The relationship between Hypnos and Thanatos in Socrates' Apology and some platonic innovations about death

Abstract

In his final speech at the Athens court, after the sentence handed down by democracy, Socrates, suspicious that death is a good and not an evil as most tend to consider, relates death to sleep. The establishment of this relationship is expected when we remember the kinship granted by mythology between Hypnos and Thanatos. The purpose of this article, therefore, is, in addition to highlighting the sources and the meaning of this established relationship, to analyze some of Plato's meditations on death. If, on the one hand, he dialogues with the conceptions about death spread by tradition, on the other, his dialogues undoubtedly bring innovations. Finally, we will note that Platonic meditations on death, more than on the absolute end of man, deal with life, happiness and justice, in other words, good live.