Well, Socrates, do you wish to leave any directions with us about your children or anything else – anything we can do to serve you?’

“’What I always say, Crito,’ he replied, ‘nothing new.  If you take care of yourselves you will serve me and mine and yourselves, whatever you do, even if you make no promises now; but if you neglect yourselves and are not willing to live following step by step, as it were, in the path marked out by our present and past discussions, you will accomplish nothing, no matter how much or how eagerly you promise at present.’

“’We will certainly try hard to do as you say,’ he replied.  ‘But how shall we bury you?’

“’However you please,’ he replied, ‘if you can catch me and I do not get away from you.’  And he laughed gently and looking towards us, said: ‘I cannot persuade Crito, my friends, that the Socrates who is now conversing and arranging the details of his argument is really I; he thinks I am the one whom he will presently see as a corpse, and he asks how to bury me.  And though I have been saying at great length that after I drink the poison I shall no longer be with you, but shall go away to the joys of the blessed you know of, he seems to think that was idle talk uttered to encourage you and myself.  So,’ he said, ‘give security for me to Crito, the opposite of that which he gave the judges at my trial; for he gave security that I would remain, but you must give security that I shall not remain when I die, but shall go away, so that Crito may bear it more easily, and may not be troubled when he sees my body being burnt or buried, or think I am undergoing terrible treatment, and may not say at the funeral that he is laying out Socrates, or following him to the grave, or burying him.  For, dear Crito, you may be sure that such wrong words are not only undesirable in themselves, but they infect the soul with evil.  No, you must be of good courage, and say that you bury my body, -- and bury it as you think best and as seems to you most fitting.’

“When he had said this, he got up and went into another room to bathe; Crito followed him, but he told us to wait.  So we waited, talking over with each other and discussing the discourse we had heard, and then speaking of the great misfortune that had befallen us, for we felt that he was like a father to us and that when bereft of him we should pass the rest of our lives as orphans.  And when he had bathed and his children had been brought to him – for he had two little sons and one big one – and the women of the family had come, he talked with them in Crito’s presence and gave them such directions as he wished; then he told the women to go away, and he came to us.  And it was now nearly sunset; for he had spent a long time within.  And he came and sat down fresh from the bath.’ 

“’After that not much was said, and the servant of the eleven came and stood beside him and said: ‘Socrates, I shall not find fault with you, as I do with others, for being angry and cursing me, when at the behest of the authorities, I tell them to drink the poison.  No, I have found you in all this time in every way the noblest and gentlest and best man who has ever come here, and now I know your anger is directed against others, not against me, for you know who are to blame.  Now, for you know the message I came to bring you, farewell and try to bear what you must as easily as you can.’  And he burst into tears and turned and went away.  And Socrates looked up at him and said: ‘Fare you well, too; I will do as you say.’  And then he said to us: ‘How charming the man is!  Ever since I have been here he has been coming to see me and talking with me from time to time, and has been the best of men, and now how nobly he weeps for me!  But come, Crito, let us obey him, and let someone bring the poison, if it is ready; and if not, let the man prepare it.’  And Crito said: ‘But I think, Socrates, the sun is still upon the mountains and has not yet set; and I know that others have taken the poison very late, after the order has come to them, and in the meantime have eaten and drunk and some of them enjoyed the society of those whom they loved.  Do not hurry; for there is still time.’

“And Socrates said: ‘Crito, those whom you mention are right in doing as they do, for they think they gain by it; and I shall be right in not doing as they do; for I think I should gain nothing by taking the poison a little later.  I should only make myself ridiculous in my own eyes if I clung to life and spared it, when there is no more profit in it.  Come,’ said he, ‘do as I ask and do not refuse.’

“Thereupon Crito nodded to the boy who was standing near.  The boy went out and stayed a long time, then came back with the man who was to administer the poison, which he brought with him in a cup ready for use.  And when Socrates saw him, he said: ‘Well, my good man, you know about these things; what must I do?’  ‘Nothing,’ he replied, ‘except drink the poison and walk about till your legs feel heavy; then lie down, and the poison will take effect of itself.’

