The Last Days of Socrates

by Plato

  24. brought up to the Acropolis: A procession escorted the Robe up to the Acropolis. The statue itself was in the Erechtheum.

  25. that special feature: The term used here is eidos, another of Plato’s terms for his Ideas, often translated ‘form’ or ‘Form’.

  26. a single standard: Now the term idea recurs. Note that it seems to be with reference to the one ‘idea’ that both things holy and things unholy are recognized.

  27. observe… means of comparison: The word translated ‘observe’ means literally ‘look away to’ and is regularly used by Plato in connection with the Ideas as standards for comparison. The word translated ‘means of comparison’ is the origin of our word ‘paradigm’; it is also regularly used in connection with the Platonic Ideas.

  28. whether you’re correct or not: It is a doctrine of the Gorgias (c454–a455) that merely telling somebody something that is right does not amount to teaching and does not bring about knowledge even if the other person accepts the belief; teaching requires an explanation justifying the views stated.

  29. ‘divinely approved’: The argument becomes clumsier in English, for ‘divinely approved’ translates the single word theo-philes. Tredennick’s ‘god-beloved’ and ‘god-hated’ appear to me to be too much like terms of emotion.

  30. exact opposites: At first sight a totally unnecessary premise – but the reason for it will soon be evident.

  31. offensive to Kronos: See note 19, above. Zeus would approve of imprisoning one’s father, perhaps, but would Kronos, whom he imprisoned?

  32. offensive to Hera: Hephaestus took revenge upon his mother Hera, who had thrown him out of heaven because he was lame; as God of metalworkers, he created for her a golden throne carefully designed so that she would not be able to escape from it. This is another Homeric tale (Iliad 18, 394–405) to which Plato has strong objections (Republic d378).

  33. pay the penalty: Mitigating circumstances and diminished responsibility were not then able to secure avoidance of punishment.

  34. a slower learner than the jurymen: Plato is constantly conscious of the fact that one had to state one’s case in court in a limited space of time, which was measured by the clepsydra or water-clock. Compare Gorgias a455.

  35. is it holy because it’s approved?: Socrates believes that any real god will act and think rationally; thus acts would be approved by them according to rational principles. Holiness is here seen as being a possible explanation of why the gods might universally approve certain actions. Their quarrels would arise when deeds are neither holy nor unholy.

  36. gets carried: I have tried here to keep as close as possible to the flavour of the argument. ‘Being carried’, etc. denotes the state of having something done to one, whereas ‘gets carried’, etc. denotes the action that one is at the receiving end of. I strongly suspect that Plato had his motives for not wishing to express himself with perfect clarity here, for he is not saying much more than that action by the subject is the reason for the object having something done to it, not vice versa.

  37. because it gets affected: The reason that the point seems so laboured, with alternative formulations being presented, is that while ‘being carried’ is a fairly obvious case of having something done to one (getting affected), it is far from obvious that this will apply in the case of ‘being approved’ to which Socrates will need to apply the principle below. This might rather be a case of acquiring a property (getting to be so). In this case Plato would see the state of acquiring the property as being due to some process which results in property acquisition.

  38. altogether different from each other: Plato bases his claim on the difference between the two concepts; though his claim is strongly worded for rhetorical effect, he does not in fact maintain that there is a fundamental difference between things which are divinely approved and things which are holy. The terms may indeed have the same extension (if x is holy, the gods will approve it, and if the gods approve x then it is divinely approved), but they do not have the same meaning.

  39. some attribute which attaches to it: Unless the Euthyphro is much later than is usually supposed, or has been revised later, then there is little doubt that the terminology of essence and accident (or non-essential attribute) is as yet non-technical.

  40. Daedalus: Daedalus was a figure of divine ancestry (descended from Hephaestus) who was an archetypal inventor and sculptor prominent in Minoan and Mycenaean mythology. Qua sculptor, he is associated with the carving of limbs which were separated from the main body of the statue for most of their length, thus suggesting the ability to move freely. Since trades were conventionally passed from father to son, stonemasons traced their ancestry back to Daedalus, while Socrates was the son of Sophroniscus, who was reported to be a stonemason.

