22§1. The key word for this hour is daimonion, which is a neuter adjective derived from the noun daimōn. In Hour 5§1, we saw that this word daimōn (plural daimones) is used to refer to an unspecified god or hero intervening in human life. By contrast, theos, ‘god’, is used to refer to a specified god. Accordingly, I have been translating the noun daimōn as ‘superhuman force’. And now I will apply this translation to the derivative form daimonion.

22§2. In the usage of Plato’s Socrates, as in Plato’s Republic (6.496c), daimonion functions as the adjective of the neuter noun sēmeion, which is derived from another neuter noun, sēma. As we saw in Hour 7§1, sēma means ‘sign, signal, symbol; tomb, tomb of a hero’. Since sēmeion can be translated as ‘signal’, I propose to translate the expression to daimonion sēmeion, as we find it in the Republic, as ‘the superhuman signal’. Elsewhere in the usage of Plato’s Socrates, however, as in Plato’s Apology of Socrates, the expressions to daimonion and to sēmeion are used separately as synonyms of each other; in these cases, I will translate to daimonion as ‘the superhuman thing’ and to sēmeion as ‘the signal’.

22§3. In Plato’s Apology of Socrates (31d), in a passage I will not be quoting here, Plato’s Socrates says that ‘the superhuman thing’, to daimonion, had prevented him from participating in the public life of the Athenian state, restricting him to a private way of interacting with his fellow citizens. He describes this superhuman thing as an inner phōnē, ‘voice’, that never tells him what to do but only what not to do. One of the things that this inner voice tells Socrates not to do is to participate in the public life of the Athenian State. As Plato’s Socrates says in {605|606} the Apology (32a), in another passage I will not be quoting, he must not ‘lead the public life of a citizen’, politeuein, and so, by default, he will ‘lead the private life’, idiōteuein. That is how he gets into trouble with the Athenian State: as we learn in Plato’s Euthyphro (3b), in yet another passage I will not be quoting, Socrates was accused of subversion, on the grounds that we was corrupting the young men of Athens by speaking to them about to daimonion, ‘the superhuman thing’, which did not fit the traditional concept of theoi, ‘gods’.

22§4. I will now quote from the Apology another passage in which this expression to daimonion, ‘the superhuman thing’, occurs. In this passage, as we will see, the synonymous expression to sēmeion, ‘the signal’, is also used:

22§5. So, what does ‘the superhuman signal’ tell Socrates not to experience? The answer to that question will be clear when we reach Text A5. As we will see in that text, this ‘signal’ does not tell Socrates not to choose death. And that is because, as we will also see in that text, dying ‘now’ is not wrong – it is right. The present time will be for Socrates the ‘right time’, the hōrā, to die.

22§6. As Plato’s Socrates argues, one of two things is most likely to happen after he or anyone else dies, and neither one of them is a bad thing:

22§7. The legomena or ‘sayings’ here are the revelations of a mystical hero named Orpheus, which are mediated in Athenian traditions by another mystical hero named Musaeus. Both of these figures will be mentioned by name later, in Text A4. In the dialogues composed by Plato, Socrates frequently expresses interest in the mystical teachings attributed to Orpheus and Musaeus, who are associated with the elitist predemocratic agenda of the Peisistratidai, a dynasty of tyrants who ruled Athens before the advent of the democratic regime. [3] In {607|608} 19§8, I have already noted the ideological antipathy of the Athenian democracy toward the Peisistratidai.