"At the same time he held out the cup to Socrates.  He took it, and very gently, Echecrates, without trembling or changing color or expression, but looking up at the man with wide open eyes, as was his custom, said: ‘What do you say about pouring a libation to some deity from this cup?  May I, or not?’  ‘Socrates,’ said he, ‘we prepare only as much as we think is enough.’  ‘I understand,’ said Socrates; ‘but I may and must pray to the gods that my departure hence be a fortunate one; so I offer this prayer, and may it be granted.’  With these words he raised the cup to his lips and very cheerfully and quietly drained it.  Up to that time most of us had been able to restrain our tears fairly well, but when we watched him drinking and saw that he had drunk the poison, we could do so no longer, but in spite of myself my tears rolled down in floods, so that I wrapped my face in my cloak and wept for myself; for it was not for him that I wept, but for my own misfortune in being deprived of such a friend.  Crito had got up and gone away even before I did, because he could not restrain his tears.  But Apollodorus, who had been weeping all the time before, then wailed aloud in his grief and made us all break down, except Socrates himself.  But he said, ‘What conduct is this, you strange men!  I sent the women away chiefly for this very reason, that they might not behave in this absurd way; for I have heard that it is best to die in silence.  Keep quiet and be brave.’  Then we were ashamed and controlled our tears.  He walked about and, when he said his legs were heavy, lay down on his back, for such was the advice of the attendant.  The man who had administered the poison laid his hands on him and after a while examined his feet and legs, then pinched his foot hard and asked if he felt it.  He said, ‘No’; then after that, his thighs; and passing upwards in this way he showed us that he was growing cold and rigid.  And again he touched him said that when it reached his heart, he would be gone.  The chill had now reached the region about the groin, and uncovering his face, which had been covered, he said – and these were his last words – ‘Crito, we owe a cock to Aesculapius.  Pay it and do not neglect it.’  ‘That,’ said Crito, ‘shall be done; but see if you have anything else to say.’  To this question he made no reply, but after a little while he moved; the attendant uncovered him; his eyes were fixed.  And Crito when he saw it, closed his mouth and eyes.

“Such was the end, Echecrates, of our friend, who was, we may say, of all those of his time whom we have known, the best and wisest and most righteous man.”

(Ibid, Fowler, pages 393 – 403, 115B-118A)

1.  These last moments of the life of Socrates reveal his concern and care for his friends, students, family, and those who had official roles in the processes and procedures that took place.  At the same time these moments show us a Socrates who is serene in the face of the great transition he is about to undergo.

2.  Crito stands out as the person Socrates relies on for carrying out his instructions and wishes.  Crito and Socrates must have known each other for a very long time and deep trust had developed between them.

3.  “If you take care of yourselves you will serve me and mine and yourselves, whatever you do, even if you make no promises now; but if you neglect yourselves and are not willing to live following step by step, as it were, in the path marked out by our present and past discussions, you will accomplish nothing, no matter how much or how eagerly you promise at present.”

Platonism is a path.  It has steps.  It takes a long time.  It has its foundation in ascetic practices that the dialogue mentions early in the text.  Ascetic practice resembles learning a skill or craft, like learning how to do woodworking, or welding, or baking, or quilting, or mountain climbing, and so forth.  Asceticism is learned one step at a time, the steps are the path to the transcendental.  And asceticism consists of the techniques that give you the strength to walk that path.  Asceticism is like hiking boots, exercises to strengthen your physique for the climb.  This path, and the necessary asceses have been ‘marked out’ by the Sages of Platonism.  Do not neglect the Way.

4.  Socrates scolds Crito for identifying Socrates with the body of Socrates.  Socrates says that such words ‘infect the soul with evil.’  That’s a very strong statement.  But it shows how seriously Socrates was about the great journey beyond death.  To identify a person with their body is to make it more difficult, often much more difficult, for them to enter that journey in a conscious way, and to see it as an opportunity for transcendence.

5.  Socrates bathes before drinking the poison.  Bathing is a type of purification; in some spiritual traditions bathing in nature by standing under a waterfall is taught as a type of purification.  Bathing at this point is Socrates preparing himself, by cleansing his body, for his journey to the next life.

6.  After bathing Socrates speaks to his family; the women and his three sons.  This also is a form of purification, saying a final farewell to his loved ones.

7.  “It was now nearly sunset.”  Sunset is the time when the world enters darkness, when the sun becomes hidden.  The sun is no longer observable and its effects on earth become inaccessible to the senses.  Socrates will soon enter the dusk of his life and like the sun at night, people will no longer be able to see him with their bodily senses. 

8.  “What do you say about pouring a libation to some deity from this cup?  May I, or not?”  “Socrates, said he, “we prepare only as much as we think is enough.”  “I understand,” said Socrates; “but I may and must pray to the gods that my departure hence be a fortunate one; so I offer this prayer, and may it be granted.”

The Focus Philosophical Library throws a slightly different light on what Socrates said:

“What do you say to pouring somebody a libation from this drink?  Is it allowed, or not?”

“Socrates,” he said, “we concoct only so much as we think is the right dose to drink.”

“I understand,” said he, “But I suppose I am allowed to, and indeed should, pray to the gods that my emigration from here to There may turn out to be a fortunate one.  That’s just what I’m praying for – and may it be so!”

