by Mary Renault
“Quibbles!” he said. “Everlasting quibbling, eating away the decent principles every man’s instinct should tell him are true. How does he get this hold over young men? By flattering them, of course; making them think they have a mission in life to be something out of the way, like that head-in-air young fellow who was sneering at the Demos just now; teaching them that to work at a good trade, where they could learn the meaning of true democracy in give-and-take with their mates, is a waste of their precious souls; that unless they can dawdle about with him all day in the colonnades, talking away everything sacred, they will turn to clods—just like their poor fathers, who have only sweated blood that they might live as citizens and not as slaves.”—“He was brought up to a trade himself, and is proud of it. All the City knows that.”—“Don’t speak to me of Sokrates. If young men don’t pay for his lessons, by the Dog, their fathers pay.”
I followed his eyes, knowing beforehand, now, what I should see. His son, Anthemion, a youth of about eighteen, was sitting a little way further on, in a group of tradesmen’s sons, who were gazing at him admiringly. From the sound of their laughter, he had just told a very dirty tale; and as I looked, he beckoned back the wine-seller, as I had seen him do already two or three times. Crude as the stuff was, he was drinking it unmixed, as men do who cannot be without it, a youth with pale hair and brows, a flushed quick-moving face, and desperate eyes.
“He is taking more than is good for him,” I said. “All his friends are sorry for it. In the days when he was coming to Sokrates, I never saw him drink at all. I don’t think he is happy. Not, I am sure, from thinking himself too good to work in your tanyard, but perhaps because it keeps him from using something in himself, as it might be with a bird, if you caged it when its wings were growing”—“Twaddle!” he said. “What does he think he is? He will serve his apprenticeship like anyone else. I fought for equality between man and man. No one shall say of me that I brought up my son to be better than his fellow citizens.”
“Must we forsake the love of excellence, then, till every citizen feels it alike? I did not fight, Anytos, to be crowned where I have not run; but for a City where I can know who my equals really are, and my betters, to do them honour; where a man’s daily life is his own business; and where no one will force a lie on me because it is expedient, or some other man’s will.”
The words seemed, as I spoke, to be my own thoughts that I owed to no one, only to some memory in my soul; but when I looked beyond the Stadium, to where they were kindling the lights on the High City in the falling dark, I saw the lamps of Samos shine through a doorway, and the wine-cup standing on the table of scoured wood. Then the pain of loss leaped out on me, like a knife in the night when one has been on one’s guard all day. The world grew hollow, a place of shadows; yet none would hold out the cup of Lethe to let me drink.
“No,” I thought, “I would not drink it. For here he lives in the thing we made: the boys down there, dancing for Zeus; people watching in freedom, their thoughts upon their faces; this silly old man speaking his mind, such as it is, with none to threaten him; and Sokrates saying among his friends, ‘We shall either find what we are seeking, or free ourselves from the persuasion that we know what we do not know.’”
I looked down the benches, and saw him in conversation with the wine-seller, from whom Chairophon was buying a round. The flambeaux had been kindled ready for the race, showing me his old Silenos mask, and Plato and Phaedo laughing. I touched the ring on my finger, saying within me, “Sleep quietly, Lysis. All is well.”
The voice of Anytos, some while unheeded, came back into my ear. “He taught you a new religion, too, you say. I can believe it. Even the holy Olympians are not good enough for him. He must have his own deity to give him oracles, and sets it above the gods of the City. He is impious; he is anti-democratic; in a word, he is un-Athenian. I am not the only one who has had enough of it. Only influence in high places has kept him from getting his deserts long since. But this is a democracy.”
I turned to look at him, and saw his eyes. Then I knew what it was in his voice that had caught my ear. It was the feel of power. A cold wind blew up the stream of the Dissos, and swept along the Stadium. It flattened the flame of the torches, and the black night leaned down.
Someone reached from above and touched my shoulder. “Aren’t you coming, Alexias? Your boys are looking for you. It is getting near starting-time; the dance is over already, and they are going to sing the hymn.”