22§8. The interest expressed by Socrates in the legomena or ‘sayings’ of figures like Orpheus and Musaeus does not make him dependent on their teachings, however. Plato’s Socrates is equally interested in another scenario for an afterlife, which is no afterlife at all:

22§9. That said, Plato’s Socrates proceeds to consider in some detail the alternative scenario, giving a precious glimpse into the mystical legomena or ‘sayings’ of Orpheus about an afterlife: [5]

22§10. The world of such an afterlife, which is indicated mystically as ekeî, ‘over there’, in the sense of in that life, in opposition to entautha, ‘over here’, in the sense of in this life, is evidently a world in which heroes themselves achieve an afterlife. And such an afterlife, as I have been arguing in this book, is the third of three experiences: (1) death itself, (2) arrival in Hādēs, and (3) passing through Hādēs into a mystical otherworldly life. In the process of passing through Hādēs what is just and what is unjust will clearly be seen. Plato’s Socrates has a keen interest in such a prospect: he shows it by highlighting the heroes Palamedes and Ajax, both of whom died unjust deaths and both of whom could blame their deaths not only on the unjust treatment they received from their fellow Achaeans but also, more importantly, on the machinations of an unjust Odysseus.

22§11. What Plato’s Socrates is saying here about Odysseus is that he was unjust – and recognized as unjust – in the myths about the deaths of Palamedes and Ajax. From these myths, we learn that Odysseus was instrumental in causing the deaths of both these heroes. In the case of Ajax, the relevant myth is well known from sources such as Pindar’s Nemean 8. In the case of Palamedes, the myth is retold briefly by the figure of Socrates himself in the Memorabilia of Xenophon (4.2.33) – and in Xenophon’s version of the Apology of Socrates (26).

22§12. In Text A4, which I quoted a minute ago from Plato’s own version of the Apology of Socrates (41c), we saw the figure of Odysseus associated with the figure of Sisyphus, who is a prototypical trickster. In Odyssey xi 593-600, this trickster is actually punished in the afterlife for his trickery. This is not to say, however, that the world ‘over there’ is a place of eternal punishment even for tricksters like Sisyphus. More simply, it is a place where unjust as well as just deeds are sorted out and judged for all to see. In the case of Sisyphus, his negative side is highlighted in the Odyssey while his positive side is shaded over. But we have already seen a glimpse of this hero’s positive side in Hour 8a§13, where we read the report of Pausanias (2.1.3) concerning Sisyphus as the founder of the Isthmian Games. Conversely, in the case of Odysseus, the Homeric Odyssey consistently highlights this hero’s positive side and shades over his negative side. Still, the {610|611} myths that involve him in the deaths of Palamedes and Ajax show that Odysseus too, like Sisyphus, had his negative side – as a trickster.

22§13. It comes as no surprise, then, that Socrates in Text A4 from Plato’s Apology of Socrates (41c) seeks to cross-examine Odysseus as an exponent of injustice – if, that is, there is really an afterlife, and if Socrates will really get a chance to make contact with that hero in such an afterlife. As we can also see in Text A4 from Plato’s Apology of Socrates (41c), another exponent of injustice whom Socrates would hope to cross-examine in such an afterlife is the hero Agamemnon himself as the leader of the expedition against Troy. That hero too can be considered an exponent of injustice, as we have seen more than once in this book. And such a negative view is highlighted by the fact that Plato’s Socrates does not even mention that hero by name in this context.

22§14. After speaking about men who lived in the heroic past, Socrates now turns his attention to men of his own time, especially to the dikastai or ‘jurors’ who condemn him to death. He speaks to them ironically and even sarcastically:

22§15. These jurors who condemn Socrates to death are supposedly the upholders of justice, but for Socrates they are exactly the opposite, despite the term dikastai that they apply to themselves. Socrates has in mind here the literal meaning of dikastai. This word means not only ‘jurors’ in the political context of Athens in the world of the historical present time of Socrates in 399 BCE. In the world of the distant heroic past, this same word means, literally, ‘judges’ in the sense of ‘men of justice’. Those dikastai are the ‘men of justice’ who once upon a time lived in the heroic age and who now judge each and every person who dies and passes through Hādēs. According to the relevant myth cited by Socrates in Plato’s Apology of Socrates (41a), as I quoted it in Text A4, these otherworldly ‘judges’ include Minos, Rhadamanthus, Aiakos, and Triptolemos. Further, as we saw in the quoted text, all four of these heroes qualify as hēmi-theoi or ‘demigods’. We have already seen in Hour 12§28 the use of this word hēmi-theoi with reference to the great heroes of the heroic age – as viewed from the perspective of the present.