The Fowler translation has Socrates say he wants to offer a libation to ‘some deity’, whereas the Focus translation has the libation offered to ‘somebody.’  It is only after the libation has been denied that Socrates resorts to a prayer to the ‘gods’, but not a specific god, and the prayer is of a general kind. 

Offering a libation by pouring out some liquid from a cup, was a very common way of thanking a god or the gods, for some good fortune.  This custom has continued into the 21^st century.  I read a book by Bill Porter, aka Red Pine, titled Finding Them Gone.  Porter has been a translator of Classical Chinese Poetry for decades.  Finding Them Gone is a record of a journey Porter took to China seeking out the burial sites or monuments of various great Chinese poets.  When Porter found a site, he would approach the monument or site and offer a libation to express his gratitude for their poetry.  He would then read his favorite poem that they had written.  It was a very simple, and ancient, way of thanking their spirits.

In a similar way, Socrates wanted to offer a libation of thanks to those who had helped him and/or been a part of his life.  But that simple gesture was not available, so Socrates shifts to a very brief prayer. 

9.  Following Socrates drinking the poison his students break into tears.  This is natural, and some of his students were depicted earlier in the dialogue as succumbing to this kind of emotional display.  Phaedo is honest enough to say that he is weeping “for my own misfortune; for it was not for him that I wept, but for my own misfortune in being deprived of such a friend.” 

Socrates corrects this by saying “. . . it is best to die in silence.  Keep quiet and be brave.”

In the commentary on Phaedo by Damascius it says:  “The Pythagoreans wanted ‘to die in religious silence, . . . ‘  I take ‘religious silence’ to mean contemplative silence, that is to say to enter into the after death realm in a state of contemplation.

(Ibid, Damascius, page 284)

10.  “Crito, we owe a cock to Aesculapius.  Pay it and do not neglect it.”  “That,” said Crito, “shall be done . . . “

These last words of Socrates are kind of a mystery that has given many people, over thousands of years, pause for thought.  There are many different opinions and analyses.  Damascius writes, “Why did Socrates say that he owed Asclepius that sacrifice, and why were those his last words?  If it were due already, a man as careful as he was would not have forgotten it. – The reason is that the soul is in need of the care of the Healing God at the moment that she is set free from all her toil; therefore the Oracle (frg. 131 – translators note) says that souls in their upward flight sing the hymn to Paean.”  Paean is a god of healing for the Olympians.  Paean is, at times, used as an alternative name for Apollo.

(Ibid, Damascius, page 370)

11.  Notice the use of the plural in these last words; Socrates says ‘we’ owe a cock to Asclepius, not “I owe a cock.”  This plural also applies to the next phrase when Socrates says “Pay it . . . “  Socrates is saying “You guys pay it” or “All of you pay it.”  I see this as indicating that these last words were Socrates urging his students to follow the Way to salvation that Socrates had so meticulously taught to them.  Socrates had already made such a statement earlier after Crito asks Socrates what he wants them to do (see above). 

Socrates is saying that all of them are in need of healing and all of them have to pay the price for such healing.  The price a philosopher has to pay is asceticism.  With his last breath he is reminding his students of this reality.  Though Socrates is going to enter the next life realm momentarily, all of them will do so, sooner or later.  As Socrates is disappearing into the beyond he turns and sends them this message.

12.  The rooster, or cock, crows at dawn.  That is when the sun returns, and when the light of the sun reappears.  Socrates is greeting the light from beyond.  Recall how earlier in the dialogue Socrates remarks on how swans sing just before they die and that most people say they sing for sorrow; but Socrates believes that they sing for joy as they approach the transition to a better world. 

13.  It’s helpful, I think, to compare the last words of Socrates to the last words of Plotinus.  Porphyry writes in The Life of Plotinus, “When he was on the point of death . . . he said, ‘Try to bring back the god in us to the divine in the All!’ and, as a snake crept under the bed on which he was lying and disappeared into a hole in the wall, he breathed his last.”

Plotinus had only a single person with him at the time of his death.  Due to a debilitating illness, the school of Plotinus had shut down.  For this reason the settings differ.  But both of them exhibit a concern for those who are with them; be it one person or an extended group.  And both of them speak in their last moments of the possibility that a human life has for attaining the divine.  And in both cases an animal is symbolic of the transition from human life to that eternal life beyond death, beyond becoming and begoning.  In the case of Socrates, it is a cock that is such a symbol.  In the case of Plotinus, it is a snake who ‘disappeared into a hole in the wall’ just as Plotinus was disappearing from this world.

