Trial Of Socrates | Apology By Plato Audiobook

Apology Of Socrates By Plato audiobook with text and illustrations, and dramatized 🎵 with sound effects and music, by Audiobooks Dimension.

Title : Apology Of Socrates (Ἀπολογία Σωκράτους)
Author : Plato (Πλάτων)
Written : 399 BCE
Place of Origin : Ancient Greece
Original Media type : Papyrus
Original Language : Ancient Greek
Genre(s) : Ancient Greece, Dialogue, Philosophy
Translator : Benjamin Jowett
Narrators : David Rintoul, and Full Cast
Musician : Nature's Eye
Editor : Audiobooks Dimension

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Dramatized 🎵

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Socrates the son of Sophroniscus was born in 469 BCE. His father was a sculptor, and his mother Fainareti was a midwife. During his youth he was taught sculpture by his father, and he acquired great skill in this art. Pausanias the traveler saw in the Acropolis three statues, representing Charitas, which were considered works of Socrates. We know very little about his further education. It is only known that he benefited from the teaching of the sophist Prodicus and the musician Damonos; however, he was not friendly to the sophists, who at that time were making a lot of noise and showing off. So Socrates became what he became only through his own studies. He owes his personal value to himself alone, he being the founder of ancient philosophy. The ancients call him a student of Anaxagoras and the physicist Archelaus. But these proved unfounded. He himself did not seek or seek other means for his education, apart from those provided to him by his native city. Apart from one religious excursion and three military campaigns, in which he took part in fulfilling his duties towards his homeland, he never left Athens.

When exactly Socrates began his philosophical stage, devoting himself to the upbringing of the youth of his country, we do not know for sure; nor can we decide when exactly the oracle of the Delphic oracle, which called him "the wisest of all men," was first circulated. We can only roughly define this time, relying on the performance of Aristophanes' Nephelos, which took place in 423 BCE to satirize the actions of the Athenian sage.

In his conversations, Socrates almost always appears as the elder among his students. And his scientific method, which was not at all opposed to the arrogant way of teaching the sophists, was the unskilled dialogic, which was especially understandable to the people. Socrates usually started his dialectic teachings from the most recent incidents, often quite insignificant, and took the examples, the ones that were useful to him, and the proofs from common life. Contemporaries remembered him as always talking about animal trucks, blacksmiths, shoemakers and tanners. We always see him in the squares of Athens, in the gymnasiums and workshops, from morning till night, engaging in conversation with young and old and debating with them about the ultimate purpose and mission of man in the world, choosing them for the learning and exhorting them to leave apathy and laziness and to reach knowledge through attention and study. Socrates thus gives advice and admonitions to all human activity, whether to public life, or to the domestic economy, and to every achievement in general or science and art, after knowledge and specialty an admirer, as if he were a connoisseur and a master craftsman. And in all these debated topics he skilfully interjected thoughts, as he stimulated among his speakers the tendency towards true knowledge and ethics. Many times, however, his discussions and teachings were met with bitter derision and met with hatred and ingratitude. But firmly convinced that the fundamental improvement of society depends on the good upbringing of the young, Socrates remained faithful to the work he had chosen, and to which he had devoted himself, to the end of his life. you neglected the family life. Udamus seems to pay little attention to his wife and his children, and the infamous, even exaggeratedly represented by the ancients, wickedness of his wife Xanthippi, gives us reason to suppose that the Athenian sage was not at all content with noisy family happiness.

All authors portray Socrates in vivid colors as a practical and wise man. "He was so pious, says Xenophon about him, that he never did anything without the advice of the gods; so just, that he judged nothing, not even in the least; but he was such a master of himself, that he never preferred the pleasant to the good; so much prudent, so that he never erred in distinguishing good from evil; in a word, Socrates was the most beautiful and happiest man who could ever exist". But what gives his face special expressiveness is the harmonious mixture of all the natural perfections, which raise the wise Athenian to a wonderful height, above all human weakness. It is distinguished by the delicacy of its general formation and by its Attic culture. He appears equally valiant on the battlefield as at the banquets; he always keeps to himself, never loses consciousness, he always acts according to the fullness of freedom; Socrates is, after all, the most perfect model of those flourishing years of the Athenian democracy. He is meek and quiet, a type and model of genuine human virtues. A particular characteristic of this is the demon, because it attributes itself to itself. He believed i.e. that an inner divine voice predicted his happiness and unhappiness, the progress or failure of human actions and gave him the appropriate admonitions each time. This demon was subtle, deep, keen-hearing, as well as the urge of his soul, as he had considered the things of life with a clear and penetrating gaze and without wanting to foresee the good and purpose everywhere, even in the smallest of human life.