22§16. So, now, we can finally see why it is that the mysterious superhuman signal or sēmeion of Socrates never did divert him from doing or saying what he did or said in his own life. It is because he deserves to be judged as a man of justice, while the jurors who condemned him fail to merit such a judgment. And, as a man of justice, Socrates even deserves to become a hero. {612|613}

22§17. This idea, that Socrates deserves to become a hero, starts to take shape in the context of the passage I quoted in Text A4 from Plato’s Apology of Socrates (40e-41c). This passage centered on the possibility of an afterlife as predicted in the mystical legomena or ‘sayings’ attributed to figures like Orpheus and Musaeus. If there is to be such an afterlife, then Socrates after death will be judged to be a just man by otherworldly judges like the heroes Minos, Rhadamanthus, Aiakos, and Triptolemos, and then, once judged, he will be allowed to pass through Hādēs into a mystical place of afterlife. This mystical place, as we see from the context of this Text A4, is populated not only by the four heroes who judge the incoming dead and who are described as hēmi-theoi or ‘demigods’ but also by heroes in general, who likewise qualify as hēmi-theoi or ‘demigods’. Among these heroes are the poets Orpheus, Musaeus, Hesiod, and Homer, listed in order of seniority, from the supposedly earliest to the latest. [8] As we have already seen in Hour 13§33, both Hesiod and Homer were actually worshipped as cult heroes. After the four poets, mentioned as heroes here in the Apology of Socrates (41a), Plato’s Socrates goes on to mention the heroes Palamedes and Ajax (41b), whom we have already considered, and then, as he nears the end of his speech, he makes this general statement about all the heroes whom he hopes to join in the afterlife: ‘And they [= all these heroes] are already immortal [athanatoi] for the rest of time, if in fact the sayings [legomena] are true [alēthē]’ (41c). Finally, in the last sentence of his speech, Plato’s Socrates says that the time has come for him to die. I will now quote this sentence and then argue that it signals the idea that Socrates will be dying the death of a hero:

22§18. So, the death of Socrates will take place at exactly the right ‘time’, which is the hōrā. And we come back full circle to Hour 1 of this book, where we saw that the very idea of the ancient Greek hero is defined by hōrā as the right ‘time’ of death.

22§19. As we have seen, those whom Socrates will meet in an afterlife – if there is to be an afterlife – include heroes like Odysseus, who committed acts of injustice against other heroes. They also include Agamemnon, who as we know from our readings can likewise be considered guilty of having committed acts of injustice. These examples of inclusion make it clear that membership in a heroic afterlife as pictured in the sayings of mystical poets like Orpheus and Musaeus is not restricted to paragons of justice like Minos, Rhadamanthus, Aiakos, and Triptolemos. Even heroes who are known to have committed catastrophically unjust deeds are still eligible for immortalization in an afterlife. The wording of Socrates in Plato’s Apology of Socrates (41c) takes for granted such eligibility when he says that all the heroes whom he will meet and with whom he will engage in dialogue ‘are already immortal [athanatoi] for the rest of time, if in fact the sayings [legomena] are true [alēthē]’. So, the assumption here is that Homeric heroes like Odysseus and Agamemnon are already immortalized by the time Plato’s Socrates initiates his dialogues with them. But something seems to be missing in this picture. Socrates does not mention another most prominent Homeric hero here. I mean Achilles. But Socrates does not need to mention Achilles in this context – because Socrates has already been having a dialogue with Achilles in a previous context.

