IRIS

The end of Plato’s Phaedo gives a detailed account of Socrates’ slow, dignified death by hemlock. Many scholars, however, have rejected Plato’s account, believing that Plato’s version omits the harsh details of the violent death associated with hemlock poisoning. The controversy, however, seems to have been settled by Enid Bloch who, through a thorough investigation of a mass of ancient and modern evidence, concludes:

Plato not only told the truth…but much more of it than anyone has recognized. The calm, peaceful death of the Phaedo was an historical reality.

Plato’s account:

The man … laid his hands on him and after a while examined his feet and legs, then pinched his foot hard and asked if he felt it. He said ‘No’; then after that, his thighs; and passing upwards in this way he showed us that he was growing cold and rigid. And then again he touched him and said that when it reached his heart, he would be gone. The chill had now reached the region about the groin, and uncovering his face, which had been covered, he said – and these were his last words – ‘Crito, we owe a cock to Asclepius. Pay it and do not neglect it.’ ‘That,’ said Crito, ’shall be done; but see if you have anything else to say.’ To this question he made no reply, but after a little while he moved; the attendant uncovered him; his eyes were fixed. And Crito when he saw it, closed his mouth and eyes. (Plato, Phaedo 117e-118a, trans. Loeb Classical Library, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Mass., 1990 edition, pp. 401-3.)