And because of the prototype of this spirit, Socrates soon became the subject of common discussions rather than the Athenians. He was also gifted with a very exceptional external shape. His square and prominent nose, his prominent eyes, his bald head and his fat belly gave his external form a resemblance to a satyr. And his performance was in great harmony with that immortal Socratic irony. He wears poor clothing, the same winter and summer; he walks barefoot; he assumes a strange position; he often stays motionless and lets his eyes wander wildly and wildly to various objects around. They always erase exactly the figure of Satyrus.

After almost thirty years of teaching, Socrates became a victim of aligning his actions with the harmful actions of the sophists. A hostile current was formed against him by those patriots, who thought that Socrates, through his teaching, became an obstacle to the restoration of the ancient morals and the ancient education of the citizens, for which they were working. The anxieties and anomalies of the Peloponnesian war had now passed, the violent despotism of the Thirty Tyrants had passed, and democracy had finally been restored in Athens. Socrates was then 70 years old, when as a young man the poet Melitos, the orator Lykon and the demagogue Anytos, people by all accounts unworthy of speech, but apparently without any personal affection against the old sage, invoked Socrates in court, accusing him of not recognizing the gods of the city, but of introducing a new deity, and of corrupting the young. Socrates was sentenced to death for these accusations. But before the execution of the death sentence, he was allowed to stay in prison for 30 days and to be chosen after his students; but despite being given an opportunity to be saved, Socrates rejected the proposal to escape, and drank the hemlock in the year 399 BCE.

Apart from the above reasons for the death of Socrates, of course there was another additional reason, politics. Socrates was not aristocratic, but he had a very strong character, not at all liking the whims of demagogues. He had never been involved in politics, only once taking up political service and immediately coming into conflict with the will of the people and the ruling power. He took the rhetorical step for the first time, only at his trial, to apologize. Socrates argued everywhere and always that only the educated and capable people have the right to govern the state, and he often referred to the advantages of the democratic state, especially the election of the lords by lot, absolutely preferable to the Spartan state, and finally close relations of this after the then leaders of the oligarchic party, Critios, Alcibiades and others, declared to a great extent the distrust of the democrats. If we do not take into account that two of his accusers were men of great influence on the democratic party, and that his judges were those who had overthrown the despotism of the Thirty Tyrants, we are persuaded that politics played a large part in the condemnation of Socrates , who, on the other hand, despises the usual means of defense, because he did not wish to move the sympathy of the people by tears and flattery, and because, knowing his innocence, he presented himself to the judges in contempt.

The charge against Socrates was a religious crime (blasphemous writing). And over these the archon Vasileus had jurisdiction - one of the 9 archons. — To him, then, the lawsuit against Socrates was delivered under Melitus; and on the appointed day, being summoned, Socrates presented himself before the archon Vasileos in the Basilian Stoan, where his judicial offices were.

There, before Melitus, he received knowledge of his accusation, the preliminary investigation was held, the witnesses were examined and the case was referred to the Iliaian, that multi-membered court of the ancients, for judgment. Socrates, although he foresaw the danger, paid no attention, firmly believing that he had never done any injustice to any human being. But his disciples were worried and afraid. And when Hermogenes, the son of Hipponicus, one of Socrates' disciples, urged him to think about his apology, Socrates replied that throughout his life he had been thinking about this alone and he no longer needed to think about it. more. Hermogenes did not understand the intelligent observation of his teacher, who was forced to explain it more clearly, saying that throughout his life he did nothing else but investigate the just and the unjust, and the just to do, and the unjust to dodger Likewise he rejected the technical apology which Lysias had drawn up for him, as unworthy of the majesty of his ideas, saying that he preferred to be condemned as Socrates or to be acquitted as Lysias.

Thus, after the trial, Socrates appears in court for the first time in his life and, convinced of the laws, apologizes. And his Apology was saved by the pre-eminent of his students, Plato.

