"Three days hence thou'lt come to the fertile region of Phthia,"
he said to AEschines, "On the third day I shall die." When he was to
drink the hemlock, Apollodorus gave him a fine garment to die in: "But
why," quoth he, "is this garment of mine good enough to live in, but
not to perish in?" To him who said, "So-and-so speaks ill of you," he
answered, "Yes, he has not learned to speak well." When Antisthenes
turned the ragged side of his cloak to the light, he remarked, "I see
your vanity through your cloak." He declared we ought to put
ourselves expressly at the service of the comedy writers: "For if they
say anything about us that is true, they will correct us; and if what
they say be untrue, it does not concern us at all."
When Xanthippe had first reviled him, then drenched him with water,
"Didn't I tell you," said he, "it was thundering and would soon rain?"
To Alcibiades, who said Xanthippe's scolding was unbearable, he
replied, "I am accustomed to it, as to a constantly creaking pulley.
And you," he added, "endure the cackling of geese." Alcibiades said,
"Yes, for they bring me eggs and goslings." "And Xanthippe," retorted
Socrates, "bears me children." Once when she pulled off his cloak in
the agora, his friends advised him to defend himself with force.
"Yes," said he, "by Jove, so that as we fight, each of you may cry,
'Well done, Socrates!' 'Good for you, Xanthippe!'" He used to say he
practiced on Xanthippe just as trainers do with spirited horses. "Just
as they if they master them are able to control any other horse, so I
who am accustomed to Xanthippe shall get on easily with any one else."
It was for such words and acts as this that the Delphic priestess bore
witness in his honor, giving to Chairephon that famous response:--
"Wisest of all mankind is Socrates."
He became extremely unpopular on account of this oracle; but also
because he convicted of ignorance those who had a great opinion of
themselves, particularly Anytus, as Plato also says in the 'Meno.' For
Anytus, enraged at the ridicule Socrates brought upon him, first urged
Aristophanes and the rest on to attack him, and then induced Meletus
to join in indicting him for impiety and for corrupting the young men.
Plato in the 'Apology' says there were three accusers,--Anytus, Lycon,
and Meletus: Anytus being incensed at him in behalf of the artisans
and politicians, Lycon for the orators, and Meletus for the poets, all
of whom Socrates pulled to pieces. The sworn statement of the
plaintiffs ran as follows; for it is still recorded, Favorinus says,
in the State archives:--"Socrates is guilty, not honoring the gods
whom the State honors, but introducing other strange divinities; and
he is further guilty of corrupting the young. Penalty, death."
When Lysias wrote a speech for his defense, he read it, and said, "A
fine speech, Lysias, but not suited to me;" for indeed it was rather
a lawyer's plea than a philosopher's. Lysias said, "But why, if the
speech is a fine one, should it not be suitable for you?" Socrates
replied, "Would not fine robes, then, and sandals, be unfitting for
me?"
While he was on trial, it is stated that Plato ascended the _bema_ and
began, "Being the youngest, O men of Athens, of all who ever came upon
the bema"--but at this point the judges cried out, "Come down! come
down!" So he was convicted by two hundred and eighty-one votes more
than were cast for his acquittal. And when the judges considered what
penalty or fine he should receive, he said he would pay
five-and-twenty drachmae. Euboulides says he agreed to pay a hundred,
but when the judges expressed their indignation aloud, he said, "For
what I have done, I consider the proper return to be support at the
public expense in the town hall." But they condemned him to death, the
vote being larger than before by eighty.
Not many days later he drank the hemlock in the prison, after uttering
many noble words, recorded by Plato in the 'Phaedo.' According to some,
he wrote a poem beginning--
"Greeting, Apollo of Delos, and Artemis, youthful and famous."
He also versified, not very successfully, a fable of AEsop's which
began--
"AEsop once to the people who dwell in the city of Corinth
Said, 'Let virtue be judged not by the popular voice.'"
So he passed from among men; but straightway the Athenians repented of
their action, so that they closed the gymnasia, and exiling the other
accusers, put Meletus to death. Socrates they honored with a statue of
bronze, the work of Lysippus, which was set up in the Pompeion. Anytus
in exile, entering Heraclea, was warned out of town that very day.
The Athenians have had the same experience not only in Socrates's
case, but with many others. Indeed, it is stated that they fined Homer
as a madman, and adjudged Tyrtaeus to be crazy. Euripides reproves them
in the 'Palamedes,' saying:--
"Ye have slain, ye have slain the all-wise, the harmless
nightingale of the Muses."
That is so. But Philochorus says Euripides died before Socrates.
Socrates and Euripides were both disciples of Anaxagoras. It appears
to me, too, that Socrates did talk on natural philosophy. In fact,
Xenophon says so, though he states that Socrates held discourse only
upon moral questions. Plato indeed, in the 'Apology,' mentioning
Anaxagoras and other natural philosophers, himself says of them things
whereof Socrates denies any knowledge; yet it is all ascribed to
Socrates.
Aristotle states that a certain mage from Syria came to Athens, and
among other prophecies concerning Socrates foretold that his death
would be a violent one.