Friday, 3 April 2009

A good death


Kate Chisholm writing in the Spectator


According to Plato, his pupil, Socrates died with his senses intact, surrounded by those he loved and who loved him, and in control until the last moment, his body numbed but not distorted by that toxic drug. It’s a myth, of course. We know, as must Plato have known, that hemlock produces dreadful cramps, vomiting, convulsions; it would not have been possible for Socrates to remain calm, thoughtful, prescient while in such agony. But he wanted his death, his passage out of life, to be seen as a very public spectacle of control, of a man in charge of his destiny until the end, untroubled by pain or the terror of infinite obliteration.

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