Simon the Shoemaker (; fl. c. late 5th century BC) was an associate of Socrates, and a 'working-philosopher'. He is known mostly from the account given in Diogenes Laërtius' Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers. He is also mentioned in passing by Plutarch and Synesius; a pupil of Socrates, Phaedo of Elis, is known to have written a dialogue called Simon. Influence Xenophon reports that because youths were not allowed to enter the Agora, they used to gather in workshops surrounding it.<ref>Xenophon, Memorabilia. 4.2.1</ref> Socrates frequented these shops in order to converse with the merchants, Simon being one among them. Simon committed these conversations to writing, as far as he could remember them. These were the first Socratic dialogues. Indeed, Simon’s excellence in the art of shoemaking would have been a form of expertise that Socrates, of Plato's Apology, held up as the only example of genuine knowledge. Simon's writings attracted the notice of Pericles, who offered to provide for him if Simon would come and reside with him. The cobbler refused on the grounds that he did not wish to surrender his independence. Postmortem A number of later philosophers associated Simon with a certain philosophical way of life. The Cynics seem to have idealized Simon. Among the surviving Cynic epistles, there are some spurious Socratic Letters, written in the 2nd or 3rd century, in which various pupils of Socrates, including Antisthenes, Aristippus, and Xenophon, debate philosophy from a Cynic point of view. Simon is described in these letters as an ideal Cynic-type figure. One of these letters purports to come from Simon himself, and is addressed to Aristippus: I hear that you ridicule our wisdom in the presence of Dionysius. I admit that I am a shoemaker and that I do work of that nature, and in like manner I would, if it were necessary, cut straps once more for the purpose of admonishing foolish men who think that they are living in great luxury. Antisthenes shall be the chastiser of your foolish jests. For you are writing him letters which make fun of our way of life. But let what I have said to you in jest suffice. At any rate, remember hunger and thirst, for these are worth much to those who pursue self control. In the Cataplus of Lucian, a group of dead people, including the tyrant Megapenthes, are carried to the Underworld in Charon's boat.