22§20. Even before Socrates dies, he is already interrogating Achilles – however indirectly – about that hero’s motives as they play out in the Iliad:

22§21. Now I will elaborate on what I already said about this passage in Hour 2§77. Socrates here is paraphrasing the relevant verses of Iliad XVIII 90-104, but he weaves into his paraphrases some actual quotations of the original Homeric wording. Likewise in Plato’s Symposium (179e-180a), we see a second paraphrase of the same verses. In the case of that second paraphrase, however, the choice made by Achilles to forfeit his life in order to avenge the death of Patroklos appears to be conflated with another choice that faces the hero. At an earlier point in the Iliad, in the context of the so-called Embassy Scene where Achilles is speaking to Phoenix and the other delegates (IX 410-416), he says {615|616} that he must decide between two kēres or ‘fated ways’ (IX 411): either he dies at a ripe old age after a safe nostos, ‘homecoming’, to his homeland Phthia or he dies young on the battlefield in Troy – and thereby wins for himself a kleos, ‘glory’, that will last forever (IX 413). This is the passage I first quoted in Hour 0 Text F and in Hour 1 Text A.

22§22. And now I will elaborate on what I said in Hour 2§78. I noted there that Plato’s apparent conflation of two choices facing Achilles turns out to be justified: the two choices are in fact one choice. In the Embassy Scene of the Iliad, when Achilles says he must choose between two kēres or ‘fated ways’ (IX 411), either a nostos, ‘homecoming’, or a kleos, ‘glory’, that will last forever (IX 413), he is actually not yet ready to make his choice: the two alternative fates have simply been foretold for him by his mother, the goddess Thetis (IX 410-411). Later on, after Patroklos has been killed, Achilles is facing the same choice, but by now he has made his decision. He says that there cannot be a homecoming for him (nosteîn XVIII 90) because he must kill Hector in order to avenge the death of Patroklos, and, once he kills Hector, his own death in battle will become a certainty (XVIII 90-93), just as his mother had foretold – and as she now foretells again (XVIII 96-97).

22§23. In the passage from Plato that I quoted in Text B, Apology of Socrates 28b-d, we saw that Thetis is first being paraphrased. Since it is easy to overlook the distinction that Plato’s verbal art is making here between paraphrasing and quoting, I will repeat here the wording of the paraphrase: ‘His mother, goddess that she was, had said to him, when he was showing his eagerness to slay Hector, something like this, I think: My child, if you avenge the slaying of your comrade [hetairos] Patroklos and kill Hector, you will die yourself’ (28c). So, the paraphrase is signaled ostentatiously as a paraphrase. Then, immediately after we hear this paraphrase, we now hear Thetis being quoted directly (28c again), and the wording that I will translate as ‘she says’ (φησί) signals just as ostentatiously that we are now hearing a quotation: ‘“Right away your fate [potmos]” – she says – “is ready for you after Hector”’. [11] The quotation corresponds exactly to what we find in Iliad XVIII 96, where Thetis says: ‘Right away your fate [potmos] is next, ready for you after Hector’. [12] And then, immediately after the quotation from Thetis, Achilles himself seems to be quoted directly as he responds to Thetis (28d). The wording that I will translate as ‘he says’ (φησί) indicates – {616|617} again, ostentatiously – that we are once again hearing a quotation: ‘“Right away may I die next,” he says, “and impose justice [dikē] on the one who committed injustice [adikeîn], rather than stay behind here by the curved ships, a laughing stock and a heavy load for Earth to bear”’. [13] So, Achilles wants to punish Hector for having ‘committed injustice’, and this punishment is viewed as the imposing of ‘justice’. But in this case the words of Achilles as quoted by Plato’s Socrates do not at all correspond to the words we find in Iliad XVIII 98-104, where Achilles says something different – and something that takes much longer to say. What the hero does say here in the Iliad is a spectacular masterpiece of virtuosity in verbal pyrotechnics, full of the most intensely emotive outbursts. Here is my translation of these lines in Iliad XVIII 98-104: ‘Right away may I die next, since it turns out that I did not help my comrade [hetairos] |₉₉ by protecting him when he was about to be killed. And there he was, far away from his fatherland, |₁₀₀ and he died. He missed having me as his protector from harm. |₁₀₁ And now, since I will not have a homecoming [neesthai] to my dear fatherland, |₁₀₂ and I did not become the light [of salvation] for Patroklos or for my other companions, |₁₀₃ those others, many of them, who were also dispatched by radiant Hector |₁₀₄ – and here I am by the ships, just sitting here, a heavy load for Earth to bear – …’. [14]

