Set on the day of Socrates' execution, the Phaedo records his final hours and his sustained case for the immortality of the soul. Through four interlocking arguments — from opposites, from recollection, from affinity with the Forms, and from the soul as the principle of life — Socrates leads his grieving friends toward the conviction that philosophy is nothing other than a preparation for death. The dialogue ends with the myth of the true earth and Socrates' calm acceptance of the hemlock — one of the most moving scenes in all of literature.
