72b-72e2

Question 1

ἰδὲ τοίνυν οὕτως, ἔφη, ὦ Κέβης, ὅτι οὐδ᾽ ἀδίκως ὡμολογήκαμεν, ὡς ἐμοὶ δοκεῖ. εἰ γὰρ μὴ ἀεὶ ἀνταποδιδοίη τὰ [72b] ἕτερα τοῖς ἑτέροις γιγνόμενα, ὡσπερεὶ κύκλῳ περιιόντα, ἀλλ᾽ εὐθεῖά τις εἴη ἡ γένεσις ἐκ τοῦ ἑτέρου μόνον εἰς τὸ καταντικρὺ καὶ μὴ ἀνακάμπτοι πάλιν ἐπὶ τὸ ἕτερον μηδὲ καμπὴν ποιοῖτο, οἶσθ᾽ ὅτι πάντα τελευτῶντα τὸ αὐτὸ σχῆμα ἂν σχοίη καὶ τὸ αὐτὸ πάθος ἂν πάθοι καὶ παύσαιτο γιγνόμενα;

Answer 1

“Then look at it this way, Cebes, because neither have we agreed unjustly as it seems to me. [72b] If the one set of things did not correspond with the other set of things when coming into being, as if going around in a circle, but there was a certain straight coming into existence only from the one into the very opposite, and it did not bend back to the one or make a reversal, do you think, that all things ending up would have the same form, and would experience the same experience and would cease from coming into existence?”

Question 2

πῶς λέγεις; ἔφη.

οὐδὲν χαλεπόν, ἦ δ᾽ ὅς, ἐννοῆσαι ὃ λέγω· ἀλλ᾽ οἷον εἰ τὸ καταδαρθάνειν μὲν εἴη, τὸ δ᾽ ἀνεγείρεσθαι μὴ ἀνταποδιδοίη γιγνόμενον ἐκ τοῦ καθεύδοντος,

Answer 2

“How do you mean?” he said.

“It is nothing difficult,” he said “to understand what I say; but for example, if there existed going to sleep on the one hand, but on the other getting up did not correspond in coming into existence from the sleeping,

Question 3

οἶσθ᾽ ὅτι τελευτῶντα πάντ᾽ [72c] λῆρον τὸν Ἐνδυμίωνα ἀποδείξειεν καὶ οὐδαμοῦ ἂν φαίνοιτο διὰ τὸ καὶ τἆλλα πάντα ταὐτὸν ἐκείνῳ πεπονθέναι, καθεύδειν. κἂν εἰ συγκρίνοιτο μὲν πάντα, διακρίνοιτο δὲ μή, ταχὺ ἂν τὸ τοῦ Ἀναξαγόρου γεγονὸς εἴη, “ὁμοῦ πάντα χρήματα”. ὡσαύτως δέ, ὦ φίλε Κέβης, καὶ εἰ ἀποθνῄσκοι μὲν πάντα ὅσα τοῦ ζῆν μεταλάβοι, ἐπειδὴ δὲ ἀποθάνοι, μένοι ἐν τούτῳ τῷ σχήματι τὰ τεθνεῶτα καὶ μὴ πάλιν ἀναβιώσκοιτο, ἆρ᾽ οὐ πολλὴ ἀνάγκη τελευτῶντα πάντα [72d] τεθνάναι καὶ μηδὲν ζῆν;

Answer 3

you know that all things in the end would reveal Endymion to be nonsense, and he would appear nowhere, because of everything else experiencing the same thing as him, sleeping. And if everything were combined, but not separated, then the [idea] of Anaxagoras would come to pass, “all things together”. And similarly, O dear Cebes, if all things as many as partake in life, when they died, remained in the form having died, and did not come back to life, wouldn’t there be great necessity that everything would in the end be dead, [72d] and nothing would live?

Question 4

εἰ γὰρ ἐκ μὲν τῶν ἄλλων τὰ ζῶντα γίγνοιτο, τὰ δὲ ζῶντα θνῄσκοι, τίς μηχανὴ μὴ οὐχὶ πάντα καταναλωθῆναι εἰς τὸ τεθνάναι;

οὐδὲ μία μοι δοκεῖ, ἔφη ὁ Κέβης, ὦ Σώκρατες, ἀλλά μοι δοκεῖς παντάπασιν ἀληθῆ λέγειν.

Answer 4

For if the living things came to be from the other things, but the living things were to die, what means [would stop] everything from being completely spent in being dead?”

“No [means] at all, it seems to me, Socrates,” said Cebes; “but to me you seem to speak the truth in every way.”

Question 5

ἔστιν γάρ, ἔφη, ὦ Κέβης, ὡς ἐμοὶ δοκεῖ, παντὸς μᾶλλον οὕτω, καὶ ἡμεῖς αὐτὰ ταῦτα οὐκ ἐξαπατώμενοι ὁμολογοῦμεν, ἀλλ᾽ ἔστι τῷ ὄντι καὶ τὸ ἀναβιώσκεσθαι καὶ ἐκ τῶν τεθνεώτων τοὺς ζῶντας γίγνεσθαι καὶ τὰς τῶν τεθνεώτων ψυχὰς [72e] εἶναι καὶ ταῖς μέν γε ἀγαθαῖς ἄμεινον εἶναι, ταῖς δὲ κακαῖς κάκιον.

Answer 5

“It is thus, Cebes,” he said, “more than anything., and we admit those very things not being deceived, but there is in reality the coming back to life and the coming into existence of the living from the dead, and the souls of the dead [72e] exist, and it is better on the one hand for the good, and worse on the other hand for the bad.”