(Porphyry, The Life of Plotinus, translate by A.H. Armstrong, Ennead I, Loeb Classical Library, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1966, page 7, ISBN: 9780674994843)

14.  I have enjoyed pulling together these notes and comments on Phaedo over the months I posted them.  ‘Enjoyed’ doesn’t really touch the way this project nourished me.  I hope that some people who read what I’ve posted might benefit from them.  I’ve received emails and in-person comments from a variety of people, and I’m grateful for all of them.

Much more could be said about Phaedo.  My goal was to offer a non-scholarly approach to Phaedo so that other non-scholars might find Phaedo of interest.  I am deeply indebted to scholars, but at times the manner of presentation, such things as scholarly apparatus, for example, can be a considerable barrier for a non-scholar.

During my decades of working at a spiritual bookstore I often had the opportunity to recommend Phaedo to people.  Usually this came up because they were interested in reincarnation; but now and then other issues, such as asceticism and the nature of the spiritual path, would lead to Phaedo.  What this taught me is that there is an audience for Plato’s Dialogues among ordinary people who do not have scholarly credentials.  In a way, this series of notes and comments is a continuation of the kind of interaction I had with many customers at the spiritual bookstore.

Phaedo is an eternal spring of insight, wisdom, and guidance for those on a spiritual path.  Much of what it has to offer only comes to us with repeated readings.  Socrates advises at the end of Phaedo that his students follow the path of philosophy as he had taught it.  One can rely on the teachings of Phaedo for guidance on the long, and often beautiful, journey to the Good, the One, and the Beautiful.

15.  I plan on posting one, or a few, postscripts, but the notes and comments have ended. 

Notes and Comments on Phaedo -- 41

4 October 2023

Notes and Comments on Phaedo – 41

Continuing with my series of posts on Phaedo; I am using the Harold North Fowler translation published by the Loeb Classical Library.

“’But round about the whole earth, in the hollows of it, are many regions, some deeper and wider than that in which we live, some deeper but with a narrower opening than ours, and some also less in depth and wider.  Now all these are connected with one another by many subterranean channels, some larger and some smaller, which are bored in all of them, and there are passages through which much water flows from one to another as into mixing bowls; and there are everlasting rivers of huge size under the earth, flowing with hot and cold water; and there is much fire, and great rivers of fire, and many streams of mud, some thinner and some thicker, like the rivers of mud that flow before the lava in Sicily, and the lava itself.  These fill the various regions as they happen to flow to one or another at any time.  Now a kind of oscillation within the earth moves all these up and down.  And the nature of the oscillation is as follows: One of the chasms of the earth is greater than the rest, and is bored right through the whole earth; this is the one which Homer means when he says: 

            Far off, the lowest abyss beneath the earth;

            (Home, Iliad 8, 14, Lord Derby’s translation – Fowler footnote)

and which elsewhere he and many other poets have called Tartarus.  For all the rivers flow together into this chasm and flow out of it again, and they have each the nature of the earth through which they flow.  And the reason why all the streams flow in and out here is that this liquid matter has no bottom or foundation.  So it oscillates and waves up and down, and the air and wind about it do the same; for they follow the liquid both when it moves toward the other side of the earth and when it moves toward this side, and just as the breath of those who breathe blows in and out, so the wind there oscillates with the liquid and causes terrible and irresistible blasts as it rushes in and out.  And when the water retired to the region which we call the lower, it flows into the rivers there and fills them up, as if it were pumped into them; and when it leaves that region and comes back to this side, it fills the rivers here; and when the streams are filled they flow through the passages and through the earth and come to the various places to which their different paths lead, where they make seas and marshes, and rivers and springs.  Then they go down again under the earth, some passing around many great regions and others around fewer and smaller places, and flow again into Tartarus, some much below the point where they were sucked out, and some only a little; but all flow in below their exit.  Some flow in on the side from which they flowed out, others on the opposite side; and some pass completely around in a circle, coiling about the earth once or several times, like serpents, then descend to the lowest possible depth and fall again into the chasm.  Now it is possible to go down from each side to the center, but not beyond, for there the slope rises upward in front of the streams from either side of the earth.

