 The Apology of Socrates by Plato, in the translation by Benjamin Jowett. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Father Xyle of Detroit, Michigan. Part 1 of The Apology of Socrates by Plato How you have felt, O men of Athens, at hearing the speeches of my accusers, I cannot tell. But I know that their persuasive words almost made me forget who I was. Such was the effect of them. And yet they have hardly spoken a word of truth. But many as their falsehoods were, there was one of them which quite amazed me. I mean when they told you to be upon your guard and not to let yourself be deceived by the force of my eloquence. They ought to have been ashamed of saying this, because they were sure to be detected as soon as I opened my lips and displayed my deficiency. They certainly did appear to be most shameless in saying this, unless by the force of eloquence they mean the force of truth. But then I do indeed admit that I am eloquent, but in how different a way from theirs. Well, as I was saying, they have hardly uttered a word or not more than a word of truth. But you shall hear from me the whole truth. Not, however, delivered after their manner, in a set oration duly ornamented with words and phrases. No indeed, but I shall use the words and arguments which occur to me at the moment, for I am certain that this is right, that at my time of life I ought not to be appearing before you, O men of Athens, in the character of a juvenile orator. Let no one expect this of me. And I must beg of you to grant me one favor, which is this. If you hear me using the same words in my defense which I have been in the habit of using, and which most of you may have heard in the Agora, and at the tables of the money changers or anywhere else, I would ask you not to be surprised at this, and not to interrupt me, for I am more than seventy years of age, and this is the first time that I have ever appeared in a court of law. And I am quite a stranger to the ways of the place, and therefore I would have you regard me as if I were really a stranger, whom you would excuse if he spoke in his native tongue. And after the fashion of his country, that I think is not an unfair request, never mind the manner, which may or may not be good, but think only of the justice of my cause, and give heed to that. Let the judge decide justly, and the speaker speak truly. And first I have to reply to the older charges, and to my first accusers, and then I will go on to the later ones, for I have had many accusers who accuse me of old, and their false charges have continued during many years. I am more afraid of them than of Anitus and his associates, who are dangerous too in their own way. But far more dangerous are these, who began when you were children, and took possession of your minds with their falsehoods, telling of one Socrates, a wise man who speculated about the heavens above, and searched into the earth beneath, and made the worse appear the better cause. These are the accusers whom I dread, for they are the circulators of this rumor, and their hearers are too apt to fancy that speculators of this sort do not believe in the gods. And they are many, and their charges against me are of ancient date, and they made them in the days when you were impressable in childhood, or perhaps in youth, and the cause, when heard by default, for there were none to answer. And hardest of all, their names I do not know and cannot tell, unless in the chance of a comic poet. But the main body of these slanders, who from Envy and Malus have brought upon you, and there are some of them who are convinced themselves, and impart their convictions to others. All these, I say, are most difficult to deal with, for I cannot have them up here, and examine them, and therefore I must simply fight with shadows in my own defense, and examine when there is no one who answers. I will ask you then to assume with me, as I was saying, that my opponents are of two kinds, one recent, the other ancient, and I hope that you will see the propriety of my answering the latter first, for these accusations you heard long before the others, and much oftener. Well, then, I will make my defense, and I will endeavor, in the short time which is allowed, to do away with this evil opinion of me which you have held for such a long time. And I hope I may succeed if this be well for you and me, and that my words may find favor with you. But I know that to accomplish this is not easy. I quite see the nature of the task, let the event be as God wills, in obedience to the law I make my defense. I will begin at the beginning, and ask what the accusation is which has given rise to this slander of me, and which has encouraged Meletus to proceed against me. What do the slanderers say? They shall be my prosecutors, and I will sum up their words in an affidavit. Socrates is an evildoer, and a curious person, who searches into things under the earth and in heaven, and he makes the worse appear the better cause. And he teaches the aforesaid doctrines to others. That is the nature of the accusation, and that is what you have seen yourselves in the comedy of Aristophanes, who has introduced a man whom he calls Socrates, going about and saying that he can walk in the air, and talking a great deal of nonsense concerning matters of which I do not pretend to know either much or little. Not that I mean to say anything disparaging of anyone who is a student of natural philosophy. I should be very sorry if Meletus could lay that to my charge. But the simple truth is, O Athenians, that I have nothing to do with these studies. Very many of those here present are witnesses to the truth of this, and to them I appeal. Speak, then, you who have hurt me, and tell your neighbors whether any of you have ever known me to hold forth in few words or in many upon matters of this sort. You hear their answer, and from what they say of this you will be able to judge of the truth of the rest. As little foundation is there for the report that I am a teacher and take money, that is no more true than the other. Although, if a man is able to teach, I honor him for being paid. There is Gorgias of Leontium, and Proticus of Chaos, and Hippias of Elis, who go the round of the cities and are able to persuade the young men to leave their own citizens, by whom they might be taught for nothing, and come to them, whom they not only pay but are thankful if they may be allowed to pay them. There is actually a Haryan philosopher residing in Athens, of whom I have heard, and I came to hear of him in this way. I met a man who has spent a world of money on the Sophists, Caleus, the son of Hipponicus, and knowing that he had sons, I asked him, Caleus, I said, if your two sons were foals or calves, there would be no difficulty in finding someone to put over them. We should hire a trainer of horses or a farmer, probably, who would improve and perfect them in their own proper virtue and excellence. But as they are human beings, whom are you thinking of placing over them? Is there anyone who understands human and political virtue? You must have thought about this as you have sons. Is there anyone? There is, he said. Who is he, said I? And of what country? And what does he charge? Evanus, the