33 pages • 1 hour read
PlatoPhaedo
Nonfiction | Essay / Speech | AdultA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Symbols & Motifs
Athens
Athens is the geographic center from which Socrates’s philosophical ideas extend into the wider world. The site of Socrates’s trial and execution, the city was a democracy in the early 400s BCE until it lost a decades-long battle against Sparta in the Peloponnesian War. For a time thereafter, Athens was run by a dictatorship. When democracy was restored, the leaders found themselves verbally assaulted by Socrates, who believed an aristocracy of wise men was a superior form of governance, and they had him killed. Philosophers from nearby cities, including Phlius and Thebes, knew about Socrates, and his protégé Phaedo traveled from Athens to Phlius, among other municipalities, to describe Socrates’s last days. This reflects Athens’s status as the birthplace of Western civilization and democracy, as well as several of the West’s greatest philosophical minds (including Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle).
Hair
The hair in question belongs to Phaedo, a young high-born protégé of Socrates, whom he and Cebes trained in philosophy. Phaedo wears his hair long, in the Spartan style, despite the fact that his home town was defeated by a joint Spartan-Athenian army a few years earlier and he was sold into servitude. Socrates likes to play with Phaedo’s hair and place his hand on the young man’s neck. Socrates predicts that Phaedo will shave off his hair the next day in mourning, but the teacher suggests instead that Phaedo not shave his hair until he has mastered the rebuttals to Cebes and Simmias, who doubt the immortality of the soul. The implication is that a man who loses his beautiful hair will likely complete a challenging task quickly if that permits him to regrow his locks.
Hemlock
Hovering in the background of the Phaedo is hemlock, the poison Socrates must take to fulfill his death sentence. Hemlock comes from a poisonous plant; it was a common means of execution in ancient Athens. Death begins with loss of sensation in the legs and rises through the body until it stifles the breath. The hemlock is delivered in a cup; Socrates makes a few comments, raises the cup in ironic libation to the gods, and drinks it down. Following instructions, he walks about until his legs begin to give out; then he lies down and awaits the end.
Socratic Method
The Socratic method is Socrates’s means of delivering his teachings to others. It consists mainly of questions meant to bring out flaws in a person’s beliefs and to suggest alternative ideas that may prove more rational. Socrates also refers to this question-and-answer technique as “dialectic,” as it involves a very gentle form of debate in which an idea is questioned with contrasting ideas, leading to a third idea that resolves the conflict. Because Socrates taught in this manner, Plato’s writings about him generally take the form of a dialog.
Related Titles
By Plato
