Cebes: Why a man ought not to take his own life but that the philosopher wil be ready to follow the dying?

Socrates: there is a doctrine whispered in secret that man is a prisoner who has no right to open the door and run away; this is a mystery which i do not quite understand. Yet I too believethat the gods are our guardians, and tha we men are a possession of theirs.

Socrates disiers death. the real question is, what is the nature of that death which he desires?

Death is separation of soul and body and he desires such a seperation. He wwould like to be freed from the dominion of bodily pleasures and of the senses, which are always perturbing his mental vision. All the evils and impurities and necessities of men come from the body.