"And this is he who for Euripides
Composed the talkative wise tragedies."
He was a pupil of Anaxagoras, according to some authorities, but also
of Damon, as Alexander states in his 'Successions.' After the former's
condemnation he became a disciple of Archelaus the natural
philosopher. But Douris says he was a slave, and carried stones. Some
say, too, that the Graces on the Acropolis are his; they are clothed
figures. Hence, they say, Timon in his 'Silli' declares:--
"From them proceeded the stone-polisher,
Prater on law, enchanter of the Greeks,
Who taught the art of subtle argument,
The nose-in-air, mocker of orators,
Half Attic, the adept in irony."
For he was also clever in discussion. But the Thirty Tyrants, as
Xenophon tells us, forbade him to teach the art of arguing.
Aristophanes also brings him on in comedy, making the Worse Argument
seem the better. He was moreover the first, with his pupil AEschines,
to teach oratory. He was likewise the first who conversed about life,
and the first of the philosophers who came to his end by being
condemned to death. We are also told that he lent out money. At least,
investing it, he would collect what was due, and then after spending
it invest again. But Demetrius the Byzantine says it was Crito who,
struck by the charm of his character, took him out of the workshop and
educated him.
Realizing that natural philosophy was of no interest to men, it is
said, he discussed ethics, in the workshops and in the agora, and used
to say he was seeking
"Whatsoever is good in human dwellings, or evil."
And very often, we are told, when in these discussions he conversed
too violently, he was beaten or had his hair pulled out, and was
usually laughed to scorn. So once when he was kicked, and bore it
patiently, some one expressed surprise; but he said, "If an ass had
kicked me, would I bring an action against him?"
Foreign travel he did not require, as most men do, except when he had
to serve in the army. At other times, remaining in Athens, he disputed
in argumentative fashion with those who conversed with him, not so as
to deprive them of their belief, but to strive for the ascertainment
of truth. They say Euripides gave him the work of Heraclitus, and
asked him, "What do you think of it?" And he said, "What I understood
is fine; I suppose what I did not understand is, too; only it needs a
Delian diver!" He attended also to physical training, and was in
excellent condition. Moreover, he went on the expedition to
Amphipolis, and when Xenophon had fallen from his horse in the battle
of Delium he picked him up and saved him. Indeed, when all the other
Athenians were fleeing he retreated slowly, turning about calmly, and
on the lookout to defend himself if attacked. He also joined the
expedition to Potidaea--by sea, for the war prevented a march by land;
and it was there he was said once to have remained standing in one
position all night. There too, it is said, he was pre-eminent in
valor, but gave up the prize to Alcibiades, of whom he is stated to
have been very fond. Ion of Chios says moreover that when young he
visited Samos with Archelaus, and Aristotle states that he went to
Delphi. Favorinus again, in the first book of his 'Commentaries' says
he went to the Isthmus.
He was also very firm in his convictions and devoted to the democracy,
as was evident from his not yielding to Critias and his associates
when they bade him bring Leon of Salamis, a wealthy man, to them to be
put to death. He was also the only one who opposed the condemnation of
the ten generals. When he could have escaped from prison, too, he
would not. The friends who wept at his fate he reproved, and while in
prison he composed those beautiful discourses.
He was also temperate and austere. Once, as Pamphila tells us in the
seventh book of her 'Commentaries,' Alcibiades offered him a great
estate, on which to build a house; and he said, "If I needed sandals,
and you offered me a hide from which to make them for myself, I should
be laughed at if I took it." Often, too, beholding the multitude of
things for sale, he would say to himself, "How many things I do not
need!" He used constantly to repeat aloud these iambic verses:--
"But silver plate and garb of purple dye
To actors are of use,--but not in life."
He disdained the tyrants,--Archelaus of Macedon, Scopas of Crannon,
Eurylochus of Melissa,--not accepting gifts from them nor visiting
them. He was so regular in his way of living that he was frequently
the only one not ill when Athens was attacked by the plague.
