SOCRATES - You are very welcome, Phaedo, and your friends, and as for
the matter you name, I shall be glad to talk of it with you and see if
we can come to some understanding of it. But before we can proceed in
the discussion, it will be necessary to find some starting point upon
which we can all agree, because until we agree, at the beginning, upon
some one thing pertaining to the matter, as certain and not to be
doubted, discussion is useless, but if we can find such a thing, which
none of us doubt, we may be able to make something of the matter. I
propose, therefore, O Phaedo, that you propound someone statement which
all you who have been discussing the matter believe.

PHAEDO - Of a truth, Socrates, we discussed the matter till the sun went
down, but I do not remember any one thing to which we all agreed except
that there is such a vale at the foot of Mount Olympus, as Hippocrates
describes, and that he lived therein for a year. That we believe because
Hippocrates so told us, and all Athens knows Hippocrates for a truthful
man.

SOCRATES - That is something, for all truth is useful; but it does not
seem to me to be such a truth as will well serve for a foundation from
which we may penetrate, as one might say, the very bowels of the
subject. I pray you to propound some other.

PHAEDO - Truly, Socrates, I cannot, nor can we any of us, for upon
nothing else pertaining to the matter are we able to agree.

SOCRATES - If it please you, then, I will propound a saying and see if
you agree with me.