“’Now these streams are many and great and of all sorts, but among the many are four streams, the greatest of the outermost of which is that called Oceanus, which flows round in a circle, and opposite this, flowing in the opposite direction, is Acheron, which flows through various desert places and, passing under the earth, comes to the Acherusian lake.  To this lake the souls of most of the dead go and, after remaining there the appointed time, which is for some longer and for others shorter, are sent back to be born again into living beings.  The third river flows out between these two, and near the place whence it issues it falls into a vast region burning with a great fire and makes a lake larger than our Mediterranean Sea, boiling with water and mud.  Then it flows in a circle, turbid and muddy, and comes in its winding course, among other places, to the edge of the Acherusian lake, but does not mingle with its water.  Then, after winding about many times underground, it flows into Tartarus at a lower level.  This is the river which is called Pyriphlegethon, and the streams of lava which spout up at various places on earth are offshoots from it.  Opposite this the fourth river issues, it is said, first into a wild and awful place, which is all of a dark blue color, like lapis lazuli.  This is called the Stygian river, and the lake which it forms by flowing in is the Styx.  And when the river has flowed in here and has received fearful powers into its waters, it passes under the earth and, circling round in the direction opposed to that of Pyriphlegethon, it meets it coming from the other way in the Acherusian lake.  And the water of this river also mingles with no other water, but this also passes round in a circle and falls into Tartarus opposite Pyriphlegethon.  And the name of this river, as the poets say, is Cocytus.

“’Such is the nature of these things.  Now when the dead have come to the place where each is led by his genius, first they are judged and sentenced, as they have lived well and piously, or not.  And those who are found to have lived neither well nor ill, go to the Acheron and, embarking upon vessels provided for them, arrive in them at the lake; there they dwell and are purified, and if they have done any wrong they are absolved by paying the penalty for their wrong doings, and for their good deeds, they receive rewards, each according to his merits.  But those who appear to be incurable, on account of the greatness of their wrong-doings, because they have committed many great deeds of sacrilege, or wicked and abominable murders, or any other such crimes, are cast by their fitting destiny into Tartarus, whence they never emerge.  Those, however, who are curable, but are found to have committed great sins – who have, for example, in a moment of passion done some act of violence against father or mother and have lived in repentance the rest of their lives, or who have slain some other person under similar conditions – these must needs be thrown into Tartarus, and when they have been there a year the wave casts them out, the homicides by way of Cocytus, those who have outraged their parents by way of Pyriphlegethon.  And when they have been brought by the current to the Acherusian lake, they shout and cry out, calling to those whom they have slain or outraged, begging and beseeching them to be gracious and to let them come out into the lake; and if they prevail they come out and cease from their ills, but if not, they are borne away again to Tartarus and thence back into the rivers, and this goes on until they prevail upon those whom they have wronged; for this is the penalty imposed upon them by the judges.  But those who are found to have excelled in holy living are freed from these regions within the earth and are released as from prisons; they mount upward into their pure abode and dwell upon the earth.  And of those, all who have duly purified themselves by philosophy live henceforth altogether without bodies, and pass to still more beautiful abodes which it is not easy to describe, nor have we time enough.

“’But, Simmias, because of all these things which we have recounted we ought to do our best to acquire virtue and wisdom in life.  For the prize is fair and the hope great.

“’Now it would not be fitting for a man of sense to maintain that all this is just as I have described it, but that this or something like it is true concerning our souls and their abodes, since the soul is shown to be immortal, I think he may properly and worthily venture to believe; for the venture is well worth while; and he ought to repeat such things to himself as if they were magic charms, which is the reason why I have been lengthening out the story so long.  This then is why a man should be of good cheer about his soul, who in his life has rejected the pleasures and ornaments of the body, thinking they are alien to him and more likely to do him harm than good, and has sought eagerly for those of learning, and after adorning his soul, with no alien ornaments, but with its own proper adornment of self-restraint and justice and courage and freedom and truth, awaits his departure to the other world, ready to go when fate calls him.  You, Simmias and Cebes and the rest,’ he said, ‘will go hereafter, each in his own time; but I am now already, as a tragedian would say, called by fate, and it is about time for me to go to the bath; for I think it is better to bathe before drinking the poison, that the women may not have the trouble of bathing the corpse.’’

(Ibid, Fowler, pages 381 – 393, 111C-115A)

1.  This is an elaborate description of rivers and their courses, the way the rivers interact, and the way the flow of these rivers relates to the destiny of souls.  I’m not a very visual person and at times I have difficult seeing the layout in my mind's eye.  It would probably help people like to me to have a visual representation of this layout and I wonder if there were such visual depictions, like paintings or bas-reliefs, of what is spoken about here?

2.  According to the commentary on Phaedo by Damascius, this teaching comes from the Orphic tradition:

“The four rivers here described correspond, according to the tradition of Orpheus, to the four subterranean elements and the four cardinal points in two sets of opposites: the Pyriphlegethon to fire and the east, the Cocytus to earth and the west, the Acheron to air and the south.  These are arranged in this way by Orpheus [frg. 123 – translators note], it is the commentator who associates the Oceanus with water and the north.”

I haven’t studied the fragmentary remains of Orphism.  But I might take the time to do so because I think it provides, along with Pythagoreanism, a deep historical background for Platonism. 

