Plato’s Phaedo recounts the final hours of Socrates’s life on the day of his execution in 399 BC. In it, Socrates calmly argues for the immortality of the soul in a series of celebrated philosophical arguments, while his friends grieve around him. The dialogue ends with Socrates’s death by hemlock — one of the most famous scenes in all of Western thought.
Both a philosophical treatise on the soul and a moving human drama, the Phaedo is among the most read of Plato’s dialogues. Download this free EPUB from Better Gutenberg and be present with Socrates at the last.