As he spoke, the choregos raised his wand, and the young boys’ chorus rose into the fading sky, like a flight of bright birds, invoking Zeus the King, the All-Knowing, giver of wisdom, and of justice between man and man. I rose to my feet, the voice of Anytos running on beside me; and before me in the torchlight Sokrates talking to Phaedo, with the cup in his hand.
This book I found among the papers of my father Myron, which came to me at his death. It must be, as I suppose, the work of my grandfather Alexias, who died suddenly in the hunting-field, I being then a young. child, and he about fifty-five years old. I have bound it up as it was, being able to find no more of it. Whether my grandfather had finished the book, I do not know.
ALEXIAS, son of Myron, Phylarch of the Athenian horse to the divine Alexander, King of Macedon, Leader Supreme of all the Hellenes.
NOTES ON SOME OF THE CHARACTERS
Alexias AND HIS FAMILY are all fictional persons.
Lysis appears in Plato’s eponymous dialogue on Friendship, as a lad of about fifteen. Plato quite commonly draws youthful portraits of people (e.g. Charmides, Alkibiades) who were in fact considerably his elders. The family details there given of Lysis suggest he was a real Athenian; but no more is known of him, beyond a comment of Diogenes Laertius that “by conversing with Sokrates, Lysis became an excellent person.” Even this may well be only a gloss upon Plato.
The account here given of Phaedo’s origins is from Diogenes Laertius. He calls him an Elian; but Grote points out that the Melians, not the Elians, were enslaved at a consistent date. After Sokrates’ death Phaedo lived in Elis, founding the Eleatic School, noted for its severe negative dialectic, derived from Sokrates’ elenchos. Athenaeus says that Phaedo used to disclaim the opinions Plato attributes to him. But the Phaedo attributes none; which strongly suggests that Plato, from delicacy, made Simmias and Kebes the spokesmen of a scepticism meant for his. Perhaps he had abandoned it; perhaps he thought his own dialectic would have been less easily demolished. It seems clear that a widening intellectual gulf separated the two friends.
No history of Xenophon’s youth has come down to us, beyond the anecdote of his first meeting with Sokrates, in Diogenes Laertius. His Memorabilia, and his handbooks on Hunting, Riding, the Command of Cavalry and Estate Management, supply his social and psychological background. The tradition that he was captured by the Thebans offers a likely origin for his friendship with Proxenos, whom he would have difficulty in meeting otherwise because of the war. In his own vivid account of the Persian Expedition, he relates how Proxenos was treacherously murdered. Xenophon himself was exiled for serving under Cyrus, and never saw Sokrates again.
Plato was credited by later generations with having won crowns for wrestling at all the principal Hellenic Games; but it seems unlikely that he devoted so much time to it after reaching manhood. He is generally believed to have contended at the Isthmus; and, owing to the exigencies of the war, 412 seems the likeliest year. Frequent allusions to wrestling in his Dialogues all show an expert grasp of its principles. His trainer is said to have given him his nickname.
In his Seventh Epistle he has described his change of heart during the tyranny, and disgust at the treatment of Sokrates. That he intervened with Kritias is only a conjecture; it seems not unlikely that Charmides did so too. Xenophon relates the incident of Euthydemos, Sokrates’ public rebuke, and his interview with Kritias during the tyranny. If Plato did save Sokrates, it would not be remarkable to find no mention of it in Xenophon, whose only reference to Plato, t
hroughout his memoir of Sokrates, occurs in passing, during a derogatory judgement on a younger brother. Plato never mentions Xenophon at all. The cause is unknown.
Plato’s famous epitaph on Aster ends with the word “phthimenois”, which can refer to the waning or setting of a star, to extinction in general, or, specifically, to death from phthisis. The poem opens with a word-play; there may or may not be one at the end. It is full of heavily-charged, evocative words, only a part of whose feeling can be rendered in any translation.
Regarding Sokrates, I have leaned on the whole to Xenophon’s account of his life and teaching, without considering that it discredits the evidence of Plato, who probably met him on a very different plane. A tradition is preserved that his temper was naturally violent and that on the rare occasions when it escaped his control his language was uninhibited; which Xenophon’s story seems to confirm. Diogenes Laertius says that enraged citizens sometimes assaulted him in the street, and quotes his comment about the donkey.