Damascius also makes the following observations:

“The cause of the opposite direction of the subterranean rivers, Socrates says, is the ‘swing,’ i.e. a state of unstable equilibrium; the prior cause is the soul, which makes the earth an animal that breathes in and out; and beyond this there is the demonic and divine cause. . .

“To the region of Acheron Socrates attributes purifying power.  It must be regarded as twofold, corporeal and incorporeal; purifying ceremonies here on earth have the same double power.

“Tartarus is the privation of all that is good; therefore it becomes the abode of those who are guilty of irremediable sins, inasmuch as they have already fallen into their own Tartarus.  They are said to ‘be thrown,’ because they have led a life heavily weighted by matter, moved by external impulses, a life crying out for punishment and driven towards it by fate.  But since even the lowest ranges of existence are governed in accordance with Justice, Socrates says that this is ‘their due portion.’

“Sins easy to cure are those committed without a permanent evil disposition; difficult to cure are those which result from a permanent disposition, but one that also resists the deed and after the deed repents; incurable are those that proceed from an evil disposition without repentance.  The place destined for the first kind is Acheron and the Acherusian lake, for the second kind the Pyriphlegethon and Cocytus, for the third Tartarus.”

(Damascius Commentary on Plato’s Phaedo, translated by L. G. Westerink, The Prometheus Trust, Gloucestershire, UK, 1977, page 276 – 278, ISBN: 9781898910473)

3.  "But those who appear to be incurable, on account of the greatness of their wrong-doings, because they have committed many great deeds of sacrilege, or wicked and abominable murders, or any other such crimes, are cast by their fitting destiny into Tartarus, whence they never emerge."

This passage seems to teach that it is possible for someone to live a life that is so degraded, so thoroughly destructive, so malevolent that it is no longer possible for them to free themselves from the negative karmic consequences of those acts.  This, at first, feels like a harsh teaching, a teaching that many would reject today for various reasons; some of them emotional and some based on their understanding of universal salvation.  

For many years I was committed to the Mahayana Buddhist view of universal salvation through the vows of Bodhisattvas.  It was difficult for me to think of the Bodhisattva vows as in some way limited.  But slowly I began to understand that the fate of other beings isn't up to me; that other beings have their own journey and destiny.  It's not that I don't hope for others to overcome their negative tendencies.  It has more to do with recognizing my own limitations and accepting them as the reality that it is.  

4.  “But, Simmias, because of all these things which we have recounted we ought to do our best to acquire virtue and wisdom in life.  For the prize is fair and the hope great.”

Here Socrates is emphasizing that the purpose of life is to cultivate virtue and wisdom, and the purpose of cultivating virtue and wisdom is to be prepared for the great afterlife journey and transformation.  It is possible to do that in life, but it is difficult.  But, as Socrates says, “the prize is fair and the hope great.”

5.  “Now it would not be fitting for a man of sense to maintain that all this is just as I have described it, but that this or something like it is true concerning our souls and their abodes, since the soul is shown to be immortal.”

The depiction offered by Socrates is an allegory and allegories can, and often do, deviate from the experience an individual may have. 

I recall from years ago when I was doing caregiving work for the dying, some of those I cared for had become acquainted with the Tibetan Book of the Dead.  This caused them more than a little agitation and dread because they were trying to keep in mind, under highly stressful conditions, the colors they should follow and those that they should avoid, and many of the other specifics presented in the book.  This was not helpful.  A general appreciation for the afterlife journey is helpful, but it’s not necessary to fixate on the details.  An analogy might help; I might ask someone for directions and he might respond, “Go north ten miles, turn left at the stop sign, and then go another fifteen miles and there you are.”  Another person might say, “You will pass an old house that was built in the 1950’s, I kind of like the architecture, though it does need some fixing up, and after the 1950’s house there is a pine tree which was just put in three years ago, though it looks older than that, but keep going and there is a 7-11 on the right side of the road in the middle of one of the blocks which still has a pay phone, can you believe it?, and if you are hungry there is a good Mexican Restaurant on the left side of the road just a block, or maybe two, past the 7-11, which, remember, is on the right, and next to the Mexican Restaurant is a house with a beautiful garden, but come to think of it at this time of year most of its beauty is over, so you might want to skip it . . . “  The spare instruction will get you to your destination.  The detailed instruction will get you lost.

6.  “. . . and he ought to repeat such things to himself as if they were magic charms . . . “

That’s an interesting suggestion from Socrates.  It would have been helpful if Socrates had described the kind of charms he meant; my assumption is that his audience was aware of the specifics.  Socrates might be referring to a talisman or a mantra/phrase, or perhaps some other item.