Haryan, he replied, he is the man, and his charge is five, my name. Happy is Evanus, I said to myself, if he really has this wisdom and teaches at such a modest charge. Had I the same, I should have been very proud and conceited. But the truth is that I have no knowledge of the kind, O Athenians. I dare say that someone will ask the question, why is this Socrates, and what is the origin of these accusations of you? For there must have been something strange which you have been doing. All this great fame and talk about you would never have arisen if you had been like other men. Tell us, then, why this is, as we should be sorry to judge hastily of you. Now I regard this as a fair challenge, and I will endeavor to explain to you the origin of this name of wise and of this evil fame. Please attend, then. And although some of you may think I am joking, I declare that I will tell you the entire truth. Men of Athens, this reputation of mine has come of a certain sort of wisdom which I possess. If you ask me what kind of wisdom, I reply such wisdom as is attainable by man, for to that extent I am inclined to believe that I am wise. Whereas the persons of whom I was speaking have a superhuman wisdom, which I may fail to describe because I have it not myself, and he who says that I have speaks falsely and is taking away my character. And here, O men of Athens, I must beg you not to interrupt me, even if I seem to say something extravagant. For the word which I will speak is not mine. I will refer you to a witness who is worthy of credit, and will tell you about my wisdom, whether I have any, and of what sort. And that witness shall be the God of Delphi. You must have known Caraphan. He was early a friend of mine and also a friend of yours, for he shared in the exile of the people and returned with you. Well, Caraphan, as you know, was very impetuous in all his doings. And he went to Delphi and boldly asked the oracle to tell him whether, as I was saying, I must beg you not to interrupt, he asked the oracle to tell him whether there was anyone wiser than I was. And the Pythian prophetess answered that there was no man wiser. Caraphan is dead himself, but his brother, who is in court, will confirm the truth of this story. Why do I mention this? Because I'm going to explain to you why I have such an evil name. When I heard the answer, I said to myself, What can the God mean? And what is the interpretation of this riddle? For I know that I have no wisdom, small or great. What can he mean when he says that I am the wisest of men? And yet he is a God and cannot lie. That would be against his nature. After a long consideration, I at last thought of a method of trying the question. I reflected that if I could only find a man wiser than myself, then I might go to the God with a refutation in my hand. I should say to him, Here is a man who is wiser than I am, but you said that I was the wisest. Accordingly, I went to one who had the reputation of wisdom and observed to him his name I need not mention. He was a politician whom I selected for examination. And the result was as follows. When I began to talk with him, I could not help thinking that he was not really wise, although he was thought wise by many, and wiser still by himself. And I went and tried to explain to him that he thought himself wise, but was not really wise. And the consequence was that he hated me, and his enmity was shared by several who were present and heard me. So I left him, saying to myself, as I went away, well, although I do not suppose that either of us knows anything really beautiful and good, I am better off than he is. For he knows nothing and thinks that he knows. I neither know nor think that I know. In this latter particular, then, I seemed to have slightly the advantage of him. Then I went to another who had still higher philosophical pretensions, and my conclusion was exactly the same. I made another enemy of him and of many others besides him. After this I went to one man after another, being not unconscious of the enmity which I provoked, and I lamented and feared this. But necessity was laid upon me. The word of God, I thought, ought to be considered first. And I said to myself, Go, I must, to all who appear to know, and find out the meaning of the oracle. And I swear to you, Athenians, by the dog, I swear, for I must tell you the truth. The result of my mission was just this. I found that the men most in repute were all but the most foolish, and that some inferior men were really wiser and better. I will tell you the tale of my wanderings and of the Herculean labors, as I may call them, which I endured only to find at last the oracle irrefutable. When I left the politicians I went to the poets, Tragic, Dithorambic, and all sorts. And there I said to myself, You will be detected. Now you will find out that you are more ignorant than they. Accordingly I took them some of the most elaborate passages in their own writings and asked what was the meaning of them, thinking that they would teach me something. Will you believe me? I am almost ashamed to speak of this. But still I must say that there is hardly a person present who would not have talked better about their poetry than they did themselves. That showed me in an instant that not by wisdom do poets write poetry, but by a sort of genius and inspiration. They are like diviners or soothsayers who also say many fine things, but do not understand the meaning of them. And the poets appeared to me to be much in the same case. And I further observed that upon the strength of their poetry they believed themselves to be the wisest of men in other things in which they were not wise. So I departed, conceiving myself to be superior to them for the same reason that I was superior to the politicians. At last I went to the artisans, for I was conscious that I knew nothing at all, as I may say, and I was sure that they knew many fine things. And in this I was not mistaken, for they did know many things of which I was ignorant. And in this they certainly were wiser than I was. But I observed that even the good artisans fell into the same error as the poets. Because they were good workmen, they thought that they also knew all sorts of high matters. And this defect in them overshadowed their wisdom. Therefore I asked myself on behalf of the Oracle whether I would like to be as I was neither having their knowledge nor their ignorance, or like them in both. And I made answer to myself and the Oracle that I was better off as I was. This investigation has led to my having many enemies of the worst and most dangerous kind, and has given occasion also to many columnaries. And I am called wise, for my hearers always imagine that I myself possess the wisdom, which I find wanting in others. But the truth is, O men of Athens, that God only is wise. And in this Oracle he means to say that the wisdom of men is little or nothing. He is not speaking of Socrates. He is only using my name as an illustration as if he said, He, O men, is the wisest, who, like Socrates, knows that his wisdom is in truth worth nothing. And so I go my way, obedient to the God, and make inquisition into the wisdom of anyone, whether citizen or stranger, who appears to be wise. And if he is not wise, then in vindication of the Oracle, I show him that he is not wise. And this occupation quite absorbs me, and I have no time to give either to any public matter of interest or to any concern of my own, but am in utter poverty by reason of my devotion to the God. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. There is another thing. Young men of the richer classes, who have not much to do, come about me of their own accord. They like to hear the pretenders examined. And they often imitate me and examine others themselves. And they often imitate me and examine others themselves. And they often imitate me and examine others themselves. And they often imitate me and examine others themselves. There are plenty of persons, as they soon enough discover, who think that they know something but really little or nothing. And then those who are examined by them, instead of being angry with themselves, are angry with me. This confounded Socrates, they say, this villainous misleader of youth. And then if somebody asks them why what evil does he practice or teach, they should not know and cannot tell. But in order that they may not appear to be at a loss, they repeat the ready-made charges which are used against all philosophers about teaching things up in the clouds and under the earth and having no gods and making the worse appear the better cause. For they do not like to confess that their pretense of knowledge has been detected, which is the truth. They are generous and ambitious and energetic and are all in battle array and have persuasive tongues. They have filled your ears with their loud and inveterate columnies. And this is the reason why my three accusers, Miletus, Anetus, and Lycan have set upon me. Miletus, who has a quarrel with me on behalf of the poets. Anetus, Lycan, on behalf of the rhetoricians. And, as I said at the beginning, I cannot expect to get rid of this mass of calumny in a moment. And this, O men of Athens, is the truth and the whole truth. I have concealed nothing. I have dissembled nothing. And yet I know that this plainness of speech makes them hate me. But a proof that I am speaking the truth. This is the occasion and reason of their slander of me as you will find out either in this or in any future inquiry. I have said enough in my defense against the first class of my accusers. I turn to the second class who are headed by Miletus, that good and patriotic man as he calls himself. And now I will try to defend myself against him. These new accusers must also have their affidavit read. What do they say? Something of this. That Socrates is a doer of evil and corruptor of the youth. That he does not believe in the gods of the state and has other new divinities of his own. That is the sort of charge. And now let us examine his accounts. He says that I am a doer of evil who corrupt the youth. But I say, O men of Athens, that Miletus is a doer of evil and the evil is that he makes a joke of a serious matter and is too ready at bringing other men to trial from a pretended zeal and interest about matters in which he really never had the smallest interest. I will try to prove. Come hither, Miletus, and let me ask a question of you. You think a great deal about the improvement of youth? Yes, I do. Tell the judges, then, who is their improver, for you must know, as you have taken the pains to discover their corruptor and are citing and accusing me before them. Speak, then, and tell the judges that you are silent and have nothing to say. But is not this rather disgraceful and a very considerable proof of what I was saying that you have no interest in the matter? Speak up, friend, and tell us who their improver is. The Laws But that, my good sir, is not my meaning. I want to know who the person is who, in the first place, knows the Laws. The judges, Socrates, who are present in court. What do you mean to say, Miletus, that they are able to instruct and improve youth? Certainly they are. What, all of them? Or some only, and not others? All of them. By the goddess Hera, that is good news. There are plenty of improvers, then. And what do you say of the audience? Do they improve them? Senators? Yes, the senators improve them. But perhaps the ecclesiasts corrupt them. Or do they improve them? They improve them. Then every Athenian improves and elevates them. All with the exception of myself. And I alone am their corruptor. Is that what you affirm? That is what I stoutly affirm. I am very unfortunate if that is true. But suppose I ask you a question. Would you say that this also holds true in the case of horses? Does one man do them harm and all the world good? Is not the exact opposite of this true? One man is able to do them good. Or at least not many. The trainer of horses, that is to say, does them good, and others who have to do with them rather injure them. Is not that true, Miletus, of horses? Or any other animals? Yes, certainly. Whether you and Anata say yes or no, that is no matter. Happy indeed would be the condition of youth if they had one corruptor only, and all the rest of the world were their improvers. And you, Miletus, have sufficiently shown that you never had a thought about the young. Your carelessness is seen in your not caring about matters spoken of in this very indictment. And now, Miletus, I must ask you another question, which is better to live among bad citizens or among good ones? Answer, friend, I say, for that is a question which may be easily answered. Do not the good do their neighbors good, and the bad do them evil? Certainly. And is there anyone who would rather be injured than benefited by those who live here? Answer, my good friend. The law requires you to answer. Does anyone like to be injured? Certainly not. And when you accuse me of corrupting and deteriorating the youth, do you allege that I corrupt them intentionally or unintentionally? Intentionally, I say. But you have just admitted that the good do their neighbors good, and the evil do them harm. Now, is that a truth which your superior wisdom has recognized thus early in life? And am I at my age in such darkness and ignorance as not to know that if a man with whom I have to live is corrupted by me, I am very likely to be harmed by him, and yet I corrupt him and intentionally too? That is what you are saying. And of that you will never persuade me nor any other human being. But either I do not corrupt them or I corrupt them unintentionally so that on either view of the case you lie. If my offense is unintentional, the law has no cognizance of unintentional offenses. You ought to have taken me privately and warned and admonished me. For if I had been better advised, I should have left off doing what I only did unintentionally. No doubt I should. Whereas you hate it to converse with me or teach me, but you indicted me in this court which is a place not of instruction but of punishment. I have shown Athenians, as I was saying, that Miletus has no care at all, great or small about the matter. But still, I should like to know Miletus in what I am affirmed to corrupt the youth. I suppose you mean as I infer from your indictment that I teach them not to acknowledge the gods which the state acknowledges, but some other new