“The unexamined life is not worth living.”
– Socrates at his trial, as recorded by Plato's “Apology”
Before beginning this project, I had just finished reading C. A. E. Luschnig's “An Introduction to Ancient Greek: A Literary Approach.” (More about that here.) I had earlier determined that after getting through this book, my first use of this (admittedly limited) proficiency would be to read all of the primary sources about the trial of Socrates in the original Greek. There aren't very many of them, I should add here, so I knew that this was a manageable task. Thus, I started doing so immediately after reading the introductory textbook about Greek.
Socrates
Where did I obtain these primary sources in the original Greek? (Feel free to skip this paragraph)
I actually had tremendous difficulty finding copies of these works in the original Greek. They're not that easy to find, unless you already know in advance where to look for them. Thus, it might be helpful for me to give some brief comments on where I found these works in Greek. (Feel free to skip this paragraph, if you're not in the market for these copies.) These primary sources are all available from the Loeb Classical Library. To sum it up briefly, this is a series of books showing Greek on every left-hand page, and the English translation on every right-hand page. (Or in the case of the works that were in Latin, showing the Latin on every left-hand page, and the English translation on every right-hand page.) More on how I discovered this library here. This post will focus on my experiences with reading their editions of the relevant primary sources in Greek. These primary sources are all from Xenophon and Plato (especially Plato), and cover the last days of Socrates in the original Greek – especially the trial.
Xenophon's “Apology”: The alternative version of the trial itself
I started by reading Xenophon's “Apology,” one of the two surviving primary sources about the trial itself. The full title is ΑΠΟΛΟΓΙΑ ΣΩΚΡΑΤΟΥΣ ΠΡΟΣ ΤΟΥΣ ΔΙΚΑΣΤΑΣ (“Apologia Socratous pros tous dikastas”), which translates as “Socrates' Defense to the Jury.” I should mention that unfortunately, Xenophon's account of the trial is secondhand. Nonetheless, his personal interviews with some of the eyewitnesses were still quite helpful; and I wanted to start with the lesser-known account before moving on to Plato's works. Reading it occupied all of the summer semester of 2017, as well as part of the following fall semester.
Xenophon
Plato's “Euthyphro” chronicles the events leading up to his arrest
After I finished Xenophon's “Apology” that fall, I backtracked somewhat in my chronology a bit. This is because my next Greek project was actually Plato's ΕΥΘΥΦΡΩΝ (“Euthyphron”), or “Euthyphro,” which discusses the events leading up to Socrates' arrest. People do not always connect the “Euthyphro” with this trial, but it is still connected nonetheless. Socrates' real offense before this trial seems to have been embarrassing the political leaders of Athens by making them look stupid. In this particular dialogue, he makes a man named “Euthyphro” look rather stupid, by questioning him about holiness and ethics – questions that Euthyphro finds himself unable to answer. The dialogue thus also has the subtitle of Η ΠΕΡΙ ΟΣΙΟΥ, ΠΕΙΡΑΣΤΙΚΟΣ (“E Peri Hosiou, Peirastikos”), or “On Holiness: A Tentative Dialogue.” But the official charges against Socrates were actually “corrupting the youth” and “impiety” (a word translating here to “offenses against the state religion”). Socrates was innocent of both charges, but that did not stop the authorities from charging him anyway. The dialogue can be entertaining – even amusing – because, as I said earlier, Socrates makes Euthyphro look rather stupid. But to those that Socrates considered honest inquirers after truth, he could be much gentler in his questions, and merely tried to lead them gradually to the truth. It was with people like Euthyphro that he was more adversarial, since he considered Euthyphro to be an unjust person. Euthyphro was prosecuting his own father for murder, and Socrates considered this to be unwarranted by the circumstances. Thus, he showed no mercy on Euthyphro, and Euthyphro eventually excused himself from the conversation by saying that he had to attend to other business. I finished this dialogue in Greek in December 2017.
