The Body

for it is the function of the mind to decide both on personal and on public questions, and of the body to be servant to the judgements of the mind.

But what is most astonishing of all is that while they would grant that the mind is superior to the body, nevertheless, in spite of this opinion, they look with greater favor upon training in gymnastics than upon the study of philosophy.

secondly, they admit that no physical weakness is so hopeless that it cannot be improved by exercise and effort, but they do not believe that our minds, which are naturally superior to our bodies, can be made more serviceable through education and suitable training;

You mean body (σῶμα)?

they think it has the body as an enclosure to keep it safe, like a prison, and this is, as the name itself denotes, the safe (σῶμα) for the soul, until the penalty is paid, and not even a letter needs to be changed.

Hermogenes. Now what shall we say about the next word?

And when this occurs, is not the soul most completely put in bondage by the body?

Then the soul is more like the invisible than the body is, and the body more like the visible.

Then see, Cebes, if this is not the conclusion from all that we have said, that the soul is most like the divine and immortal and intellectual and uniform and indissoluble and ever unchanging, and the body, on the contrary, most like the human and mortal and multiform and unintellectual and dissoluble and ever changing.

For this too nature has put around the mind as a kind of garment;

From this body the mind goes forth now with an even temper, now leaps out, and does not then inquire what the end of the abandoned body is to be.

But even then, while he is among men, he fears none of the threats against his body, nor those who would foully mangle the corpse for the sake of insult.