divinities or spiritual agencies in their stead. These are the lessons which corrupt the youth, as you say. Yes, that I say emphatically. Then by the gods, Miletus, of whom we are speaking, tell me and the court in somewhat plainer terms what you mean. For I do not as yet understand whether you affirm that I teach others to acknowledge some gods or therefore do believe in gods and am not an entire atheist, this you do not lay to my charge, but only that they are not the same gods which the city recognizes. The charge is that they are different gods. Or do you mean to say that I am an atheist simply and a teacher of atheism? I mean the latter, that you are a complete atheist. That is an extraordinary statement, Miletus. Why do you say that? Do you mean that I do not believe in the godhead of the sun or moon which is the common creed of all men? I assure you, judges, that he does not believe in them, for he says that the sun is stone and the moon earth. Friend Miletus, you think you are accusing an exegorus and you have put but a bad opinion of the judges if you fancy them ignorant to such a degree and you know that those doctrines are found in the books of an exegorus and clasaminia, who is full of them. And these are the doctrines which the youth are said to learn of Socrates when there are not unfrequently exhibitions of them at the theater, price of admission one drachma at the most, and they might cheaply purchase them and laugh at Socrates if he pretends to father such eccentricities. And so, Miletus, you really think that I do not believe in any God? I swear by Zeus that you believe absolutely in none at all. You are a liar, Miletus, not believed even by yourself, for I cannot help thinking, oh men of Athens, that Miletus is reckless and impudent and that he has written this indictment in a spirit of mere wantonness and youthful bravado. Has he not compounded himself thinking to try me? He said to himself I shall see whether this wise Socrates will discover my ingenious contradiction, or whether I shall be able to deceive him and the rest of them, for he certainly does appear to me to contradict himself in the indictment as much as if he said that Socrates is guilty of not believing in the Gods and yet of believing in them. But this surely is a piece of fun. I should like you, oh men of Athens, to join me in examining what I conceive to be his inconsistency. And to you, Miletus, answer, and I must remind you that you are not to interrupt me if I speak in my accustomed manner. Did ever man, Miletus, believe in the existence of human things and not of human beings? I wish, men of Athens, that he would answer and not be always trying to get up an interruption. Did ever any man believe in horsemanship and not in horses or in flute playing and not in flute players? No, my friend, I will answer to you and to the court as you refuse to answer for yourself. There is no man who ever did. But now please to answer the next question can a man believe in spiritual and divine agencies and not in spirits or demigods? He cannot. I am glad that I have extracted that answer by the assistance of the court. Nevertheless, you swear in the indictment that I teach and believe in divine or spiritual agencies new or old, no matter for that. At any rate, I believe in spiritual agencies as you say and swear in the affidavit. But if I believe in divine beings, I must believe in spirits or demigods. Am I not that true? Yes, that is true for I may assume that your silence gives assent to that. Now what are spirits or demigods? Are they not either gods or the sons of gods? Is that true? Yes, that is true. But this is just the ingenious riddle of which I was speaking. The demigods or spirits are gods. And you say first that I don't believe in gods that I do believe in gods that is, if I believe in demigods for if the demigods are the illegitimate sons of gods whether by the nymphs or by any other mothers as is thought that, as all men will allow, necessarily implies the existence of their parents. You might as well affirm the existence of mules and deny that of horses and asses. Such nonsense, Miletus, could only have been intended by you as a trial of me. You have put this into the indictment because you had nothing real of which to accuse me. But no one who has a particle of understanding will ever be convinced by you that the same man can believe in divine and superhuman things and yet not believe that there are gods and demigods and heroes. I have said enough in answer to the charge of Miletus. Any elaborate defense is unnecessary. But as I was saying before I certainly have many enemies and this is what will be my destruction if I am destroyed. Of that I am certain. Not Miletus, nor yet Anetus but the envy and detraction of the world which has been the death of many good men and will probably be the death of many more. There is no danger of my being the last of them. I say, are you not ashamed Socrates of a course of life which is likely to bring you to an untimely end? To him I may fairly answer. There you are mistaken. A man who is good for anything ought not to calculate the chance of living or dying. He ought only to consider whether in doing anything he is doing right or wrong acting the part of a good man or of a bad. As according to your view the heroes who fell at Troy were not good for much and the son of Thetis, above all who altogether despised danger in comparison with disgrace and when his goddess mother said to him in his eagerness to slay Hector that if he avenged his companion Patroclus and slew Hector he would die himself. Fate, as she said, waits upon you next after Hector. He utterly despised danger and death and instead of fearing them feared rather to live in dishonour and not to avenge his friend. Let me die next, he replies, and be avenged of my enemy rather than abide here by the beacon chips a scorn and a burden of the earth. At Achilles any thought of death and danger? For wherever a man's place is whether the place which he has chosen or that in which he has been faced by a commander there he ought to remain in the hour of danger. He should not think of death or of anything but of disgrace. And this, O men of Athens, is a true saying. Strange indeed would be my conduct, O men of Athens. If I who, when I was ordered by the generals whom you chose to command me at Bottadea, and Amphipolis and Delium, remained where they placed me, like any other man facing death, if, I say now, when, as I conceive and imagine, God orders me to fulfill the philosopher's mission of searching into myself and other men I were to desert my post through fear of death, or any other fear. That would indeed be strange and I might justly be arraigned in court for denying the existence of the gods if I disobeyed the oracle because I was afraid of death. Then I should be fancying those not wise, for this fear of death is indeed the pretense of wisdom and not real wisdom, being the appearance of knowing the unknown. Since no one knows whether death, which they in their fear apprehend to be the greatest evil may not be the greatest good, is there not here concede of knowledge which is a disgraceful sort of ignorance? And this is the point in which, as I think, I am superior