I use a phrase in a mantra-like way as a part of my Platonist practice.  I use the phrase ‘return to the One.’  I simply repeat this phrase when I sense that I have become, or might soon become, distracted by the many temptations of the material world.  I repeat the phrase, usually out loud, but softly, sometimes just mentally, ‘return to the One.’  I usually repeat the phrase a number of times.  I find it to be an effective reminder of the direction I want to maintain in my life.

Often when I go for walks I coordinate the phrase with my footsteps using two syllables per step: return / to the / One, concluding with the single syllable, One.  This means that the phrase takes three steps; starting with the right foot with ‘return’, then the left foot ‘to the’, then the right foot ‘One.’  Then it switches to the left foot ‘return’, right foot ‘to the’, left foot ‘One.’  And then repeat the process.  I like switching the placement of the feet rather than always starting the phrase on the same foot.

And sometimes I will chant the phrase for a few minutes; it produces a sense of calm and focus.

To my mind, the phrase ‘return to the One’ sums up the Platonic quest, or you could say it distills the teachings, or summarizes the teachings, of Platonic spirituality.  I’m not sure if it could be called a ‘magic charm’; it depends on how one understands magic.  And I’m not sure if Socrates had this kind of practice in mind, but I have found it a helpful assist.

Regarding talismans, many spiritual traditions have talismans for particular deities as well as talismans that are what I think of as spiritual reminders.  Some contemporary Stoic groups use circular discs that have a pithy, profound, Stoic teaching on them.  The idea is to carry the disc around with them.  One of them is a ‘memento mori’, reminder of death.  The disc simply says ‘memento mori.’  Things like this can be of great assistance (perhaps I should create a disc that has carved on it ‘Return to the One.’)

It is interesting to note that in New Age retail outlets they often have similar devices for remembering key teachings.  I have seen, for example, stones with words like ‘Love’, ‘Peace’, ‘Gratitude’, ‘Patience’, etc. written on them, usually in elegant script.  Stones like this seem to be used primarily at home altars, but some people carry them around in their pocket, purse, briefcase, or place them on their desk.  Again, I’m not sure if Socrates had these kinds of things in mind; I suspect he was thinking more along the lines of deity-specific talismans, but I don’t really know.  On the other hand, a disc with the phrase from the Oracle at Delphi, ‘Know Thyself’ would seem very appropriate.  And there is a phrase from Plotinus, ‘Take Away Everything’ that I think would also serve this kind of purpose well.

7.  “This then is why a man should be of good cheer about his soul, who in his life has rejected the pleasures and ornaments of the body . . .”

Here Socrates returns to the topic of asceticism, connecting this topic to the descriptions he has just given of the afterlife.  In a sense, asceticism is the central topic of Phaedo, which is why it is frequently returned to.  I say this because asceticism is the means whereby a Platonic practitioner purifies himself and enters the afterlife with a sense of stability and safety, realizing that each life, purified by asceses, is a step on the long journey that culminates in a Return to the One. 

Notes and Comments on Phaedo -- 40

2 October 2023

Notes and Comments on Phaedo – 40

Continuing with my posts on Phaedo, I am using the Harold North Fowler translation published by the Loeb Classical Library.

“’If I may tell a story, Simmias, about the things on the earth that is below the heaven, and what they are like, it is well worth hearing.’

“’By all means, Socrates,’ said Simmias; ‘we should be glad to hear this story.’

“’Well then, my friend,’ said he, ‘to begin with, the earth when seen from above is said to look like those balls that are covered with twelve pieces of leather; it is divided into patches of various colors of which the colors which we see here may be regarded as samples, such as painters use.  But there the whole earth is of such colors, and they are much brighter and purer than ours; for one part is purple of wonderful beauty, and one is golden, and one is white, whiter than chalk or snow and the earth is made up of the other colors likewise, and they are more in number and more beautiful than those which we see here.  For those very hollows of the earth which are full of water and air, present an appearance of color as they glisten amid the variety of the other colors, so that the whole produces one continuous effect of variety.  And in this fair earth the things that grow, the trees, and flowers and fruits, are correspondingly beautiful; and so too the mountains and stones are smoother, and more transparent and more lovely in color than ours.  In fact, our highly prized stones, sards and jaspers, and emeralds, and other gems, are fragments of those there, but there everything is like these or still more beautiful.  And the reason of this is that there the stones are pure, and not corroded or defiled, as ours are, with filth and brine by the vapors and liquids which flow together here and which cause ugliness and disease in earth and stones and animals and plants.  And the earth there is adorned with all these jewels and also with gold and silver and everything of the sort.  For there they are in plain sight, abundant and large and in many places, so that the earth is a sight to make those blessed who look upon it.  And there are many animals upon it, and men also, some dwelling inland, others on the coasts of the air, as we dwell about the sea, and others on islands, which the air flows around, near the mainland; and in short, what water and the sea are in our lives, air is in theirs, and what the air is to us, ether is to them.  And the seasons are so tempered that people there have no diseases and live much longer than we, and in sight and hearing and wisdom and all such things are as much superior to us as air is purer than water or the ether than air.  And they have sacred groves and temples of the gods, in which the gods really dwell, and they have intercourse with the gods by speech and prophecies and visions, and they see the sun and moon and stars as they really are, and in all other ways their blessedness is in accord with this.