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Of all writers of speculative philosophy, both ancient and modern, there is probably no one who has attained so eminent a position as Plato. What Homer was to Epic poetry, what Cicero and Demosthenes were to oratory, and what Shakespeare was to the drama of England, Plato was to ancient philosophy, not unapproachable nor unapproached, but possessing an inexplicable but unquestioned supremacy.

The authentic records of his life are meagre, and much that has been written concerning him is of a speculative nature. He was born at Athens in the year 427 B.C. His father's name was Ariston, and his mother's family, which claimed its descent from Solon, included among its members many Athenian notables, among whom was Oritias, one of the thirty tyrants.

In his early youth Plato applied himself to poetry and painting, both of which pursuits he relinquished to become the disciple and follower of Socrates. It is said that his name was originally Aristocles, but that it was changed to Plato on account of the breadth of his shoulders and forehead. He is also said to have been an expert wrestler and to have taken part in several important battles.

He was the devoted friend and pupil of Socrates, and during the imprisonment of his master he attended him constantly, and committed to writing his last discourses on the immortality of the soul.

After the death of Socrates it is supposed that Plato took refuge with Euclides in Megara, and subsequently extended his travels into Magna Graecia and Egypt.

Upon his return to Athens he taught those who came to him for instruction in the grove named Academus, near the Cephisus, and thus founded the first great philosophical school, over which he continued to preside until the day of his death. Above the entrance to this grove was inscribed the legend: "Let no one ignorant of geometry enter here." Here he was attended by persons of every description, among the more illustrious of whom were Aristotle, Lycurgus, Demosthenes and Isocrates.

There is a story to the effect that Plato three times visited Sicily, once upon the invitation of the elder Dionysius, and twice at the earnest solicitations of the younger. The former he is said to have so seriously offended as to cause the tyrant to have him seized on his return home and sold as a slave, from which state of bondage he was, however, released by Anicerius of Cyrene.

The people of his time thought more of him than they did of all their other philosophers, and called him the Divine Plato. So great was the regard and veneration for him that it was considered better to err with Plato than be right with any one else.

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The writings of Plato are numerous, and most of them are in the form of dialogues. The Apology is the only one of Plato's works, which does not take the form of a dialogue, but is a judicial speech, written for a specific case, the apology made by Socrates in court. Antiquity always accepts it as a genuine work of Plato. And we cannot say that Socrates literally apologized before the Heliastes, as Plato wrote the apology. But we should not at all doubt that Plato rendered in his Apology as faithfully as possible the speeches of Socrates, as this is clearly evident from the whole composition, which testifies to the speech from the preliminary recited, as well as from the apparent shortcomings of its logographics, in relation to to the rest of Plato's works of art, because the great author was forced not to deviate too far from Socrates' account of the events in the court, which were of course well-known at the time.

The Apology, according to the ancient critics, is indeed a rhetorical speech, but it does not belong, as one would expect, to the judicial genre of the art of rhetoric alone, but also partakes of the other two genres of the fine art, i.e. it contains a eulogy in favor of this Socrates, because it belongs to the demonstrative genre of rhetorical discourses, and the addition of advice and admonition to the Athenians, which is the subject of the advisory genre of rhetorical discourses. This is the originality of the Apology.

In what relation the “Apology” of Plato stands to the real defence of Socrates, there are no means of determining. It certainly agrees in tone and character with the description of Xenophon, who says in the “Memorabilia” that Socrates might have been acquitted “if in any moderate degree he would have conciliated the favour of the dicasts;” and who informs us in another passage, on the testimony of Hermogenes, the friend of Socrates, that he had no wish to live; and that the divine sign refused to allow him to prepare a defence, and also that Socrates himself declared this to be unnecessary, on the ground that all his life long he had been preparing against that hour. For the speech breathes throughout a spirit of defiance, “ut non supplex aut reus sed magister aut dominus videretur esse judicum”; and the loose and desultory style is an imitation of the “accustomed manner” in which Socrates spoke in “the agora and among the tables of the money-changers.” The allusion in the “Crito” may, perhaps, be adduced as a further evidence of the literal accuracy of some parts. But in the main it must be regarded as the ideal of Socrates, according to Plato’s conception of him, appearing in the greatest and most public scene of his life, and in the height of his triumph, when he is weakest, and yet his mastery over mankind is greatest, and his habitual irony acquires a new meaning and a sort of tragic pathos in the face of death. The facts of his life are summed up, and the features of his character are brought out as if by accident in the course of the defence. The conversational manner, the seeming want of arrangement, the ironical simplicity, are found to result in a perfect work of art, which is the portrait of Socrates.