22§24. At this juncture, exactly at the point where Achilles has just spoken of himself as ‘a heavy load for Earth to bear’, the wording of the hero as quoted by Plato’s Socrates in the Apology (28d) breaks off, as we saw. I repeat the wording: ‘“Right away may I die next,” he says, “and impose justice [dikē] on the one who committed injustice [adikeîn], rather than stay behind here by the curved ships, a laughing stock and a heavy load for Earth to bear”’. [15] In the Iliad, however, we see that the wording of Achilles does not break off but continues for several more lines, moving past the parenthetical expression at line 104 where the hero had said: ‘and here I am by the ships, just sitting here, a heavy load for Earth to bear’. [16] Not only does the wording of Achilles continue. It must continue. And {617|618} that is because this wording is, so far, still incomplete in syntax, as also in meaning. At this point, there is no syntactical follow-up as of yet for the clause indicated by the second ‘since’ in my translation, which I will now highlight as I repeat what Achilles is saying so passionately: ‘Right away may I die next, since it turns out that I did not help my comrade [hetairos] |₉₉ by protecting him when he was about to be killed. And there he was, far away from his fatherland, |₁₀₀ and he died. He missed having me as his protector from harm. |₁₀₁ And now, since I will not have a homecoming [neesthai] to my dear fatherland, |₁₀₂ and I did not become the light [of salvation] for Patroklos or for my other companions, |₁₀₃ those others, many of them, who were also dispatched by radiant Hector |₁₀₄ – and here I am by the ships, just sitting here, a heavy load for Earth to bear – …’. Picking up from this point onward, both the syntax and the meaning of Achilles will keep moving on, from line 105 all the way to line 121, where the hero will finally have the chance to say what his motive is. Leading up to line 121, Achilles had said that his determination to kill Hector shows that he chooses to die young on the battlefield, and he refers to this death as his inevitable kēr or ‘fated way’ at line 115. And now, highlighting what he will get for himself as his compensation, he declares at line 121 that he will win kleos, that is, the ‘glory’ of epic song. For Achilles, to die this way is the right thing to do.

22§25. For Socrates as well, to die as he chooses to die is the right thing to do. And he expresses this idea by using the words dikē or ‘justice’ and dikaios or ‘just’. It is true of course that the Homeric wording used by Achilles in the Iliad to motivate his own choice is not replicated by the Platonic wording used by Plato’s Socrates when the hero is quoted as saying that he chooses to die for a just cause, but I still find the Platonic wording to be true to Homeric poetry – in the sense that it conveys with psychological insight and accuracy the larger-than-life feelings expressed by Achilles. So, even before he dies and goes off to a heroic afterlife – if there is such a thing – Socrates is already having a dialogue with Achilles by quoting him in this special way, using words that Achilles himself does not use in his own Iliad. Moreover, since the readers of Plato’s Apology of Socrates are reading the words of Socrates at a time when the man they are reading is already dead, we may say that Socrates is having his dialogue with Achilles every time we read him quoting the hero of the Iliad.