to men in general and in which I might perhaps fancy myself wiser than other men that whereas I know but little of the work below I do not suppose that I know but I do know that injustice and disobedience to a better, whether god or man, is evil and dishonorable and I will never fear or avoid a possible good rather than a certain evil. And therefore, if you let me go now and reject the counsels of Anatis, who said that if I were not put to death I ought not to have been prosecuted and that if I escape now your sons will all be utterly ruined by listening to my words. If you say to me, Socrates this time we will not mind Anatis and will let you off but upon one condition that you are not to inquire and speculate in this way anymore and that if you are caught doing this again you shall die. If this was the condition on which I should reply, Men of Athens, I honor and love you but I shall obey God rather than you and while I have life and strength I shall never cease from the practice and teaching of philosophy exhorting anyone whom I meet after my manner and convincing him saying, Oh my friend why do you who are a citizen of the great and mighty and wise city of Athens care so much about laying up the greatest amount of money and honor and reputation and so little about wisdom and truth and the greatest improvement of the soul which you never regard or heed at all. Are you not ashamed of this? And if the person with whom I am arguing says, Yes but I do care I do not depart or let him go at once. I interrogate and examine and cross examine him and if I think that he has no virtue but only says what he has I reproach him with undervaluing the greater and overvaluing the less and this I should say to everyone whom I meet young and old citizen and alien but especially to the citizens in as much as they are my brethren for this is the command of God as I would have you know and I believe that to this day no greater good has ever happened in the state than my service to the God I do nothing but go about persuading you all old and young alike not to take thought for your persons and your properties but first and chiefly to care about the greatest improvement of the soul. I tell you that virtue is not given by money but that from virtue come money and every other good of man public as well as private this is my teaching and if this is the doctrine which corrupts the youth the influence is ruinous indeed but if anyone says that this is not my teaching he is speaking in untruth wherefore, O men of Athens I say to you do as Anatis bids or not as Anatis bids and either acquit me or not but whatever you do know that I shall never alter my ways not even if I have to die many times End of Part 2 of the Apology of Socrates by Plato in the translation by Benjamin Jowett recording by Fr. Zeile Detroit, Michigan Part 3 of the Apology of Socrates by Plato in the translation of Benjamin Jowett this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings of the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org recording by Fr. Zeile of Detroit, Michigan June 2007 Part 3 of the Apology of Socrates by Plato in the translation by Benjamin Jowett I think that what I am going to say will do you good or I have something more to say at which you may be inclined to cry out but I beg that you will not do this I would have you know that if you kill such a one as I am you will injure yourselves more than you will injure me Meletus and Anatis will not injure me they cannot or it is not in the nature of things that a bad man should injure himself I do not deny that he may perhaps kill him or drive him into exile or deprive him of civil rights and he may imagine and others may imagine that he is doing him a great injury but in that I do not agree with him for the evil of doing as Anatis is doing of unjustly taking away another man's life is greater far and now Athenians do not seek as you may think but for yours that you may not sin against the god or lightly reject his boon by condemning me or if you kill me you will not easily find another like me who if I may use such a ludicrous figure of speech am a sort of gadfly given to the state by the god and the state is like a great and noble steed who is tardy in his motions and requires to be stirred into life I am that gadfly which god has given the state and all day long and in all places am always fasting upon you arousing and persuading and reproaching you and as you will not easily find another like me I would advise you to spare me I dare say that you may feel irritated at being suddenly awakened when you are caught napping and you may think that if you were to strike me dead as Anathas advises which you easily might then you would sleep on for the remainder of your lives unless god in his care of you gives you another gadfly and that I am given to you by god is proved by this that if I had been like other men I should not have neglected all my own concerns or patiently seen the neglect of them during all these years and have been doing yours you individually like a father or elder brother exhorting you to regard virtue this I say would not be like human nature and had I gained anything or if my exhortations had been paid there would have been some sense in that but now as you will perceive not even the impudence of my accusers dares to say that I have ever exacted or sought any pay of anyone they have no witnesses of that I have a witness of the truth of what I say my poverty is a sufficient witness someone may wonder why I go about in private giving advice and busying myself with the concerns of others but do not venture to come forward in public and advise the state I will tell you the reason of this you have often heard me speak of an oracle or sign which comes to me and is the divinity which articules in the indictment this sign I have had ever since I was a child the sign is a voice which comes to me and always forbids me to do something which I am going to do but never commands me to do anything and this is what stands in the way of my being a politician and rightly as I think for I am certain of men of Athens that if I had engaged in politics I should have perished long ago and done I could either to you or to myself and don't be offended at my telling you the truth for the truth is that no man who goes to war with you or any other multitude honestly struggling against the commission of unrighteousness and wrong in the state will save his life he who will really fight for the right if he would live even for a little while must have a private station and not a public one and the proofs of this not words only but deeds which you value more than words let me tell you a passage of my own life which will prove to you that I should never have yielded to injustice from any fear of death and that if I had not yielded I would have died at once I will tell you a story tasteless perhaps in common place but nevertheless true the only office of state which I ever held o men of Athens the tribe Antiochus which is my tribe had the presidency at the trial of the generals who had not taken up the bodies of the slain after the battle of Argyneusae and you proposed to try them all together which was illegal as you all thought