Yet some of the topics may have been actually used by Socrates; and the recollection of his very words may have rung in the ears of his disciple. The “Apology” of Plato may be compared generally with those speeches of Thucydides in which he has embodied his conception of the lofty character and policy of the great Pericles, and which at the same time furnish a commentary on the situation of affairs from the point of view of the historian. So in the “Apology” there is an ideal rather than a literal truth; much is said which was not said, and is only Plato’s view of the situation. Plato was not, like Xenophon, a chronicler of facts; he does not appear in any of his writings to have aimed at literal accuracy. He is not therefore to be supplemented from the Memorabilia and Symposium of Xenophon, who belongs to an entirely different class of writers. The Apology of Plato is not the report of what Socrates said, but an elaborate composition, quite as much so in fact as one of the Dialogues. And we may perhaps even indulge in the fancy that the actual defence of Socrates was as much greater than the Platonic defence as the master was greater than the disciple. But in any case, some of the words used by him must have been remembered, and some of the facts recorded must have actually occurred. It is significant that Plato is said to have been present at the defence, as he is also said to have been absent at the last scene in the “Phædo”. Is it fanciful to suppose that he meant to give the stamp of authenticity to the one and not to the other?—especially when we consider that these two passages are the only ones in which Plato makes mention of himself. The circumstance that Plato was to be one of his sureties for the payment of the fine which he proposed has the appearance of truth. More suspicious is the statement that Socrates received the first impulse to his favourite calling of cross-examining the world from the Oracle of Delphi; for he must already have been famous before Chaerephon went to consult the Oracle (Riddell), and the story is of a kind which is very likely to have been invented. On the whole we arrive at the conclusion that the “Apology” is true to the character of Socrates, but we cannot show that any single sentence in it was actually spoken by him. It breathes the spirit of Socrates, but has been cast anew in the mould of Plato.

There is not much in the other Dialogues which can be compared with the “Apology”. The same recollection of his master may have been present to the mind of Plato when depicting the sufferings of the Just in the “Republic”. The “Crito” may also be regarded as a sort of appendage to the “Apology”, in which Socrates, who has defied the judges, is nevertheless represented as scrupulously obedient to the laws. The idealization of the sufferer is carried still further in the “Georgias”, in which the thesis is maintained, that “to suffer is better than to do evil;” and the art of rhetoric is described as only useful for the purpose of self-accusation. The parallelisms which occur in the so-called “Apology” of Xenophon are not worth noticing, because the writing in which they are contained is manifestly spurious. The statements of the “Memorabilia” respecting the trial and death of Socrates agree generally with Plato; but they have lost the flavour of Socratic irony in the narrative of Xenophon.

Plato is said to have had two objects in writing the Apology dialogue: First, to acquit Socrates of the charge of corrupting the Athenian youth; and, second, to establish the fact that it is necessary under all circumstances to submit to the established laws of his country.

“Few persons will be found to wish that Socrates should have defended himself otherwise,”—if, as we must add, his defence was that with which Plato has provided him. But leaving this question, which does not admit of a precise solution, we may go on to ask what was the impression which Plato in the “Apology” intended to give of the character and conduct of his master in the last great scene? Did he intend to represent him
(1) as employing sophistries;
(2) as designedly irritating the judges?
Or are these sophistries to be regarded as belonging to the age in which he lived and to his personal character, and this apparent haughtiness as flowing from the natural elevation of his position?