“’Such then is the nature of the earth as a whole, and of the things around it.’”

(Ibid, Fowler, pages 377-381, 110B-111C)

1.  Socrates states that he is telling a ‘story’ about ‘the earth below the heaven.’  Socrates then offers a vision of great beauty which is an earth that is ‘there’; this is contrasted with the earth that is ‘here'.  The vision of the earth that is ‘there’ is almost hallucinatory, or like a dream vision, or something seen in a trance.

2.  Often in Platonic literature the use of ‘here’ and ‘there’ refers to the material realm, which is here, as opposed to the noetic realm, which is ‘there.’  In this instance what Socrates depicts seems to me to be a kind of visionary experience so that ‘there’ in this context refers to this visionary depiction as opposed to our ‘here’ which is our ordinary experience of earth.

3.  I once knew a Professor of Buddhist Studies.  He passed away years ago.  He was a specialist in Pure Land Buddhism.  He became very ill but, in keeping with his rather cantankerous personality, he denied the reality of his situation which was that he, at most, two months to live.  He was regularly visited by nurses and Hospice workers at his home who were very blunt about his situation, but adamantly continued to dismiss their messages to him.

One night he had a dream.  He was on a path through a field, with trees in the distance.  The path meandered and went up and down hills.  It was excruciatingly beautiful.  And there were others on the path who greeted him, informing him that everything would be fine and not to worry.

The dream completely transformed him in his final days.  He completely accepted his situation and had a beatific calm; even his face had a glow about it that shone through his steady bodily deterioration.

I think that what Socrates is offering his students at this time is a similar kind of soothing revelation, a way of communicating to his students that there is another reality, another ‘earth,’ that is of surpassing beauty and it is in that direction that a practitioner will travel when the time arrives for their departure from the material realm.

4.  The commentary on Phaedo by Damascius says the following about this section:

“Why do we enjoy stories?  Because we have innate notions that are pictures of reality.  Or else, because our chosen level of life is dominated by generation and imagination, we have a preference for fictions.

“You could also say that stories are a kind of casual and playful earnestness; and the reason why we like play is that we want to have pleasure without pains, in other words, illusory pleasure.

"Why this mixture of cosmography and mythology?  To point beyond physical science to a more divine reality, which has a more rightful claim to be the home of souls."

(Damascius, Commentary on Plato’s Phaedo, translated by L. G. Westerink, The Prometheus Trust, Gloucestershire, UK, 2009, page 266, ISBN: 9781898910473)

5.  Dreams and stories are a way of communicating knowledge and understanding.  In some ways depictions through the methods of stories, myths, and dreams can be more motivating, and more convincing, than demonstrations based on analysis and inference.  The shift at this point in the dialogue to mythic presentations happens after Socrates uses multiple approaches based on reason and inference.  I see these reason-based approaches as clearing the air for presenting a mythic reality than is more intimate, but needs the space of the mind to be cleared in order for it to have an impact. 

6.  Stories and allegories were, prior to modernity, greatly admired as means for communicating deep truths.  A good example is Paul Bunyan’s A Pilgrim’s Progress; an allegory that had wide appeal in England.  It was so admired by Christian culture in England that there was a period where most people would have a copy of it next to their Bible.  Today it has lost its place and religious or spiritual allegories are thought of as not being as valuable as an analytical approach to spiritual and religious issues.  For example, religious apologists almost never defend their tradition using allegory; rather they try to frame a defense in logical, inferential ways.  My feeling is that by doing so they have already ceded a great deal of ground to their opponents.

7.  The Platonic tradition is, I think, primarily grounded in the allegories of the Dialogues of Plato.  It within Plato’s great allegories that Plato presents his philosophy, his way of life, and his vision of the divine ascent.  Platonists are capable of using inferential structures of all kinds, and they were often advanced mathematicians, but those structures are used in the service of drawing out the meaning of the allegories.

8.  Reading these stories and myths resembles listening to music.  Music is meaningful, but musical statements are neither true nor false in the sense in which conceptual assertions are.  If we shift our mind to the kind of mind that we have when we listen to music, then this part of Phaedo will speak to us in the way that a profound piece of music speaks to us and guides us to deeper understanding.