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Section 61

"So first I composed a poem to the god whose festival it was. And after the god, realizing that a poet, if he is to be a poet, must compose stories and not arguments, and since I was not a maker of stories myself, I took the stories of Aesop that I had at hand and knew, and I set the first ones I came across to verse. So tell Evenus this, Cebes, and bid him farewell, and tell him to follow me as quickly as he can, if he is sensible. I am departing today, it seems; for so the Athenians command." Simmias said, "What an advice you are giving Evenus, Socrates! I have met the man many times, and from what I have seen of him, he will certainly not be very willing to follow your advice." "Why?" said Socrates. "Is not Evenus a philosopher?" "I believe so," said Simmias. "Then Evenus will be willing, and so will everyone who engages in this matter worthily. However, he will perhaps not do violence to himself, for they say that is not lawful." While speaking, he lowered his feet to the ground, and sitting thus, he conducted the rest of the discussion. Cebes asked him, "How can you say this, Socrates? How can it not be lawful to do violence to oneself, and yet you say that the philosopher should be willing to follow the dying?" "What, Cebes? Have you and Simmias not heard about these things from your associate Philolaus?" "Nothing clear, Socrates." "Well, I myself only speak of them from hearsay. Still, I do not begrudge telling you what I happen to have heard. Besides, it seems most fitting for one who is about to make the journey there to investigate and tell stories about that journey, and what sort of journey we think it is. What else could one do in the time until sunset?" "Why exactly do they say it is not lawful to kill oneself, Socrates? As you just asked, I too have heard Philolaus say this when he was living among us, and I have heard others say it too: that one must not do this. But I have never heard anything clear about it from anyone."