For example, when he says that it is absurd to suppose that one man is the corrupter and all the rest of the world the improvers of the youth; or, when he argues that he never could have corrupted the men with whom he had to live; or, when he proves his belief in the gods because he believes in the sons of gods, is he serious or jesting? It may be observed that these sophisms all occur in his cross-examination of Meletus, who is easily foiled and mastered in the hands of the great dialectician. Perhaps he regarded these answers as good enough for his accuser, of whom he makes very light. Also there is a touch of irony in them, which takes them out of the category of sophistry. (Compare Euthyphro)

That the manner in which he defends himself about the lives of his disciples is not satisfactory, can hardly be denied. Fresh in the memory of the Athenians, and detestable as they deserved to be to the newly restored democracy, were the names of Alcibiades, Critias, Charmides. It is obviously not a sufficient answer that Socrates had never professed to teach them anything, and is therefore not justly chargeable with their crimes. Yet the defence, when taken out of this ironical form, is doubtless sound: that his teaching had nothing to do with their evil lives. Here, then, the sophistry is rather in form than in substance, though we might desire that to such a serious charge Socrates had given a more serious answer.

Truly characteristic of Socrates is another point in his answer, which may also be regarded as sophistical. He says that “if he has corrupted the youth, he must have corrupted them involuntarily.” But if, as Socrates argues, all evil is involuntary, then all criminals ought to be admonished and not punished. In these words the Socratic doctrine of the involuntariness of evil is clearly intended to be conveyed. Here again, as in the former instance, the defence of Socrates is untrue practically, but may be true in some ideal or transcendental sense. The commonplace reply, that if he had been guilty of corrupting the youth their relations would surely have witnessed against him, with which he concludes this part of his defence, is more satisfactory.

Again, when Socrates argues that he must believe in the gods because he believes in the sons of gods, we must remember that this is a refutation not of the original indictment, which is consistent enough—“Socrates does not receive the gods whom the city receives, and has other new divinities”—but of the interpretation put upon the words by Meletus, who has affirmed that he is a downright atheist. To this Socrates fairly answers, in accordance with the ideas of the time, that a downright atheist cannot believe in the sons of gods or in divine things. The notion that demons or lesser divinities are the sons of gods is not to be regarded as ironical or sceptical. He is arguing “ad hominem” according to the notions of mythology current in his age. Yet he abstains from saying that he believed in the gods whom the State approved. He does not defend himself, as Xenophon has defended him, by appealing to his practice of religion. Probably he neither wholly believed, nor disbelieved, in the existence of the popular gods; he had no means of knowing about them. According to Plato (compare Phaedo; Symposium), as well as Xenophon (Memorabilia), he was punctual in the performance of the least religious duties; and he must have believed in his own oracular sign, of which he seemed to have an internal witness. But the existence of Apollo or Zeus, or the other gods whom the State approves, would have appeared to him both uncertain and unimportant in comparison of the duty of self-examination, and of those principles of truth and right which he deemed to be the foundation of religion. (Compare Phaedrus; Euthyphro; Republic.)

The second question, whether Plato meant to represent Socrates as braving or irritating his judges, must also be answered in the negative. His irony, his superiority, his audacity, “regarding not the person of man,” necessarily flow out of the loftiness of his situation. He is not acting a part upon a great occasion, but he is what he has been all his life long, “a king of men.” He would rather not appear insolent, if he could avoid it (ouch os authadizomenos touto lego). Neither is he desirous of hastening his own end, for life and death are simply indifferent to him. But such a defence as would be acceptable to his judges and might procure an acquittal, it is not in his nature to make. He will not say or do anything that might pervert the course of justice; he cannot have his tongue bound even “in the throat of death.” With his accusers he will only fence and play, as he had fenced with other “improvers of youth,” answering the Sophist according to his sophistry all his life long. He is serious when he is speaking of his own mission, which seems to distinguish him from all other reformers of mankind, and originates in an accident. The dedication of himself to the improvement of his fellow-citizens is not so remarkable as the ironical spirit in which he goes about doing good only in vindication of the credit of the oracle, and in the vain hope of finding a wiser man than himself. Yet this singular and almost accidental character of his mission agrees with the divine sign which, according to our notions, is equally accidental and irrational, and is nevertheless accepted by him as the guiding principle of his life. Socrates is nowhere represented to us as a freethinker or sceptic. There is no reason to doubt his sincerity when he speculates on the possibility of seeing and knowing the heroes of the Trojan war in another world. On the other hand, his hope of immortality is uncertain;—he also conceives of death as a long sleep (in this respect differing from the Phaedo), and at last falls back on resignation to the divine will, and the certainty that no evil can happen to the good man either in life or death. His absolute truthfulness seems to hinder him from asserting positively more than this; and he makes no attempt to veil his ignorance in mythology and figures of speech. The gentleness of the first part of the speech contrasts with the aggravated, almost threatening, tone of the conclusion. He characteristically remarks that he will not speak as a rhetorician, that is to say, he will not make a regular defence such as Lysias or one of the orators might have composed for him, or, according to some accounts, did compose for him. But he first procures himself a hearing by conciliatory words. He does not attack the Sophists; for they were open to the same charges as himself; they were equally ridiculed by the Comic poets, and almost equally hateful to Anytus and Meletus. Yet incidentally the antagonism between Socrates and the Sophists is allowed to appear. He is poor and they are rich; his profession that he teaches nothing is opposed to their readiness to teach all things; his talking in the marketplace to their private instructions; his tarry-at-home life to their wandering from city to city. The tone which he assumes towards them is one of real friendliness, but also of concealed irony. Towards Anaxagoras, who had disappointed him in his hopes of learning about mind and nature, he shows a less kindly feeling, which is also the feeling of Plato in other passages (Laws). But Anaxagoras had been dead thirty years, and was beyond the reach of persecution.

