e previous days we had been in the habit of
assembling early in the morning at the court in which the trial took
place, and which is not far from the prison. There we used to wait
talking with one another until the opening of the doors (for they were
not opened very early); then we went in and generally passed the day
with Socrates. On the last morning we assembled sooner than usual,
having heard on the day before when we quitted the prison in the evening
that the sacred ship had come from Delos, and so we arranged to meet
very early at the accustomed place. On our arrival the jailer who
answered the door, instead of admitting us, came out and told us to stay
until he called us. 'For the Eleven,' he said, 'are now with Socrates;
they are taking off his chains, and giving orders that he is to die
to-day.' He soon returned and said that we might come in. On entering we
found Socrates just released from chains, and Xanthippe, whom you know,
sitting by him, and holding his child in her arms. When she saw us she
uttered a cry and said, as women will: 'O Socrates, this is the last
time that either you will converse with your friends, or they with you.'
Socrates turned to Crito and said: 'Crito, let some one take her home.'
Some of Crito's people accordingly led her away, crying out and beating
herself. And when she was gone, Socrates, sitting up on the couch, bent
and rubbed his leg, saying, as he was rubbing: How singular is the
thing called pleasure, and how curiously related to pain, which might be
thought to be the opposite of it; for they are never present to a man at
the same instant, and yet he who pursues either is generally compelled
to take the other; their bodies are two, but they are joined by a single
head. And I cannot help thinking that if Aesop had remembered them, he
would have made a fable about God trying to reconcile their strife, and
how, when he could not, he fastened their heads together; and this is
the reason why when one comes the other follows, as I know by my own
experience now, when after the pain in my leg which was caused by the
chain pleasure appears to succeed.

Upon this Cebes said: I am glad, Socrates, that you have mentioned the
name of Aesop. For it reminds me of a question which has been asked by
many, and was asked of me only the day before yesterday by Evenus the
poet--he will be sure to ask it again, and therefore if you would like
me to have an answer ready for him, you may as well tel