afterwards but at the time I was the only one of the Pritans who was opposed to the illegality and I gave my vote against you and when the orators threatened to impeach and have me taken away and you called and shouted I made up my mind that I would run the risk having law and justice with me rather than take part in your injustice because I feared imprisonment and death this happened in the days of the democracy but when the oligarchy of the 30 was in power they sent for me and for others into the rotunda and betas bring Leon Salamanian from Salamis as they wanted to execute him this was a specimen of the sort of commands which they were always giving with the view of implicating as many as possible in their crimes and then I showed not in words only but indeed that if I may be allowed to use such an expression I cared not a straw for death and that my only fear was the fear of doing an unrighteous or unholy thing for the strong arm of that oppressive power did not fright me into doing wrong and when we came out of the rotunda the other four went to Salamis and fetched Leon but I went quietly home for which I might have lost my life had not the power of the 30 shortly afterwards come to an end and to this many will witness now do you really imagine that I could have survived all these years if I had led a public life supposing that like a good man I had always supported the right and had made justice as I ought the first thing no indeed men of Athens neither I nor any other but I have been always the same in all my actions public as well as private and never have I yielded any base compliance to those who are slanderously termed my disciples or to any other for the truth is that I have no regular disciples but if anyone likes to come pursuing my mission whether he be young or old he may freely come nor do I converse with those who pay only and not with those who do not pay but anyone whether he be rich or poor may ask and answer me and listen to my words and whether he turns out to be a bad man or a good one that cannot be justly laid to my charge as I never taught him anything and if anyone says that he in private which all the world has not heard I should like you to know that he is speaking and untruth but I shall be asked why do people delight in continually conversing with you I have told you already Athenians the whole truth about this they like to hear the cross examination of the pretenders to wisdom there is amusement in this and this is a duty which the God has imposed upon me as I am assured by oracles visions and in every sort of way in which the will of divine power was ever signified to anyone this is true, Athenians or if not true would be soon refuted for if I am really corrupting the youth and have corrupted some of them already those of them who have grown up and have become sensible that I gave them bad advice in the days of their youth they come forward as accusers and take their revenge and if they do not like to come themselves some of their relatives, fathers, brothers or other kinsmen should say what evil their families suffered at my hands now is their time many of them I see in the court there is Crito who is of the same age and the same deem with myself and there is Cretobulus, his son whom I also see then again there is Lysanius who is the father of Eskinis he is present and also there is Antiphon of Cessiphus who is the father of Epignes and there are the brothers of several who have associated with me there is Nicostratus the son of Theos Dottedis and the brother of Theodotus now Theodotus himself is dead and therefore he at any rate will not seek to stop him and there is Parales the son of Haggis and Adimantus the son of Ariston whose brother Plato is present and Aeontodorus who is the brother of Apollodorus whom I also see I might mention a great many others any of whom Miletus should have produced as witnesses in the course of his speech and let him still produce them if he has forgotten I will make way for him let him say if he has any testimony of the sort which he can produce Neathenians the very opposite is the truth for all these are ready to witness on behalf of the corrupter of the destroyer of their kindred as Miletus and Anatis call me not the corrupted youth only there might have been a motive for that but their uncorrupted elder relatives why would they too support me with their testimony why indeed except for the sake of truth and justice and because they know that I am speaking the truth Miletus is lying well Athenians this and the like of this is nearly all the defense which I have to offer yet a word more perhaps there may be someone who is offended at me when he calls to mind how he himself on a similar or even a less serious occasion had recourse to prayers and supplications with many tears and how he produced his children in port which was a moving spectacle together with a posse of his relations and friends whereas I who am probably in danger of my life will do none of these things perhaps this may come into his mind and he may be said against me and vote in anger because he is displeased at this now if there be such a person among you which I am far from affirming I may fairly reply to him my friend I am a man like other men a creature of flesh and blood and not of water stone as Homer says and I have a family yes and sons o Athenians three in number one of whom is growing up and the two others are still young and yet I will not bring any of them hither in order to petition you for an acquittal and why not not from any self-will or disregard of you whether I am or am not afraid of death is another question of which I may not speak but my reason simply is that I feel such conduct to be discreditable to myself and you and the whole state one who has reached my years and who has a name for wisdom whether deserved or not ought not to debase himself at any rate the world has decided that sacraties is in some way superior to other men and if those among you who are encouraged and in any other virtue demean themselves in this way how shameful is their conduct I have seen men of reputation when they have been condemned behaving in the strangest manner they seem to fancy that they were going to suffer something dreadful if they died and that they could be immortal if you only allowed them to live and I think that they were a dishonor to the state and that any stranger coming in would say of them the most eminent men of Athens to whom the Athenians themselves give honor and command are no better than women and I say that these things ought not to be done by those of us who are of reputation and if they are done you ought not to permit them you ought rather to show that you are more inclined to condemn not the man who is quiet but the man who gets up a doleful scene and makes the city but setting aside the question of dishonor there seems to be something wrong in petitioning a judge and thus procuring an acquittal instead of informing and convincing him for his duty is not to make a present of justice but to give judgment and he has sworn that he will judge according to the laws and not according to his own good pleasure and neither he nor we should get into the habit of perjuring ourselves there can