22§26. Plato’s Socrates is meeting Achilles half way by using the diction of Homeric poetry in speaking about ‘a heavy load for Earth to bear’, but Achilles in turn is meeting Socrates half way by letting himself be quoted in the act of speaking about dying for a just cause. And this special way of letting Achilles speak about the just cause of dying for his comrade Patroklos, even if it is too {618|619} late now to save him, matches the special way of speaking that is chosen by Socrates when he says that he fights for justice as a philosopher the same way as he fights in war as a citizen soldier. In the Apology (28a), Socrates goes out of his way to remind his listeners of the fact that he was a distinguished combat veteran of three famous battles in the Peloponnesian War – Potidaea, Amphipolis, and Delium. Each one of these three battles was a military disaster for Athens, the homeland of Socrates, and in each one of these battles, as Socrates is proud to remind his fellow Athenians, he showed to all his bravery in the face of death. This bravery is portrayed also in Plato’s Symposium (220d–221c), where we find a vivid retelling of the admirable comportment of Socrates at a critical moment in the battle of Delium. Summing up the stories of his reputation for bravery on the battlefield, Socrates says in the Apology (28e): ‘I stood my ground [e-men-on] and put my life at risk’, following the orders of military commanders. Socrates is saying here that he was always ready to die for his fellow citizens in war – not only to die with them – just as Achilles is saying that he is ready to die for his comrade, since that is the right thing to do. In the same way, as we read in the Apology (29a), Socrates will not break rank and flee when he follows the dictates of his own moral responsibilities as a philosopher: that is, he will not abandon the taxis or ‘military formation’ of the just cause that he pursues.

22§27. We have already seen that Socrates in Plato’s Apology of Socrates views Odysseus in an unfavorable light when he refers to injustices committed by this hero against other heroes such as Ajax and Palamedes. But Socrates shows a different attitude when it comes to the overall story of Odysseus as narrated in the Homeric Odyssey. As we will now see, Socrates views this story in a favorable light, modeling his own evolution as a philosopher on the idea of an Odyssean journey of a soul. I used this expression journey of a soul when I analyzed the overall narrative of the Homeric Odyssey in Hour 10§§32-50. In the context of that analysis, I was emphasizing not the specific idea of the soul, which is the English word I used there as a working translation of psūkhē, but rather the more general idea of a mystical journey experienced by the psūkhē – however we may translate that Greek word. As the psūkhē travels on its journey, it passes through a transitional phase visualized as Hādēs and eventually reaches an eschatological phase or afterlife visualized as the Island of the Blessed – or as various other such kinds of mystical places where heroes are immortalized. Socrates in the Apology of Socrates hopes to reach such a place after his death and, in {619|620} such an afterlife, he hopes to have dialogues with a variety of heroes, including Odysseus. In Text A4, I have already quoted the passage where Socrates refers to such hoped-for dialogues in the afterlife (41c). But now the question is, how will Socrates reach such an afterlife? As I will argue, the way for Socrates to journey to such an afterlife is an Odyssean way.

22§28. The impetus for this spiritual journey of Socrates is a visit to the oracle of Apollo at Delphi by a man named Chaerephon. The story of this visit is retold by Plato’s Socrates in the Apology: he describes Chaerephon as someone who has been a hetairos or ‘comrade’ of his ever since the two of them were young men (20e-21a). As we see from the retelling of the story by Plato’s Socrates, Chaerephon went to Delphi and formally asked the oracle whether there existed anyone more sophos or ‘wise’ than Socrates, and the priestess of Apollo, the Pythia, responded that there was no such man; when Socrates finds out about this oracular pronouncement, he interprets it as an ainigma or ‘riddle’ sent to him by the god Apollo himself (21a). [17] In this retelling by Plato’s Socrates, it is made clear that Chaerephon had consulted the oracle on his own. Clearly he was not some kind of official emissary – the kind that would have been delegated to consult the oracle on behalf of the Athenian State. In other words, Chaerephon was not an official theōros or ‘sacred delegate’. I will wait till Hour 23 before I analyze the relevance of this word theōros, and for now I simply emphasize that Chaerephon consulted the oracle on his own. And, given the nature of the question that was asked of the oracle, we can understand how such a consultation could be viewed by the State as an act of provocation – even of subversion. The wording of Socrates is actually implying such a view when he says that Chaerephon ‘dared to do it’ (ἐτόλμησε 21a). Then, in Plato’s dramatization of the speech by Socrates, the hostile listeners to his speech react by shouting their sense of outrage at the very thought of such a consultation, and Socrates needs to quiet them down, saying to them: ‘stop your shouting’ (μὴ θορυβεῖτε, again 21a). Continuing his story, Socrates now describes what happened after he learned of the oracle’s response: ever since, he says, he has been wandering around and testing what the god said by engaging in dialogue with any and all persons who may be more sophos or ‘wise’ than he is (21b-22a). And the word that Plato’s Socrates uses for ‘engaging in dialogue’, dialegesthai (21c), is the key to understanding the entire spiritual journey of Socrates. The never-ending {620|621} quest of Socrates to engage in dialogue extends even into his hoped-for afterlife: he says he intends to continue doing in this afterlife what he has been doing throughout his life ever since he heard what the oracle said. So, Socrates will continue testing the truth of Apollo by seeking to discover whether those whom he encounters in the afterlife are ‘wise’, sophoi, or whether they merely think they are ‘wise’ but are not (41b). [18] And, once again, the discovery procedure for Plato’s Socrates is expressed by way of the word dialegesthai, which means ‘engaging in dialogue’ (41c). I have already quoted the context of this passage in Text A4.

