Apology of Socrates

**Read Ἀπολογία Σωκράτους at the source, before centuries of translation made its language familiar in other forms.**

## The Work and Its World

Apology of Socrates, preserved here as Ἀπολογία Σωκράτους, is one of the works through which ancient Greek literature and thought continue to speak to later centuries. Plato recreates Socrates' defence at trial and asks what integrity, civic duty, and the examined life demand when death is near.

The Apology of Socrates (Ancient Greek: Ἀπολογία Σωκράτους, Apología Sokrátous; Latin: Apologia Socratis), written by Plato, is a Socratic dialogue of the speech of legal self-defence which Socrates (469–399 BC) spoke at his trial for impiety and corruption in 399 BC.

Specifically, the Apology of Socrates is a defence against the charges of "corrupting the youth" and "not believing in the gods in whom the city believes, but in other daimonia that are novel" to Athens (24b).

Among the primary sources about the trial and death of the philosopher Socrates, the Apology of Socrates is the dialogue that depicts the trial, and is one of four Socratic dialogues, along with Euthyphro, Phaedo, and Crito, through which Plato details the final days of the philosopher Socrates. There are debates among scholars as to the reliability of the Apology's account of the trial.

The Apology of Socrates, by the philosopher Plato (429–347 BC), was one of many explanatory apologiae about Socrates's legal defence against accusations of corruption and impiety; most apologiae were published in the decade after the Trial of Socrates (399 BC). As such, Plato's Apology of Socrates is an early philosophic defence of Socrates, presented in the form of a Socratic dialogue. Although Aristotle later classified it as a genre of fiction, it is still a useful historical source about Socrates (469–399 BC) the philosopher. Aristotle believed the dialogue, particularly the scene where Socrates questions Meletus, represented a good use of interrogation.

Except for Socrates's two dialogues with Meletus, about the nature and logic of his accusations of impiety, the text of the Apology of Socrates is in the first-person perspective and voice of the philosopher Socrates (24d–25d and 26b–27d). Moreover, during the trial, in his speech of self-defence, Socrates twice mentions that Plato is present at the trial (34a and 38b).

The Apology of Socrates begins with Socrates addressing the jury of perhaps 500 Athenian men to ask if they have been persuaded by the Orators Lycon, Anytus, and Meletus, who have accused Socrates of corrupting the young people of the city and impiety against the pantheon of Athens.

Immediately after, Socrates protests his accusers for telling the audience to guard themselves against his eloquence. He claims that his use of language will be extemporaneous, in his own common manner of interrogating highly respected Athenians, and that he himself is a stranger in the ways of court unaccustomed to giving ornamented speech. Socrates later argues that whatever wisdom he does in fact possess comes from knowing that he knows nothing (23b, 29b).

In the course of the trial, Socrates imitates, parodies, and corrects the Orators, his accusers, and asks the jury to judge him by the truth of his statements, not by his oratorical skill (cf. Lysias XIX 1,2,3; Isaeus X 1; Isocrates XV 79; Aeschines II 24). Socrates says he will not use sophisticated language—carefully arranged ornate words and phrases—but will speak using the common idiom of the Greek language. Socrates says that he will speak in the manner he has used in the agora and at the money tables. Although offered the opportunity to appease the prejudices of the jury, with a minimal concession to the charges of corruption and impiety, Socrates does not yield his integrity to avoid the penalty of death. The jury condemns Socrates to death.

## Why It Still Matters

Approaching Apology of Socrates in its original language brings the reader closer to choices of rhythm, argument, image, and dramatic emphasis that translations must inevitably interpret. The work is not important only because it is old: it remains a living point of reference for writers, philosophers, historians, theatre makers, and readers confronting related questions today.

## Author and Legacy

Plato was an Athenian philosopher and student of Socrates whose dialogues shaped Western ethics, metaphysics, politics, and theories of knowledge.

Plato (Ancient Athens, 428/427 or 424/423 BC – Ancient Athens, 348/347 BC) was an ancient Greek philosopher from Athens, the most famous student of Socrates and teacher of Aristotle. His work, which in the form of philosophical dialogues has survived in its entirety (even some spurious works are attributed to him), exerted a huge influence on ancient Greek philosophy and in general on the Western philosophical tradition until today.

Plato, among others, wrote the Apology of Socrates, a΄[›] which is considered to be a relatively accurate record of Socrates' apology in the trial that sentenced him to death, the Symposium where he talks about the nature of love, "Protagoras" where, among other things, the principle of "prevention" which does not take punishment as absolutely "retributive" 324b, Parmenides and Theaitis, where he establishes the objectivity of speech and idea, while in two long dialogues, the State and the Laws, he described an ideal state b΄[›], a society of three classes: (a) the few, rulers - kings, (b) the auxiliaries, a caste of warriors, (c) the multitude of free citizens who have no access to power. The few, by virtue of wisdom - logic, and the auxiliaries, by virtue of bravery - will, dominate the passions of the multitude.

In the 20th century the philosopher Karl Popper criticized Plato's ideal state as a totalitarian formation. Plato was describing an ideal - utopian society, where it will be clear who are worthy to rule and fight. This is clearly impossible in a real society, something that was certainly known to Plato, whose work was philosophical and theoretical rather than a proposal for government.

His body of work often ranks him among the world's leading and most influential figures of all time, along with his teacher, Socrates, and his student, Aristotle.

In this collection, the author's importance is approached through Apology of Socrates. The work shows how a particular genre or method could become a durable instrument for examining human action, public life, knowledge, memory, and the demands of justice.