be no piety in that do not then require me to do what I consider dishonorable and impious and wrong especially now when I am being tried for impiety on the indictment of Miletus for if, O men of Athens by force of persuasion and in treaty I could overpower your oaths then I should be teaching you to believe that there are no gods and convict myself in my own defense of not believing in them and not the case for I do believe that there are gods and in a far higher sense than that in which any of my accusers believe in them and to you and to God I commit my cause to be determined by you as is best for you and me Detroit, Michigan part four of the Apology of Socrates by Plato in the translation by Benjamin Jowett this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org recording by Father Xyle of Detroit, Michigan June 2007 the Apology of Socrates by Plato part four there are many reasons why I am not grieved, O men of Athens at the vote of condemnation I expected this and am only surprised that the votes are so nearly equal for I had thought that the majority against me would have been far larger but now if the votes gone over to the other side I should have been acquitted and I may say that I have escaped Meletus and I may say more for without the assistance of Anatis and Lycon he would not have had a fifth part of the votes as the law requires in which case he would have incurred a fine of a thousand drachma as is evident and so he proposes death as the penalty and what shall I propose on my part, O men of Athens clearly that which is my do and what is that which I ought to pay or receive what shall be done to the man who has never had the wit to be idle during his whole life but has been careless of what the many care about wealth, family interests and military offices and assembly and magistracies and plots and parties reflecting that I was really too honest a man to follow in this way and live I did not go where I could do no good to you or to myself but where I could do the greatest good privately to every one of you thither I went and sought to persuade every man among you that he must look to himself and seek virtue and wisdom before he looks to his interests and look to the state before he looks to the interest of the state and that this should be the order which he observes in all his actions what shall be done to such a one doubtless some good thing O men of Athens if he has his reward and the good should be of a kind suitable to him what would be a reward suitable to a poor man who is your benefactor who desires leisure he may instruct you there can be no more fitting reward than maintenance in the Tritoneum O men of Athens a reward which he deserves far more than the citizen who has won the prize at Olympia in the horse or chariot race whether the chariots were drawn by two horses or by many for I am in want that he has enough and he only gives you the appearance of happiness and I give you the reality if I am to estimate the penalty justly I say that maintenance in the Tritoneum is the just return perhaps you may think that I am braving you in saying this as in what I said before about the tears and prayers but that is not the case I speak rather because I am convinced that I never intentionally wronged anyone although I cannot convince you of that for we have had a short conversation only but if there were a law at Athens such as there is in other cities that a capital cause should not be decided in one day then I believe that I should have convinced you but now the time is too short I cannot in a moment refute great slanders and as I am convinced that I never wronged another I will assuredly not wrong myself I will not say of myself that I deserve any evil or propose any penalty why should I because I am afraid of the penalty of death which Miletus proposes when I do not know whether death is a good or an evil why should I propose a penalty which would certainly be an evil shall I say imprisonment and why should I live in prison and be the slave of the magistrates of the year of the 11 or shall the penalty be a fine an imprisonment until the fine is paid there is the same objection I should have to lie in prison for money I have none and I cannot pay and if I say exile and this may possibly be the penalty which you will affix I must indeed be blinded by the love of life if I were to consider that when you who are my own citizens cannot endure my discourses and words and have found them so grievous that you would feign have done with them others are likely to endure me no indeed men of Athens that is not very likely and what a life should I lead at my age wandering from city to city living in ever changing exile and always being driven out for I am quite certain that into whatever place I go as here so also there the young man will come to me and if I drive them away their elders will drive me out at their desire and if I let them come their fathers and friends will drive me out for their sakes someone will say yes Socrates but cannot you hold your tongue and then you may go into a foreign city and no one will interfere with you now I have great difficulty in making you understand my answer to this or if I tell you that this would be a disobedience to a divine command and therefore that I cannot hold my tongue you will not believe that I am serious and if I say again that the greatest good of man is daily to converse about virtue and all that concerning which you hear me examining myself and others and that the life which is unexamined is not worth living that you are still less likely to believe and yet what I say is true although a thing of which it is hard for me to persuade you moreover I am not accustomed to think that I deserve any punishment had I money I might have proposed to give you what I had and have been none the worse but you see that I have none and can only ask you to proportion the fine to my means however I think that I could afford a minor and therefore I propose that penalty Plato, Brito, Brito-Buelus and Apollodorus, my friends here bid me say thirty minor and they will be the sureties well then say thirty minor let that be the penalty for that they will be ample security to you not much time will be gained, o Athenians in return for the evil name which you will get from the detractors of the city who will say that you killed Socrates, a wise man for they will call me wise even although I am not wise when they want to reproach you if you had waited a little while your desire would have been fulfilled in the course of nature for I am far advanced in years as you may perceive and not far from death I am speaking now only to those of you who have condemned me to death and I have another thing to say to them you think that I was convicted through deficiency of words I mean that if I had thought fit to leave nothing undone nothing unsaid I might have gained an acquittal not so the deficiency which led to my conviction was not of words certainly not but I had not the boldness nor impudence or inclination to address you as you would have liked me to address you weeping and wailing and lamenting and saying and doing many things which you have been accustomed to hear from others and which as I say are unworthy of