[Sidenote: _Apology._]
[Sidenote: Socrates begs to be allowed to speak in his accustomed manner.]
How you, O Athenians, have been affected by my accusers, =Steph.= 17
I cannot tell; but I know that they almost made me forget
who I was—so persuasively did they speak; and yet they
have hardly uttered a word of truth. But of the many falsehoods
told by them, there was one which quite amazed me;—I
mean when they said that you should be upon your guard
and not allow yourselves to be deceived by the force of my
eloquence. To say this, when they were certain to be detected
as soon as I opened my lips and proved myself to be anything
but a great speaker, did indeed appear to me most shameless—unless
by the force of eloquence they mean the force of
truth; for if such is their meaning, I admit that I am eloquent.
But in how different a way from theirs! Well, as I was
saying, they have scarcely spoken the truth at all; but from me
you shall hear the whole truth: not, however, delivered after
their manner in a set oration duly ornamented with words and
phrases. No, by heaven! but I shall use the words and arguments
which occur to me at the moment; for I am confident
in the justice of my cause[14]: 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 it of me. And I must
beg of you to grant me a favour:—If I defend myself in my
accustomed manner, and you hear me using the words which
I have been in the habit of using in the agora, at the tables of
the money-changers, or anywhere else, I would ask you not to
be surprised, and not to interrupt me on this account. For
I am more than seventy years of age, and appearing now for
the first time in a court of law, I am quite a stranger to the
language of the place; and therefore I would have you regard
me as if I were really a stranger, whom you would excuse if 18
he spoke in his native tongue, and after the fashion of his
country:—Am I making an unfair request of you? Never
mind the manner, which may or may not be good; but think
only of the truth of my words, and give heed to that: let the
speaker speak truly and the judge decide justly.
[Sidenote: _Socrates and his accusers._]
[Sidenote: The judges must excuse Socrates if he defends himself in his
own fashion.]
[Sidenote: He has to meet two sorts of accusers.]
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 of
old I have had many accusers, who have accused me falsely
to you during many years; and I am more afraid of them than
of Anytus and his associates, who are dangerous, too, in their
own way. But far more dangerous are the others, 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 heaven above, and searched into the
earth beneath, and made the worse appear the better cause.
The disseminators of this tale are the accusers whom I dread;
for their hearers are apt to fancy that such enquirers do not
believe in the existence of the gods. And they are many, and
their charges against me are of ancient date, and they were
made by them in the days when you were more impressible
than you are now—in childhood, or it may have been in youth—and
the cause when heard went by default, for there was
none to answer. And hardest of all, I do not know and
cannot tell the names of my accusers; unless in the chance
case of a Comic poet. All who from envy and malice have
persuaded you—some of them having first convinced themselves—all
this class of men are most difficult to deal with;
for I cannot have them up here, and cross-examine them, and
therefore I must simply fight with shadows in my own defence,
and argue 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 must make my defence, and endeavour to clear 19
away in a short time, a slander which has lasted a long time.
May I succeed, if to succeed be for my good and yours, or
likely to avail me in my cause! The task is not an easy one;
I quite understand the nature of it. And so leaving the event
with God, in obedience to the law I will now make my defence.
[Sidenote: _The Clouds of Aristophanes._]
[Sidenote: There is the accusation of the theatres: which declares that
he is a student of natural philosophy.]
I will begin at the beginning, and ask what is the accusation
which has given rise to the slander of me, and in fact has
encouraged Meletus to prefer this charge against me. Well,
what do the slanderers say? They shall be my prosecutors,
and I will sum up their words in an affidavit: ‘Socrates is an
evil-doer, 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.’ Such is the nature of the accusation: it is
just what you have yourselves seen in the comedy of Aristophanes[15],
who has introduced a man whom he calls Socrates,
going about and saying that he walks in air, and talking a
deal of nonsense concerning matters of which I do not pretend
to know either much or little—not that I mean to speak
disparagingly of any one who is a student of natural philosophy.
I should be very sorry if Meletus could bring so grave
a charge against me. But the simple truth is, O Athenians,
that I have nothing to do with physical speculations. Very
many of those here present are witnesses to the truth of this,
and to them I appeal. Speak, then, you who have heard me,
and tell your neighbours whether any of you have ever known
me hold forth in few words or in many upon such matters....
You hear their answer. And from what they say of
this part of the charge you will be able to judge of the truth
of the rest.
[Sidenote: There is the report that he is a Sophist who receives money.]
[Sidenote: _Evenus the Parian._]
[Sidenote: The ironical question which Socrates put to Callias.]
