said: You, my good friend, who
are experienced in these matters, shall give me directions how I am to
proceed. The man answered: You have only to walk about until your legs
are heavy, and then to lie down, and the poison will act. At the same
time he handed the cup to Socrates, who in the easiest and gentlest
manner, without the least fear or change of colour or feature, looking
at the man with all his eyes, Echecrates, as his manner was, took the
cup and said: What do you say about making a libation out of this cup
to any god? May I, or not? The man answered: We only prepare, Socrates,
just so much as we deem enough. I understand, he said: but I may
and must ask the gods to prosper my journey from this to the other
world--even so--and so be it according to my prayer. Then raising the
cup to his lips, quite readily and cheerfully he drank off the poison.
And hitherto most of us had been able to control our sorrow; but now
when we saw him drinking, and saw too that he had finished the draught,
we could no longer forbear, and in spite of myself my own tears were
flowing fast; so that I covered my face and wept, not for him, but at
the thought of my own calamity in having to part from such a friend. Nor
was I the first; for Crito, when he found himself unable to restrain his
tears, had got up, and I followed; and at that moment, Apollodorus, who
had been weeping all the time, broke out in a loud and passionate cry
which made cowards of us all. Socrates alone retained his calmness: What
is this strange outcry? he said. I sent away the women mainly in order
that they might not misbehave in this way, for I have been told that
a man should die in peace. Be quiet, then, and have patience. When we
heard his words we were ashamed, and refrained our tears; and he walked
about until, as he said, his legs began to fail, and then he lay on his
back, according to the directions, and the man who gave him the poison
now and then looked at his feet and legs; and after a while he pressed
his foot hard, and asked him if he could feel; and he said, No; and then
his leg, and so upwards and upwards, and showed us that he was cold and
stiff. And he felt them himself, and said: When the poison reaches the
heart, that will be the end. He was beginning to grow cold about the
groin, when he uncovered his face, for he had covered himself up,
and said--they were his last words--he said: Crito, I owe a cock to
Asclepius; will you remember to pay the d