After remarking that the establishment of the soul's immortality is of immense practical significance in its bearing on our moral life, Socrates begins a long ‘myth’—an imaginative picture of the destiny of souls, good and evil, after the life on earth. The picture is based on an ostensibly scientific account of the earth: the earth is spherical, but we live not on its circumference but in certain hollows which we mistake for the true earth above. The brightness and splendour of the true earth are contrasted with the gloom and murkiness of our dwelling-place, and the section ends with Socrates's promise to describe the former in more detail.

‘But now, good sirs,’ Socrates continued, 'there is a further point on which we should do well to reflect: if the soul is immortal, it certainly calls for our attention not only in respect of this present period which we call our lifetime, but in respect of all time; and now, if not before, the danger of neglecting it may well seem terrible. For if death were the end of all things, it would be a heaven-sent boon for the wicked, when they die, to be at one stroke released both from the body and, with the death of the soul, from their own wickedness; but now that we have found the soul to be immortal, there can be no other escape from evil, no other salvation for it save by becoming as good and intelligent as possible; seeing that the soul brings nothing with it to Hades except what nurture and upbringing have made of it: and that, we are told, avails much for weal or for woe from the very first moment of its departure to that other world.