Socrates
Plato's “Apology” is the most famous account of the trial itself (and the only eyewitness account)
My next Greek project was Plato's “Apology,” another great primary source about the trial of Socrates. It is one of two surviving primary sources about the trial itself, and the only one of these to be written by an eyewitness. The reason that we know Plato to have been an eyewitness is because Socrates actually refers to Plato twice in the dialogue – using the Greek Πλάτων (Platon) for “Plato.” The full title is actually ΑΠΟΛΟΓΙΑ ΣΩΚΡΑΤΟΥΣ (“Apologia Socratous”), which literally translates as “Socratic Apology.” But more loosely, it translates as “The Defense of Socrates at his Trial.” It basically consists of a series of defense speeches given by Socrates himself. There are no surviving records of any of the prosecution speeches, unfortunately, so we have to guess at what they said from Socrates' replies to them. The first defense speech given by Socrates tried to convince the jury to find him innocent, of course. After he was found guilty, the prosecution recommended that he be sentenced to death for his offenses. The second defense speech from Socrates thus proposed two alternative penalties, which were “free board at the town hall” and paying a significant fine of thirty minas. Thus, the jury sentenced him to death as the prosecution wished, ordaining that he be forced to drink hemlock poison instead. The third and final defense speech from Socrates gives his reaction to the verdict, which shows a calm acceptance that would surprise many. I finished reading this work in Greek in the spring of 2018.
Plato
Plato
After finishing Plato's “Apology,” my next Greek project was Plato's ΚΡΙΤΩΝ (“Criton”), or “Crito,” the work's immediate sequel. This dialogue consists of a conversation between two people, which were Socrates and his friend Crito (after whom the dialogue is named). The dialogue takes place in the prison cell where Socrates is being held, shortly after the verdict. In it, his loyal friend Crito tries to convince him to escape from prison. Crito even suggests that Socrates' jailors can be bribed to allow him to escape, and there is some evidence here to indicate that this may be true. Socrates actually refuses to do this, though, saying that he accepts the right of the state to judge him. He believes that it would be “immoral” for him to fight their verdict, because in his opinion, it would undermine law and order in Athens. Thus, much of this dialogue is about his (and others') duty, and the degree of allegiance that people actually owe to the laws. The dialogue thus has the subtitle of Η ΠΕΡΙ ΠΡΑΚΤΕΟΥ, ΗΘΙΚΟΣ (“E Peri Practeou, Ethicos”) or “On Duty; Ethical.” I finished reading this work in Greek in May 2018.
Plato
The last of these Greek projects was Plato's ΦΑΙΔΩΝ (“Phaedon”), or “Phaedo,” about the last days and the execution of Socrates. It starts after the execution has already taken place, but most of this story takes place in what amounts to a flashback. In it, the surviving eyewitness Phaedo is talking to a small group of people around him, recounting the last hours before the death of Socrates. Much of the dialogue is about the soul (and whether or not it was immortal); because the mortal life of its main character was soon to draw to a close. The dialogue thus has the subtitle of Η ΠΕΡΙ ΨΥΧΗΣ, ΗΘΙΚΟΣ (“E Peri Psyches, Ethicos”), or “On the Soul, Ethical.” In the dialogue, Phaedo notably recounts that a number of Athenians and foreigners were actually present at the execution. However, Phaedo also notes – and I quote the translation – that “Plato, I think, was sick.” (Again, the original Greek uses Πλάτων [Platon] for “Plato.”) Thus, although we know that Plato himself was actually present at the earlier trial, he was probably not present at the death of Socrates, and was most likely not an eyewitness to this part of the story. This may explain why his account of the execution is somewhat sanitized, in a way that is unrealistic for death by hemlock. The unrealistic execution scene notwithstanding, though, the evidence does show that Socrates complied with the state's order to drink the hemlock poison. In this way, he died at the hands of the Athenian government in 399 BC, the same year as the trial. It took me the entire summer and fall semesters of 2018 to read this in Greek, and I finally finished the project in January 2019. By so doing, I had thus finished reading all of the primary sources about the trial of Socrates in the original Greek, which felt like a major accomplishment.