As little foundation is there for the report that I am a
teacher, and take money; this accusation has no more truth
in it than the other. Although, if a man were really able to
instruct mankind, to receive money for giving instruction
would, in my opinion, be an honour to him. There is
Gorgias of Leontium, and Prodicus of Ceos, 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 20
they not only pay, but are thankful if they may be allowed to
pay them. There is at this time a Parian philosopher
residing in Athens, of whom I have heard; and I came to
hear of him in this way:—I came across a man who has
spent a world of money on the Sophists, Callias, the son of
Hipponicus, and knowing that he had sons, I asked him:
‘Callias,’ I said, ‘if your two sons were foals or calves,
there would be no difficulty in finding some one 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 any
one who understands human and political virtue? You must
have thought about the matter, for you have sons; is there
any one?’ ‘There is,’ he said. ‘Who is he?’ said I; ‘and
of what country? and what does he charge?’ ‘Evenus the
Parian,’ he replied; ‘he is the man, and his charge is five
minae.’ Happy is Evenus, I said to myself, if he really has
this wisdom, and teaches at such a moderate 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.
[Sidenote: _The God of Delphi._]
[Sidenote: The accusations against me have arisen out of a sort of wisdom
which I practise.]
[Sidenote: My practice of it arose out of a declaration of the Delphian
Oracle that I was the wisest of men.]
I dare say, Athenians, that some one among you will reply,
‘Yes, Socrates, but what is the origin of these accusations
which are brought against you; there must have been something
strange which you have been doing? All these rumours
and this talk about you would never have arisen if you had
been like other men: tell us, then, what is the cause of them,
for we should be sorry to judge hastily of you.’ Now I regard
this as a fair challenge, and I will endeavour to explain to you
the reason why I am called wise and have such an evil fame.
Please to attend then. And although some of you may think
that 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, wisdom such as may perhaps be attained 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; that witness shall be the God of Delphi—he
will tell you about my wisdom, if I have any, and of what
sort it is. You must have known Chaerephon; he was early
a friend of mine, and also a friend of yours, for he shared in 21
the recent exile of the people, and returned with you. Well,
Chaerephon, 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 any one
was wiser than I was, and the Pythian prophetess answered,
that there was no man wiser. Chaerephon is dead himself;
but his brother, who is in court, will confirm the truth of what
I am saying.
[Sidenote: I went about searching after a man who was wiser than myself:
at first among the politicians; then among the philosophers; and found
that I had an advantage over them, because I had no conceit of knowledge.]
Why do I mention this? Because I am 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 his riddle? for I know that I have
no wisdom, small or great. What then 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
long consideration, I 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
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 still wiser by himself; and thereupon I 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 seem to have slightly the advantage of him. Then I went
to another who had still higher pretensions to wisdom, and
my conclusion was exactly the same. Whereupon I made
another enemy of him, and of many others besides him.
[Sidenote: _Socrates goes on his way asking questions._]
[Sidenote: I found that the poets were the worst possible interpreters of
their own writings.]
Then 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, 22
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 others less
esteemed were really wiser and better. I will tell you the
tale of my wanderings and of the ‘Herculean’ labours, as I
may call them, which I endured only to find at last the oracle
irrefutable. After the politicians, I went to the poets; tragic,
dithyrambic, and all sorts. And there, I said to myself, you
will be instantly detected; now you will find out that you are
more ignorant than they are. 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 confess the truth, but I must say that there is
hardly a person present who would not have talked better
about their poetry than they did themselves. Then I knew
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. 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.
[Sidenote: _Why he was so greatly disliked:_]
[Sidenote: The artisans had some real knowledge, but they had also a
conceit that they knew things which were beyond them.]
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 here 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; and 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 to the
oracle that I was better off as I was.
[Sidenote: The oracle was intended to apply, not to Socrates, but to all
men who know that their wisdom is worth nothing.]
This inquisition has led to my having many enemies of
the worst and most dangerous kind, and has given occasion 23
also to many calumnies. 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 by his answer he
intends to show that the wisdom of men is worth little or
nothing; he is not speaking of Socrates, he is only using
my name by way of 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 about the world,
obedient to the god, and search and make enquiry into the
wisdom of any one, 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 my 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 I am in utter poverty by reason of my devotion to
the god.
[Sidenote: _Meletus, Anytus, and Lycon._]
[Sidenote: There are my imitators who go about detecting pretenders, and
the enmity which they arouse falls upon me.]