me but I thought that I ought not to do anything common or mean in the hour of danger nor do I now repent of the manner of my defense and I would rather die having spoken after my manner than speak in your manner and live for neither in war nor yet at law ought any man to use every way of escaping death for often in battle there is no doubt that if a man will throw away his arms and fall on his knees before his pursuers he may escape death and in other dangers there are other ways of escaping death if a man is willing to say and do anything the difficulty my friends is not in avoiding death but in avoiding unrighteousness for that runs faster than death I am old and move slowly and the slower runner has overtaken me and my accusers are keen and quick and the faster runner who is unrighteousness has overtaken them and now I depart hence condemned by you to suffer the penalty of death and they too go their ways condemned by the truth to suffer the penalty of villainy and wrong and I must abide by my award and let them abide by theirs I suppose that these things may be regarded as fated and I think that they are well and now oh men who have condemned me I would feign prophesy to you for I am about to die and that is the hour in which men are gifted with prophetic power and I prophesy to you who are my murderers that immediately after my death punishment far heavier than you have inflicted on me will surely await you me you have killed because you wanted to escape the accuser and not to give an account of your lives but that will not be as you suppose far otherwise for I say that there will be more accusers of you than there are now accusers whom hitherto I have restrained and as they are younger they will be more severe with you and you will be more offended at them for if you think that by killing men you can avoid the accuser censuring your lives you are mistaken that is not a way of escape which is either possible or honorable the easiest and noblest way is not to be trushing others but to be improving yourselves this is the prophesy which I utter before my departure to the judges who have condemned me friends who have acquitted me I would like also to talk with you about this thing which has happened while the magistrates are busy and before I go to the place at which I must die stay then a while for we may as well talk with one another while there is time you are my friends and I should like to show you the meaning of this event which has happened to me all my judges for you I may truly call my judges and I should like to tell you of a wonderful circumstance hitherto the familiar oracle within me has constantly been in the habit of opposing me even about trifles if I was going to make a slip or error about anything and now as you see there has come upon me that which may be thought and is generally believed to be the last and worst evil but the oracle made no sign either as I was leaving my house and going out in the morning or when I was going up into this court or while I was speaking at anything which I was going to say and yet I have often been stopped in the middle of a speech but now in nothing I either said or did touching this matter as the oracle opposed me what do I take to be the explanation of this I will tell you I regard this as a proof that what has happened to me is a good and that those of us who think that death is an evil are an error this is a great proof to me of what I am saying for the customary sign which surely have opposed me and I've been going to evil and not to good let us reflect in another way and we shall see that there is great reason to hope that death is a good for one of two things either death is a state of nothingness and utter unconsciousness or as men say there is a change and migration of the soul from this world to another now if you suppose that there is no consciousness but a sleep like the sleep of him who is undisturbed even by the sight of dreams death will be an unspeakable gain for if a person were to select the night in which his sleep was undisturbed even by dreams and were to compare this with the other days and nights of his life and then were to tell us how many days and nights he had passed in the course of his life better and more pleasantly than this one I think that any man I will not say a private man but even the great king will not find many such days or nights when compared with the others now if death is like this I can say that to die is gain for eternity is then only a single night but if death is the journey to another place and there as men say all the dead are what good oh my friends and judges can be greater than this if indeed when the pilgrim arrives in the world below he is delivered from the professors of justice in this world and finds the true judges who are said to give judgment there minus and ratamanthus and acus and tryptolimus and the other sons of God who were righteous in their own life that pilgrimage will be worth making what would not a man give if he might converse with Orpheus and Euseius and Hesiod and Homer may if this be true let me die again and again I too shall have a wonderful interest in a place where I can converse with Palamedes and Ajax the son of Telemann and other heroes of old who have suffered death through an unjust judgment and there will be no small pleasure as I think in comparing my own sufferings with theirs above all I shall be able to continue my search into true and false knowledge as in this world so also in that I shall find out who is wise and who pretends to be wise and is not what would not a man give, oh judges to be able to examine the leader of the great Trojan expedition or Odysseus or Sisyphus or numberless others, men and women too what infinite delight would there be in conversing with them and asking them questions for in that world they do not put a man to death for this not for besides being happier in that world than in this they will be immortal if what is said is true therefore oh judges be of good cheer about death and know this of a truth that no evil can happen to a good man either in life or after death he and his are not neglected by the gods nor has my own approaching end but I see clearly that to die and be released was better for me and therefore the oracle gave no sign for which reason also I am not angry with my accusers or my condemners they have done me no harm although neither of them meant to do me any good and for this I may gently blame them still I have a favor to ask of them when my sons are grown up I would ask you all my friends to punish them and I would have you trouble them as I have troubled you if they seem to care about riches or anything more than about virtue or if they pretend to be something when they are really nothing then reproof them as I have reproofed you for not caring about that for which they ought to care and thinking that they are something really nothing and if you do this I and my sons will have received justice at your hands the hour of departure has arrived and we go our ways I to die and you to live which is better God only knows End of Part 4 End of the Apology of Socrates Plato In the translation by Benjamin Jowat Recording by Father Ziley Detroit, Michigan June 2007