In the year 399 B.C., shortly after this story closes, Sokrates was indicted by Melitos, Lykon the father of Autolykos, and Anytos, as follows: “Sokrates is guilty of refusing to recognise the gods recognised by the City, and of introducing other new divinities. He is also guilty of corrupting the youth. The penalty demanded is death.”
It may well be that Lykon held Sokrates responsible for forming the character of Kritias, and felt himself to be avenging the murder of his son. But according to Xenophon’s account, Sokrates himself after his trial seems to have regarded Anytos as his principal enemy, “I told him it became him ill to bring up his son in a tanyard.” (Xenophon adds that the young man soon became a chronic alcoholic and so died.) Plato represents Sokrates as making a fool of Anytos in argument; Diogenes Laertius adds that Anytos could not endure ridicule and never forgave it. It is to Plutarch that we owe the anecdote about Alkibiades, who seems always to have left, from youth till death, an enduring impress on the imaginations of those whose lives he crossed.
I have generally preferred the Greek spelling of names to the Latin, because it is more Greek, and because in particular the substitution of soft c for k produces such gross distortion of the sound. Here and there, however, to avoid disturbing the reader who is fond of them, I have kept some Latinisms specially hallowed by association; such as Plato for Platon, Phaedo for Phaidon, and a number of common place-names.
CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE
B.C.
431 (Nehemiah rebuilding Jerusalem. Rome completes conquest of Volscians.)
Outbreak of Peloponnesian War.
Siege of Potidea. Sokrates, then aged 38, saves in battle the life of Alkibiades, aged 18, and gives up in his favour the prize for valour.
430 Spartans invade Attica. The plague at Athens. Xenophon born about this time.
429 Death of Perikles. Plague continues.
428 Spartans in Attica. Probable year of Plato’s birth.
427 Fall of Mitylene. Reprieve of the Lesbians. Spartans in Attica.
425 Demosthenes’ victory at Pylos. Spartans in Attica. Athens doubles tribute of the subject allies.
424 Battle of Delion. Athenians defeated by the Thebans, with their corps d’élite of friends afterwards known as the Sacred Band. Alkibiades rescues Sokrates during the retreat. Thucydides exiled.
423 One year’s truce. Aristophanes presents The Clouds in which Sokrates is represented as an anarchic influence on young men.
422 Assault on Amphipolis. Kleon and the Spartan general Brasidas both killed. Autolykos, aged about 17, wins his first crown at the Panathenaic Games; the occasion of the party described in Xenophon’s Symposium.
421 The Peace of Nikias.
420 Olympic Games held. Lavish displays by Alkibiades who enters seven chariots and wins 1st, 2nd and 4th prizes.
419 Alliance with Argos engineered by Alkibiades.
418 Athens re-enters the war.
416 Melos reduced and captured by Athenians after siege. Adult males massacred and non-combatants enslaved, Phaedo probably among them.
Agathon awarded the prize for Tragedy; the occasion of the party described in Plato’s Symposium.
415 First performance of Euripides’ Trojan Women.
Preparations for Sicilian Expedition.
Breaking of the Hermes and accusation of Alkibiades.
Expedition sets out in early summer.
Alkibiades recalled for trial but escapes to Sparta.
Aristophanes’ Birds performed.
413 Dekeleia seized and fortified by the Spartans on advice of Alkibiades.
Mykalessos in Boeotia seized by Thracians under Athenian command, with barbarous massacre of non-combatants, including children in school.
Timaea, wife of King Agis, seduced by Alkibiades.
Reinforcements sent to Sicily under Demosthenes, whose night attack is repulsed with heavy loss. Nikias agrees to leave but is delayed by eclipse of the moon (August 27th).
Naval action in harbour and total defeat of Athenian fleet.
Retreat of Athenian army followed by debacle.
412 Alkibiades campaigning in Ionian Islands. Widespread revolt of Athenian subject Allies. Sparta recognises Persian claim to Ionia, in return for funds to finance her fleet.
Isthmian Games held and Athenians invited.
Alkibiades goes to Persians; is entertained by Tissaphernes.