It has been remarked that the prophecy of a new generation of teachers who would rebuke and exhort the Athenian people in harsher and more violent terms was, as far as we know, never fulfilled. No inference can be drawn from this circumstance as to the probability of the words attributed to him having been actually uttered. They express the aspiration of the first martyr of philosophy, that he would leave behind him many followers, accompanied by the not unnatural feeling that they would be fiercer and more inconsiderate in their words when emancipated from his control.

The above remarks must be understood as applying with any degree of certainty to the Platonic Socrates only. For, although these or similar words may have been spoken by Socrates himself, we cannot exclude the possibility, that like so much else, e.g. the wisdom of Critias, the poem of Solon, the virtues of Charmides, they may have been due only to the imagination of Plato. The arguments of those who maintain that the Apology was composed during the process, resting on no evidence, do not require a serious refutation. Nor are the reasonings of Schleiermacher, who argues that the Platonic defence is an exact or nearly exact reproduction of the words of Socrates, partly because Plato would not have been guilty of the impiety of altering them, and also because many points of the defence might have been improved and strengthened, at all more conclusive. What effect the death of Socrates produced on the mind of Plato, we cannot certainly determine; nor can we say how he would or must have written under the circumstances. We observe that the enmity of Aristophanes to Socrates does not prevent Plato from introducing them together in the Symposium engaged in friendly intercourse. Nor is there any trace in the Dialogues of an attempt to make Anytus or Meletus personally odious in the eyes of the Athenian public.

The Apology (Ἀπολογία) presents the trial of Socrates (Σωκράτους) against the charge of impiety and corruption of the youths of Athens. This is his defence and his final statement to his accusers. It took place in 399 BCE, and it is said that Plato was there. Nevertheless, Benjamin Jowett, Master of Balliol College, Oxford, and translator, comment that was "Some passages may reflect the actual words of Socrates. The Apology is an ideal rather than a literal truth." Jowett writes "It is an elaborate conposition, quite as much so in fact as one of the Dialogues. It is true to the character of Socrates, it breathes the spirit of Socrates, but has been cast anew in the mould of Plato."

Plato's Apology is generally regarded as the most reliable source of information about Socrates's trail. Except for two brief exchanges with Meletus (Μέλητος), where the monologue becomes a dialogue, the text is written in the first person from Socrates's point of view, as though it were his actual speech at the trial. During the course of the speech, Socrates twice mentions Plato as being present. Socrates' speech proves how he was a master orator, who is eloquent, persuasive and wise.

Film adaptation :
Socrates (1971)

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Persons of the dialogue :

Meletus (Μέλητος) : a citizen of Athens in the Classical Era, came from the Pithus deme and has become known for his prosecuting role in the trial - and eventual execution - of the philosopher Socrates in 399 BCE.
Socrates (Σωκράτης) : a Greek philosopher from Athens who is credited as the founder of Western philosophy and among the first moral philosophers of the ethical tradition of thought. An enigmatic figure, Socrates authored no texts and is known mainly through the posthumous accounts of classical writers, particularly his students Plato and Xenophon. These accounts are written as dialogues, in which Socrates and his interlocutors examine a subject in the style of question and answer; they gave rise to the Socratic dialogue literary genre.