  41. it’s you they won’t stay put for: It is fundamental to Socratic dialectic that the responder will be held responsible for the course of the argument; compare Meno 82e–85b.

  42. Tantalus: A mythical king of Lydia, of proverbial wealth; ancestor of the house of Atreus; offender of the gods, and sufferer of eternal punishment as a result.

  43. not all that’s just is holy: In the Protagoras it is argued that everything holy is ipso facto just and everything just is ipso facto holy (a331–e).

  44. the poet: Stasinus, probable author of the Cypria (fr. 24). If not Stasinus, then the author is unknown.

  45. nurtured: Literally ‘planted’: there is perhaps some kind of distinction between a primary creator and a secondary propagator. Text and translation are uncertain.

  46. unequal ones: The Greeks had a view of number which was strongly influenced by geometry, and the Greek here talks of ‘scalene’ number (odd) and ‘isosceles’ number (even); these terms belong not to triangles as they would today, but to a pair of lines united at the top (like two sides of a triangle), or two ‘legs’. The even number 6 can be represented by two legs of length 3, but, since the Greeks did not recognize fractions, the odd number 7 would be represented by legs of uneven length, such as 3 and 4.

  47. the remaining part of the just: Justice towards animals is seldom recognized by the Greeks; exceptions would usually involve some special doctrine, like the Pythagorean doctrine of transmigration, by which a soul, after leaving the human body, might enter an animal one. In this case the animal which one maltreats could turn out to be one’s own ancestor.

  48. improving one of the gods: In the latter part of the dialogue Socrates is clearly directing the thrust of his attack against the conventional notion that the gods require certain duties to be performed by men. They will either want something because they are improved by it (implying that they are lacking it unless we comply); or because it contributes to some end which they have in view (still implying that they need us); or they want it because it pleases them, either for some rational reason (which Euthyphro should be able to explain) or because of some whim.

  49. marvellous work: The word translated ‘marvellous’, being a pan compound, is almost certainly ironical. Though Socrates tends to hammer this question, we should not suppose that an answer to it will solve the problem of what holiness is; rather we should recognize that Socrates pours scorn on the idea that we can contribute to the gods’ work (or happiness) in any way whatsoever.

  50. nothing is good for us except what comes from them: Although suggestions of some kind of providential governance of the world do recur in both Plato and Xenophon’s Socratic writings, this is rather a strong statement to be coming from Plato’s Socrates. The emphasis is usually on man’s own power to do himself some good, and upon knowledge being the means to achieve this – but Socrates’ words are tailored to achieve approval from Euthyphro.

  51. Proteus: An old sea-god who would not willingly yield up information, and was able to transform himself into all kinds of beasts if trapped. He had to be tied and held fast during his magical contortions in order that he might be subdued and yield the information required. See Homer, Odyssey 4. Plato again makes use of the Proteus analogy at
Euthydemus b288 and Ion e541.

  52. you think: Tredennick notes that Socrates now credits Euthyphro only with thinking that he knows. This should not, however, be taken as an indication that Socrates’ attitude to Euthyphro’s claims has changed; Socrates can hardly say, ‘I know well enough that you know…’

  53. the rest of my days: Of course Socrates’ final speech is ironical, but there is some substance in it. Those who prided themselves on their religious knowledge were not able to give as persistent a questioner as Socrates any sure guidance about matters divine such as could have averted his condemnation for impiety.

  Apology

  1. Anytus and his colleagues: Anytus was the politician of the team, a good democrat whom Plato portrays in the Meno as an implacable opponent of the sophists; Meletus was theoretically chief prosecutor, as the Euthyphro shows; Lycon is little known, though 24a suggests that he was a frequent speaker in the courts, who could therefore somehow ‘represent’ the orators.

  2. when you were children: The great losses in manpower suffered by Athens in the final decade of the Peloponnesian War meant that there were far fewer old men performing jury service than would have been the case when Aristophanes’ Wasps was written (422 BC). Whether these ‘untrue accusations’ predate the representations in that comedian’s Clouds in 423 BC we cannot tell.

