Cebes

Cebes sits with Simmias in the Phaedo, steady and persistent, and puts the objection that even if the soul survives many bodies it might still wear out in the end. His weaver analogy is cautious rather than hostile, the question of a man who wants the argument to hold before he stakes his life on it. He matters because his resistance keeps Socrates honest, and his eventual willingness to follow the reasoning shows what philosophical friendship looks like at the edge of death.