22§29. So, now, we come at last to the wording used by Plato’s Socrates to describe his spiritual journey. He taps into the language of initiation in telling about his wanderings through life, describing these wanderings as an ordeal of initiation, ‘laboring [poneîn] to achieve labors [ponoi]’:

22§30. Words like ponos and kamatos, both of which mean ‘ordeal, labor, pain’, can apply to the life-and-death struggles of heroes in stories about their larger-than-life struggles. A classic example is the ponos or ‘labor’ of Hēraklēs himself in the act of literally wrestling with Thanatos or Death incarnate in the Alcestis of Euripides (1027). In that context as also elsewhere, especially in related contexts that we find in the songs of Pindar, such mythical experiences of heroes are presented as models for the ritual experiences of humans who engage in ritual activities such as athletic competitions, [20] and this kind of engagement can be seen in anthropological terms as a shining example of what we know as initiation. [21] {621|622}

22§31. I highlight again the ponoi or ‘labors’ of Socrates, which he equates with his planē or ‘wandering’ all over the world, as it were, in the course of his unending spiritual journey. The wording that Socrates uses here evokes the experiences of heroes like Hēraklēs himself. For example, the canonical Labors of Hēraklēs are described this way in a Homeric Hymn:

22§32. The words used here in telling about the ordeals of Hēraklēs match closely the words used at the very beginning of the Odyssey to tell about the ordeals of Odysseus: [23]

22§33. The philosophical wandering of Socrates in the course of his spiritual journey matches in wording the heroic wandering of Odysseus as we see it described {622|623} here at the very beginning of the Odyssey (i 1-5), where it is said that the hero kept on wandering off (i 2) as he kept on learning all kinds of things (i 3) in the course of his painful struggle to save his own psūkhē (i 5). I had translated this word psūkhē simply as ‘life’ when I first quoted the beginning of the Odyssey in Hour 9 Text A and in Hour 10 Text A. Now I am ready to interpret psūkhē in the present context as ‘soul’ – in the transcendent sense that Odysseus experiences a journey of a soul. And this psūkhē or ‘soul’ is destined for immortalization after death. In the Phaedo of Plato, to which we will turn in Hour 23, the very idea of such a destiny for the psūkhē will be most passionately debated.

22§34. Before I bring this hour about Plato’s Apology of Socrates to a close, I will show a preview from his Phaedo. In the passage I am about to quote, Plato’s Socrates is speaking about this final dialogue of his, comparing the words in this dialogue to the song sung by a swan before death:

22§35. The swan song of Socrates is not the last word. In other words, it is not the same thing as the last dialogue – as staged by Plato – in which Socrates engages while he is still alive. Rather, the swan song of Socrates is the living word that he perpetuates by way of his eternal quest for the truth. That is why I give the title “The Living Word” to this present hour – as also to the hour that will now follow. {624|625}