<b>Phaedo by Plato</b> also known to ancient readers as&nbsp;<i>On The Soul</i>,&nbsp;is one of the best-known&nbsp;dialogues&nbsp;of&nbsp;Plato&#39;s middle period, along with the&nbsp;<i>Republic</i>&nbsp;and the&nbsp;<i>Symposium.</i><br /><br />The philosophical subject of the dialogue is the immortality of the soul. It is set in the last hours prior to the death of&nbsp;Socrates, and is Plato&#39;s fourth and last&nbsp;dialogue&nbsp;to detail the philosopher&#39;s final days, following&nbsp;<i>Euthyphro</i>,&nbsp;<i>Apology</i>, and&nbsp;<i>Crito</i>.<br /><br />One of the main themes in the&nbsp;<i>Phaedo</i>&nbsp;is the idea that the&nbsp;soul&nbsp;is&nbsp;immortal. In the dialogue, Socrates discusses the nature of the&nbsp;afterlife&nbsp;on his last day before being executed by drinking&nbsp;hemlock.<br /><br />Socrates has been imprisoned and sentenced to death by an&nbsp;Athenian&nbsp;jury for not believing in the&nbsp;gods of the state&nbsp;(though some scholars think it was more for his support of &quot;philosopher kings&quot; as opposed to democracy) and for corrupting the youth of the city.<br />By engaging in&nbsp;dialectic&nbsp;with a group of Socrates&#39; friends, including the two&nbsp;Thebans,&nbsp;Cebes, and&nbsp;Simmias, Socrates explores various arguments for the soul&#39;s immortality in order to show that there is an afterlife in which the soul will dwell following death. Phaedo tells the story that following the discussion, he and the others were there to witness the death of Socrates.<br /><br />The&nbsp;<i>Phaedo</i>&nbsp;was first translated into Latin from Greek by&nbsp;Henry Aristippus&nbsp;in 1160.