Chapter 3 Summary

This brief excerpt from Plato’s dialogue shows Socrates facing his execution with almost superhuman equanimity and good humor. He instructs his friends to care for themselves when he is gone and not trouble themselves over the details of his burial, for it will not be his burial at all but only the disposal of his body. In response to their manifestations of grief, Socrates rebukes them, shaming them into silence as he fearlessly waits for the poison to take effect. With his enigmatic last words, he says that he owes a cock to Asclepius, the god of healing, and asks that Crito make sure the debt is paid.