  3. There is a clever man… stronger: This is a simplified picture of the ‘Socrates’ of The Clouds. It is crucial to the plot that Socrates’ school harbours personifications of the weaker and the stronger argument, the former of which knows how to win unjust cases (112–18); inside the school the students are busy studying both heavenly and underground phenomena (187–94).

  4. does not also believe in gods: This was reasonable: Presocratic theories on the workings of the universe were offered as an alternative to making them the work of traditional gods.

  5. a playwright: It is clear to all that Aristophanes is meant; it may be an intentional slight to mention him only as an afterthought here.

  6. in the short time that I have: It is important to note that the speeches in many important Athenian trials were timed by the water-clock (clepsydra), equal time being allotted to defence and prosecution. It seems difficult to reconcile Socrates’ attitude here with the notion that there may have been further speakers who spoke for the defence, though Plato’s version of Socrates’ speech is not so very long when one bears in mind that there were three speakers for the prosecution (23e).

  7. make my defence: The tone of this paragraph is hesitant, and the repeated verbals (translated ‘must’) suggest tasks that Socrates might prefer to have avoided.

  8. Socrates… his example: A comic touch which many would find inappropriate, satirizing the old prejudices by casting them in the solemn form of a legal charge. In this ‘charge’ we see three mistaken views of Socrates: that he is a physical philosopher, that he is a sophist and that he is a professional teacher.

  9. the play by Aristophanes… nothing whatsoever: Aristophanes’ Clouds introduces a Socrates who is swung out above the set suspended from the crane (218). His first full line (225) has him proclaim that he is treading the air and looking askance at the sun. In lines 227–34 he gives an absurd biological explanation of why he needs to be up high.

  10. any more lawsuits brought against me by Meletus: Another jest, with the serious purpose of depicting Meletus as one who would prosecute somebody at the drop of a hat.

  11. equally unreliable: The Phaedo speaks of a period in which Socrates was interested in Presocratic philosophy (96a–98b), and it is uncertain how early this would have been. Surely not all the jury could have been too young to have experienced this side of Socrates? The reason why Socrates is able to make this appeal is because such theories had never been discussed publicly as this was too dangerous. For this very reason it was easy enough for Athenians to suspect Socrates of engaging in such things privately. Notice that he does not deny that he had discussed them; he denies that he has any expertise in them, something of which he was certainly convinced.

  12. charge a fee: Suggestions that Socrates took a fee are present in Aristophanes’ Clouds (98, 876, and possibly 1146), but here Socrates never expresses any real interest in money and is just as poor as ever. Plato likes to distinguish the true philosopher from the sophist on the grounds that the sophist takes a fee, which would have been difficult for him if Socrates had done so. This would not have excluded the acceptance of gifts from wealthy patrons (as when he is ready to take their money to pay his fine at 38b).

  13. Gorgias… Prodicus… Hippias of Elis: Gorgias claimed only to be a teacher of rhetoric, and is sometimes not credited with the title ‘sophist’; however, in so far as he was much travelled, gave public demonstrations of his art, and offered for a fee private lessons designed to lead to the political success of the pupil, he resembled the sophists. Among these, Prodicus and Hippias were the two most celebrated, after Protagoras; both of them were contemporaries of Socrates, and probably better known at Athens than their forerunner. Prodicus was an expert in language, a little pedantic perhaps but interesting enough for Socrates to have taken a modest course with him (Cratylus b384) and to have been otherwise associated with him (e.g. The Clouds 361). Hippias was a polymath, whose pompousness is treated mercilessly in Plato’s works.

  14. Callias, the son of Hipponicus: Callias inherited a huge fortune (200 talents: Lysias 19.48) from Hipponicus, and was notorious for the manner in which he went about spending it – much of it on sophists (Cratylus b391). He acts as simultaneous host to Protagoras, Prodicus and Hippias in Plato’s Protagoras. He is also the host figure of Xenophon’s Symposium.

