The myth of the cave, found in the seventh book of Plato's Republic, depicts a group of people chained in the pit of a cave, unable to see something other than the shadows of people and the objects they carry with them, passing a fire behind them (186-7). This serves as an illustration of the epistemology that Socrates had begun to develop in the previous book with the images of the Sun and the Line. It also serves as a segue into the related discussion of educational theory. Additionally, although less apparent, the analogy can also be read as a defense of philosophy, an important topic for Plato in light of the infamous death of his teacher, "the founding myth of the academic discipline of philosophy » (Nails). Plato gives a heroic portrait of humanity: “Humans are born chained to the realm of the visible”. Plato's carefully chosen prison images are striking, but they have more than just shock value. It illustrates the impossibility of escape, the almost insurmountable difficulty of emerging from the depths of moving shadows to unchanging forms, all governed by good and receiving life from good. Most people will not receive a spontaneous apprehension of good as Socrates did from his “demonic sign” (Plato 496c). Rather, they must be “driven…away from it by force…towards the light of the sun” and “compelled…to look at the light itself” (Plato 515d–e). All this presupposes that someone liberates the people and shows them the path to the intelligible, a liberator. In other words, philosophers are not born; they are made by other philosophers. This deliverer has a difficult job. He or she must turn "the whole soul until it is able to study that which is and the brightest thing that is, namely that which we call good" (Plato. Once they have attained the knowledge of good, they must not be allowed "to stand there and refuse to go back down to the prisoners in the cave and share their labors and their honors" (Plato 519d). being forced to return “to the evils of human life” (Plato 517d) they must sacrifice the happiness of contemplating the good to serve those who do not want to be served. Prisoners “believe that truth is nothing else. than the shadows” that flicker before them, because that is all they know; resist anyone who disputes this (Plato 515c). Moreover, the philosopher's wisdom will seem foolishness to them (Plato 517d). this misunderstanding, the imprisoned society will reject and ridicule its liberator, ultimately subjecting him to death (Plato 517a). An obvious connection can be made with the death of Plato's teacher, Socrates, who serves as a spokesman throughout the Republic. Socrates was accused of impiety and sought to defend himself against these accusations (Nails). Although he tried to make his case, the jury found against him and he was executed by being forced to ingest hemlock (nails). Likewise, the lover of wisdom who returns to the Cave "behaves clumsily and appears utterly ridiculous if he is forced, either in courts of law or elsewhere, to argue over the shadows of justice" (Plato 517d-e ). A philosopher would be confronted