"Let us also consider the following:
how much hope there is that it is good.
For death is one of two things;
either the dead have no being nor perception nor anything,
or according to what is said some change of being happens
and a transmigration of the soul from here to another place.
And if it is no perception,
but a sleep when one sleeps without seeing any dreams,
then death would be a wonderful gain.
For I think if one had to pick out that night
in which one slept without seeing any dream,
and comparing this night
to the other nights and days of one's life
and considering it had to say
how many days and nights one had lived in one's life
better and more pleasantly than that night,
I think that not only a private person,
but even the great king would find these nights few
in comparison to the other days and nights.
So if death is such, I say it is a gain;
for then all of time thus appears to be
really no more than one night.
But if death is to leave here for another place,
and what is said is true that all the dead are there,
what greater good could there be, judges?
For if one arriving in Hades,
having left those claiming to be judges,
will find the true judges, who are said to judge there,
Minos and Rhadamanthus and Aeacus and Triptolemus
and others of the demigods who were just in their lives,
would the departure then be lousy?
What would any of you give to associate with Orpheus
and Musaeus and Hesiod and Homer?
For I am willing to die many times if these things are true;
since to me this life there would be wonderful,
when I might meet Palamedes and Ajax the son of Telamon,
or any other of the ancients who died
on account of an unjust judgment.
Comparing my experiences with theirs,
I think, would not be unpleasant.
And really the greatest would be in examining those there,
as I spend my time here,
and discovering who is wise and who thinks he is, but is not.
How much would one give, judges, to examine those
who led the great army against Troy or Odysseus or Sisyphus,
or countless others both men and women whom I might mention?
To discuss and associate with and examine those there
would be infinite happiness!
At any event certainly they do not kill there for this;
For besides they are happier there than here,
and they are already immortal for the rest of time,
if what is said is true.
33
But you too, judges, must be hopeful facing death,
and consider this one truth,
that there is no evil for a good man
neither in living nor dying,
and his affairs are not neglected by the gods;
nor are mine now occurring automatically,
but this is clear to me, that it is better
for me to die now and be released from troubles.
Because of this also the sign never turned me away,
and I am not at all angry at my condemners and accusers.
Yet this was not the reason they accused and condemned me,
but thinking to harm; in this they deserve to be blamed.
However, I ask this of them:
when my sons grow up punish them, men,
by bothering them on these things as I bothered you,
if it seems to you they care about money or anything else
more than about virtue,
or if they seem to be something they are not,
reproach them as I have you,
because they do not care about what they should,
and think they are something when they are worth nothing.
And if you do these things,
I will have experienced justice from you,
both myself and my sons.
But now it is already time to go away,
I to die, and you to live;
but which of us goes to a better situation,
is unclear to all except to God." |