  15. Evenus of Paros: Evenus is less well known than the sophists so far mentioned, a man versed in various forms of literary composition, an inventor of oratorical devices and moreover a poet (Phaedrus a267). The treatment of him as a philosopher at Phaedo 61b–c is ironic. There is a later tradition that he taught Socrates poetry.

  16. a moderate fee: One cannot sensibly comment on the fee without knowing the duration of the course. Isocrates Against the Sophists 3, with minor Socratics in mind, thinks 300–400 drachmae ridiculously little to ask when one promises all but immortality. Diogenes Laertius (9.52) says that Protagoras had charged 10,000 drachmae.

  17. the god at Delphi: To call a god as witness is a grotesque idea that is unlikely to have found favour. The Delphic oracle, sacred to Pythian Apollo, god of prophecy among other things, was the supreme authority in the Greek world. However, it had fallen out of favour at Athens by its apparent bias towards the other side during the Peloponnesian War, and it is very doubtful whether the Athenians would have been so impressed by the oracle’s reply as Socrates is. Its advice could be sought on all matters, great and small. It is not known when Chaerephon visited it, and Xenophon’s account (Apology 14) says that the oracle made Socrates supreme in the moral virtues instead of in wisdom.

  18. Chaerephon: Chaerephon features as a kind of apprentice of Socrates in the Gorgias, and is mentioned several times in Aristophanes’ Clouds as being the other leader of Socrates’ school. He is mocked there for his feeble appearance and his interest in entomology, and may have played an even greater role in the version originally staged (fr. 139 Poetae Comici Graeci). He occurs also in Wasps and Birds. Elsewhere in comedy he appears as a cheat and/or thief. It is unlikely that a mention of this favourite butt of comic humour (democrat or not) would have done anything to raise the tone of Socrates’ case.

  19. the recent expulsion and restoration: Socrates refers to the establishment and overthrow of the rule of the Thirty Tyrants (404 BC), when the democratic party was banned, but returned after capturing the Piraeus.

  20. his brother: We meet this brother, Chaerecrates, in Xenophon’s Memorabilia 2.3.

  21. first started: We may deduce from this that the oracular response preceded Socrates’ investigations, which in turn preceded his unpopularity. He is unpopular by 423 BC, something which Aristophanes capitali
zes on rather than causes.

  22. that would not be right for him: Socrates’ unorthodox beliefs are now in evidence. He cannot accept that the gods will engage in any dishonourable conduct, such as lies. Yet deception among the gods is frequent in Greek myth. Moreover Socrates appears to be laying down rules for divine conduct in much the same way as he will impose moral rules upon the jury.

  23. by Dog: A favourite oath of Socrates; at Phaedrus e236 he offers to swear by the plane-tree he sits under. It is doubtful whether his use of pseudo-oaths would have been perceived as having any bearing on the question of his impiety.

  24. as a cycle of labours: With these words Socrates manages to compare his superficially meddlesome tasks with the Labours of Heracles; a jury might have seen this as either mockery or arrogance or both.

  25. I turned to the poets: It is important to note that the poet traditionally had the role of teacher in Greece, and Greeks expected to learn from them. Greek education gave great weight to the study of Homer and other poets.

  26. a kind of instinct or inspiration: Plato’s Ion shows Socrates exposing a rhapsode’s reliance upon such inspiration (as opposed to knowledge); the Phaedrus sees it as characteristic of lover, faith-healer, true prophet and true poet (a244 ff.); and the Meno explains political virtue too as dependent upon correct opinion derived from quasi-divine inspiration akin to that of the seer.

  27. the skilled craftsmen: A much-respected class of person among the democrats of Athens.

  28. the bystanders assume that I know everything about that subject myself: Compare Charicles at Xenophon, Memorabilia 1.2.36 and Thrasymachus at Republic a337.

  29. to assist the god: Helping the gods is another odd idea, as Euthyphro 15a shows.

  30. of their own accord: It is important to Socrates’ case that he should not have been seeking such followers.