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 proceed to examine others; there are
plenty of persons, as they quickly discover, who think that
they know something, but really know 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
practise or teach? they do 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 pretence of knowledge has been detected—which is
the truth; and as they are numerous and ambitious and
energetic, and are drawn up in battle array and have persuasive
tongues, they have filled your ears with their loud
and inveterate calumnies. And this is the reason why my
three accusers, Meletus and Anytus and Lycon, have set
upon me; Meletus, who has a quarrel with me on behalf
of the poets; Anytus, on behalf of the craftsmen and politicians;
Lycon, on behalf of the rhetoricians: and as I said 24
at the beginning, I cannot expect to get rid of such a mass
of calumny all 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 my
plainness of speech makes them hate me, and what is their
hatred but a proof that I am speaking the truth?—Hence
has arisen the prejudice against me; and this is the reason
of it, as you will find out either in this or in any future
enquiry.
[Sidenote: The second class of accusers.]
I have said enough in my defence against the first class of
my accusers; I turn to the second class. They are headed
by Meletus, that good man and true lover of his country,
as he calls himself. Against these, too, I must try to make
a defence:—Let their affidavit be read: it contains something
of this kind: It says that Socrates is a doer of evil, who
corrupts the youth; and who does not believe in the gods of
the state, but has other new divinities of his own. Such is
the charge; and now let us examine the particular counts.
He says that I am a doer of evil, and corrupt the youth; but
I say, O men of Athens, that Meletus is a doer of evil, in
that he pretends to be in earnest when he is only in jest,
and is so eager to bring men to trial from a pretended zeal
and interest about matters in which he really never had the
smallest interest. And the truth of this I will endeavour to
prove to you.
Come hither, Meletus, and let me ask a question of you.
You think a great deal about the improvement of youth?
[Sidenote: _Meletus is cross-examined by Socrates._]
[Sidenote: All men are discovered to be improvers of youth with the
single exception of Socrates.]
Yes, I do.
Tell the judges, then, who is their improver; for you must
know, as you have taken the pains to discover their corrupter,
and are citing and accusing me before them. Speak, then,
and tell the judges who their improver is.—Observe, Meletus,
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, Meletus, 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 Herè, that is good news! There are
plenty of improvers, then. And what do you say of the
audience,—do they improve them? 25
Yes, they do.
And the senators?
Yes, the senators improve them.
But perhaps the members of the assembly corrupt them?—or
do they too improve them?
They improve them.
Then every Athenian improves and elevates them; all
with the exception of myself; and I alone am their corrupter?
Is that what you affirm?
That is what I stoutly affirm.
[Sidenote: But this rather unfortunate fact does not accord with the
analogy of the animals.]
I am very unfortunate if you are right. But suppose I ask
you a question: How about horses? Does one man do
them harm and all the world good? Is not the exact opposite
the truth? 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, Meletus, of horses, or of any other
animals? Most assuredly it is; whether you and Anytus
say yes or no. Happy indeed would be the condition of
youth if they had one corrupter only, and all the rest of
the world were their improvers. But you, Meletus, have
sufficiently shown that you never had a thought about the
young: your carelessness is seen in your not caring about
the very things which you bring against me.
[Sidenote: _Meletus is checkmated by Socrates._]
And now, Meletus, I will ask you another question—by
Zeus I will: Which is better, to live among bad citizens, or
among good ones? Answer, friend, I say; the question
is one which may be easily answered. Do not the good
do their neighbours good, and the bad do them evil?
Certainly.
And is there any one who would rather be injured than
benefited by those who live with him? Answer, my good
friend, the law requires you to answer—does any one like to
be injured?
Certainly not.
[Sidenote: When I do harm to my neighbour I must do harm to myself: and
therefore I cannot be supposed to injure them intentionally.]
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 neighbours
good, and the evil do them evil. 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—so you say, although
neither I nor any other human being is ever likely to be
convinced by you. But either I do not corrupt them, or 26
I corrupt them unintentionally; and on either view of the
case you lie. If my offence is unintentional, the law has no
cognizance of unintentional offences: 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; but you
would have nothing to say to me and refused to teach me.
And now you bring me up in this court, which is a place not
of instruction, but of punishment.
[Sidenote: _He neither knows nor cares about the interests of youth._]
It will be very clear to you, Athenians, as I was saying,
that Meletus has no care at all, great or small, about the
matter. But still I should like to know, Meletus, in what
I am affirmed to corrupt the young. 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 by which I corrupt the youth,
as you say.
Yes, that I say emphatically.
[Sidenote: Socrates is declared by Meletus to be an atheist and to
corrupt the religion of the young.]
Then, by the gods, Meletus, 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
other men to acknowledge some gods, and therefore that I do
believe in gods, and am not an entire atheist—this you do not
lay to my charge,—but only you say that they are not the
same gods which the city recognizes—the charge is that they
are different gods. Or, do you mean that I am an atheist
simply, and a teacher of atheism?