The Death of Socrates (which was by drinking hemlock poison)
The trial and execution of Socrates had a massive effect on world history
So what's the big deal about the trial of Socrates, you might be wondering? And why are we still talking about it, more than 2400 years after it happened? It is important to understand this point: Socrates was not the first person in history to die for his beliefs, or even to be celebrated for doing so. But he may have been the first to be celebrated for going against the authorities in the process. Like Prometheus of Greek mythology, Socrates was openly rebelling against a tyrannical government, and being celebrated for “righteously” doing so. Although his questions had made him many enemies in the Athenian government, they also had made him many friends among the Athenian people. There were actually many Athenians at this time who supported him. Some of them had even voted to acquit him at his trial. Socrates is among the earliest people to stand up for freedom in general, and freedom of thought and speech in particular. Western civilization, in many respects, has been built on freedom of speech as a core value. This is not to say that Western civilization has routinely followed this ideal, but one can always picture Socrates looking over the shoulder of Western civilization, encouraging freedom of speech as the benchmark by which they must measure themselves, and making them feel guilty when they fail to do so. (It is sometimes said today that the two most important trials in Western history were the trial of Socrates, and the trial of Jesus. As astonishing as this claim is, there may actually be some reason to take it seriously.)
An alternative version of The Death of Socrates
How does the Xenophon account differ from the version by Plato?
Athens seems to have felt something of a guilt complex over the execution of Socrates, and the lesser-known account by Xenophon reflects this view. Specifically, Xenophon argues that Socrates had wanted to avoid dying slowly from a dreadful disease, and preferred a quick death through execution by the government, by whatever method they would happen to choose. This is the biggest difference between the accounts of Xenophon and Plato. Xenophon actually makes it sound like Socrates was choosing death voluntarily – something that, if true, would have helped to assuage the Athenian conscience about killing him. In reality, though, Socrates probably asked his combative questions of the authorities because he felt morally bound to do so. Although he apparently felt no guilt about violating the Athenian restrictions on freedom of speech in this way, he did feel “morally bound” to accept the consequences of his decisions, by submitting to execution at their hands. Thus, he seems to have made no attempt to escape through bribing his jailors, as Crito had earlier suggested for him; and voluntarily drank the hemlock poison when ordered to do so. By doing so, Socrates achieved a near-mythic status as a “hero” willing to sacrifice his own life (an accurate image). Thus, Socrates still endures today as a symbol of principled opposition to tyranny, and a value of conscience over life itself.
Still another version of The Death of Socrates
What was it like to read these primary sources in the original?
And now, some general comments on reading these primary sources in the original: I am not ashamed to tell you that I find Ancient Greek to be very difficult to read. I had to look up the majority of these words I encountered, in my handy Greek-English lexicon. (More about that here.) Nonetheless, I am glad that I took the time to do so, and went through the trouble of honing my Greek skills in this way. The Loeb Classical Library actually has a very helpful English translation on every right-hand page (as mentioned earlier), which helped me to decipher the Greek texts on the corresponding left-hand pages. Moreover, my prior studies from the introductory textbook about Ancient Greek helped me to make some sense of the language. I knew enough about certain grammatical features – such as verb “conjugations” and noun “declensions,” as they're called – that I could usually find the words fairly easily in the dictionary, even if they had alternative word endings that were not listed in their own separate dictionary entries. I quickly learned that some spellings were distinctive features of the Attic dialect of Greek, and learned how to look them up with the more standard spellings favored (and employed) by other dialects of that time. I don't want to bore you with any additional details here, but suffice it to say that it definitely helped my Greek to “get up to speed” a bit. Eventually, I hope that it will improve well enough to enable me to read the New Testament in the original Greek.
What's my next project in Ancient Greek? (Answer: Plato's “Republic” … )
Incidentally, my next Ancient Greek project will be to read Plato's ΠΟΛΙΤΕΙΑ, or “Politeia,” in the original Greek. This work is much better known in English as “The Republic.” I have read it in translation before, but never in the original Greek.
“The safest general characterization of the European philosophical tradition is that it consists of a series of footnotes to Plato.”
– Alfred North Whitehead, “Process and Reality: An Essay on Cosmology” (1929), Part II, Chapter 1, Section 1
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Part of a series about
European history
The Trial of Socrates
This list covers Europe through the Renaissance. For Europe since the Renaissance, click here.
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