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Fiction

Glaucon Before Lachesis

Mark Piper unveils the long-lost epilogue to Plato’s Republic.

And so I died, and found that in fact Socrates’ tale of Er was true. To my infinite relief, I was judged fit to go up to heaven with the sign of my deeds upon my chest. And when my time above had come to an end, I descended through the door in the heavens with my brother Adeimantus. Cephalus and Polemarchus and Cleitophon were also there, and many other just persons besides, all of us still dazzled by the fine and beautiful sights with which we had been graced. We were also joined by a forlorn band of souls covered with dust and dirt emerging from the door in the earth.

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