Aristotle says he wedded two wives, the first Xanthippe, who bore him
Lamprocles, and the second Myrto, daughter of Aristides the Just,
whom he received without dowry and by whom he had Sophroniscus and
Menexenus. Some however say he married Myrto first; and some again
that he had them both at once, as the Athenians on account of scarcity
of men passed a law to increase the population, permitting any one to
marry one Athenian woman and have children by another; so Socrates did
this.
He was a man also able to disdain those who mocked him. He prided
himself on his simple manner of living, and never exacted any pay.
He used to say he who ate with best appetite had least need of
delicacies, and he who drank with best appetite had least need to seek
a draught not at hand; and that he who had fewest needs was nearest
the gods. This indeed we may learn from the comic poets, who in their
very ridicule covertly praise him. Thus Aristophanes says:--
"O thou who hast righteously set thy heart on attaining to noble
wisdom,
How happy the life thou wilt lead among the Athenians and the
Hellenes!
Shrewdness and memory both are thine, and energy unwearied
Of mind; and never art thou tired from standing or from walking.
By cold thou art not vexed at all, nor dost thou long for breakfast.
Wine thou dost shun, and gluttony, and every other folly."
Ameipsias also, bringing him upon the stage in the philosopher's
cloak, says:--
"O Socrates, best among few men, most foolish of many, thou also
Art come unto us; thou'rt a patient soul; but where didst get that
doublet?
That wretched thing in mockery was presented by the cobblers!
Yet though so hungry, he never however has stooped to flatter a
mortal."
This disdain and arrogance in Socrates has also been exposed by
Aristophanes, who says:--
"Along the streets you haughtily strut; your eyes roll hither and
thither:
Barefooted, enduring discomforts, you go with countenance solemn
among us."
And yet sometimes, suiting himself to the occasion, he dressed finely;
as when for instance in Plato's 'Symposium' he goes to Agathon's.
He was a man able both to urge others to action, and to dissuade them.
Thus, when he conversed with Theaetetus on Knowledge, he sent him away
inspired, as Plato says. Again, when Euthyphron had indicted his own
father for manslaughter, by conversing with him on piety Socrates
turned him from his purpose. Lysis also by his exhortations he
rendered a most moral man. He was moreover skillful in fitting his
arguments to the circumstances. He changed the feeling of his son
Lamprocles when he was enraged with his mother, as Xenophon somewhere
relates. Plato's brother Glaucon, who wished to be active in politics,
he dissuaded because of his inexperience, as Xenophon states; but
Charmides on the other hand, who was well fitted, he urged on. He
roused the spirit of Iphicrates the general also, pointing out to him
the cocks of Midias the barber fighting those of Callias. He said it
was strange that every man could tell easily how many sheep he had,
but could not call by name the friends whom he had acquired, so
negligent were men in that regard. Once seeing Euclid devoting great
pains to captious arguments, he said, "O Euclid, you will be able to
manage sophists--but men, never!" For he thought hair-splitting on
such matters useless, as Plato also says in his 'Euthydemus.'
When Glaucon offered him some slaves, so that he might make a profit
on them, he did not take them.
He praised leisure as the best of possessions, as Xenophon also says
in his 'Symposium.' He used to say, too, that there was but one
good--knowledge; and one evil--ignorance. Wealth and birth, he said,
had no value, but were on the contrary wholly an evil. So when some
one told him Antisthenes's mother was a Thracian, "Did you think,"
quoth he, "so fine a man must be the child of two Athenians?" When
Phaedo had been captured in war and shamefully enslaved, Socrates bade
Crito ransom him, and made him a philosopher.
He also learned, when already an old man, to play the lyre, saying
there was no absurdity in learning what one did not know. He used to
dance frequently, too, thinking this exercise helpful to health. This
Xenophon tells us in the 'Symposium.'
He used to say that his Daemon foretold future events: and that he knew
nothing, except that very fact that he did know nothing. Those who
bought at a great price what was out of season, he said, had no hope
of living till the season came around. Once being asked what was
virtue in a young man, he said, "To avoid excess in all things." He
used to say one should study geometry (surveying) just enough to be
able to measure land in buying and selling it.