411 Subversion of democracy in Athens. Promise of electoral roll of 4,000 not implemented; political assassinations and reign of terror.
Revolution in Samos crushed with help of Alkibiades, who has discarded the oligarchs (according to Thucydides, because he had promised them more than the Persians would give).
Counter-revolution in Athens by moderate conservatives under Theramenes, in time to prevent capitulation to Sparta. The Four Hundred oligarchs overthrown; leaders in exile.
Euboea captured by Spartans with crippling loss of food-producing land and private estates.
The restored democracy recalls Alkibiades, who elects to remain in Samos in command of the fleet.
Aristophanes’ Lysistrata and Thesmophorians performed.
410 Alkibiades victorious in the Aegean.
Euripides’ Electra performed.
409 Agathon, and possibly Euripides, leave Athens for Macedon.
408 Alkibiades recovers Byzantium and returns in triumph to Athens.
407 Lysander in command of Spartan fleet.
406 Antiochos defeated by Lysander in battle of Notium (Cape Rain). Alkibiades deposed.
Battle of Arginusae (the White Isles). Desertion of wrecks causes heavy loss of life. Unconstitutional trial of the Generals; protest by Sokrates.
Offer of peace by Spartans. The demagogue Kleophon moves rejection.
405 Lysander, re-appointed to command at Cyrus’ request, blockades Lampsakbs.
Athenian fleet annihilated at Aegospotami (Goat’s Creek).
General revolt of subject allies (except Samos).
Siege of Athens begun.
404 Siege of Athens. Theramenes negotiates in Salamis. Starvation compels surrender (April).
Thirty Tyrants established in Athens by Lysander.
Reign of terror. Alkibiades assassinated in Phrygia. Autolykos murdered.
Theramenes procures nomination of 3,000 citizens entitled to civil rights.
403 Kritias denounces Theramenes.
Thrasybulos and the Seventy seize Phyle. Judicial murder of Eleusinians.
Capture of Piraeus and Battle of Munychia. Kritias killed.
King Pausanias of Sparta intervenes. Proclaims amnesty and withdraws garrison.
402 Lysander deposed.
401 Cyrus killed in war of succession against Artaxerxes. His mercenary army of Ten Thousand Greeks left leaderless, their generals, including Proxenos the friend of Xenophon, being treacherously killed by Tissaphernes. Xenophon rallies the despairing troops and with assistance of other junior officers marches them from Babylon to the Hellespont across wild and hostile count
ry.
400 Death of King Agis. His son barred from the succession on suspicion of Alkibiades’ paternity.
399 Xenophon in exile.
Sokrates indicted, tried, and executed after thirty days in prison, awaiting the return of the sacred galley from Delos. Plato and other friends, after remaining with him to the last, withdraw to Megara.
A Biography of Mary Renault
Mary Renault (1905–1983) was an English writer best known for her historical novels on the life of Alexander the Great: Fire from Heaven (1969), The Persian Boy (1972), and Funeral Games (1981).
Born Eileen Mary Challans into a middle-class family in a London suburb, Renault enjoyed reading from a young age. Initially obsessed with cowboy stories, she became interested in Greek philosophy when she found Plato’s works in her school library. Her fascination with Greek philosophy led her to St Hugh’s College, Oxford, where one of her tutors was J. R. R. Tolkien. Renault went on to earn her BA in English in 1928.
Renault began training as a nurse in 1933. It was at this time that she met the woman that would become her life partner, fellow nurse Julie Mullard. Renault also began writing, and published her first novel, Purposes of Love (titled Promise of Love in its American edition), in 1939. Inspired by her occupation, her first works were hospital romances. Renault continued writing as she treated Dunkirk evacuees at the Winford Emergency Hospital in Bristol and later as she worked in a brain surgery ward at the Radcliffe Infirmary.
In 1947, Renault received her first major award: Her novel Return to Night (1946) won an MGM prize. With the $150,000 of award money, she and Mullard moved to South Africa, never to return to England again. Renault revived her love of ancient Greek history and began to write her novels of Greece, including The Last of the Wine (1956) and The Charioteer (1953), which is still considered the first British novel that includes unconcealed homosexual love.