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Persons mentioned in Apology of Socrates :

Achilles (Ἀχιλλεύς) [or Achilleus] : a hero of the Trojan War who was known as being the greatest of all the Greek warriors. A central character in Homer's Iliad, he was the son of the Nereid Thetis and Peleus, king of Phthia and famous Argonaut. Achilles was raised in Phthia along with his childhood companion Patroclus and received his education by the centaur Chiron. In the Iliad, he is presented as the commander of the mythical tribe of the Myrmidons.
Adeimantus (Ἀδείμαντος) [c. 442 BCE – 382 BCE] : son of Ariston of Athens, was an ancient Athenian Greek best known as Plato's brother. He plays an important part in Plato's Republic and is mentioned in the Apology and Parmenides dialogues.
Aeantodorus : a brother of Apollodorus.
Aeschines (Αἰσχίνης) [c. 425 BCE – c. 350 BCE] : a philosopher who in his youth was a follower of Socrates. Historians call him Aeschines Socraticus—"the Socratic Aeschines"—to distinguish him from the more historically influential Athenian orator also named Aeschines. He was a son of Lysanias, of the deme Sphettus of Athens.
Ajax (Αἴας) : a Greek mythological hero, the son of King Telamon and Periboea, and the half-brother of Teucer. He plays an important role in the Trojan War, and is portrayed as a towering figure and a warrior of great courage in Homer's Iliad and in the Epic Cycle, a series of epic poems about the Trojan War, being second only to Achilles among Greek heroes of the war.
Anaxagoras (Ἀναξαγόρας) [c. 500 – c. 428 BCE] : a pre-Socratic Greek philosopher. Born in Clazomenae at a time when Asia Minor was under the control of the Persian Empire, Anaxagoras came to Athens. In later life he was charged with impiety and went into exile in Lampsacus.
Antiphon : a father of Epigenes.
Anytus (Ἄνυτος) [probably before 451 – after 388 BCE] : son of Anthemion of the deme Euonymon, was a politician in Classical Athens. Anytus served as a general in the Peloponnesian War of 431 to 404 BCE, and later became a leading supporter of the democratic forces opposed to the Thirty Tyrants who ruled Athens from 404 to 403 BCE. He is best remembered as one of the prosecutors of the philosopher Socrates in 399 BCE.
Apollodorus : a brother of Aeantodorus.
Ariston : a father of Plato and Adeimantus.
Aristophanes (Ἀριστοφάνης) : a comic playwright or comedy-writer of ancient Athens and a poet of Old Attic Comedy. He was known as "The Father of Comedy" and "the Prince of Ancient Comedy", Aristophanes has been said to recreate the life of ancient Athens more convincingly than any other author.
Callias (Kαλλίας) [or Callias III] : an ancient Athenian aristocrat and political figure. He was the son of Hipponicus and an unnamed woman. He was regarded as infamous for his extravagance and profligacy.
Chaerephon (Χαιρεφῶν) : an ancient Greek best remembered as a loyal friend and follower of Socrates. He is known only through brief descriptions by classical writers and was "an unusual man by all accounts", though a man of loyal democratic values.
Crito (Κρίτων) [c. 469 – 4th century BCE] : an ancient Athenian agriculturist depicted in the Socratic literature of Plato and Xenophon, where he appears as a faithful and lifelong companion of the philosopher Socrates.
Critobulus (Κριτόβουλος) : an eldest son of Crito.
Demodocus : a father of Paralus and Theages.
Epigenes : a son of Antiphon, of the deme of Cephisia, is mentioned by Plato among the disciples of Socrates, who were with him in his last moments.
Euripides (Εὐριπίδῃ) : a tragedian of classical Athens. Along with Aeschylus and Sophocles.
Evenus (Εὔηνος) [or Euenus] : a 5th-century BCE poet who was roughly contemporary with Socrates.
Gorgias (Γοργίας) : an ancient Greek sophist, pre-Socratic philosopher, and rhetorician who was a native of Leontinoi in Sicily. Along with Protagoras, he forms the first generation of Sophists. He was an itinerant that practiced in various cities and giving public exhibitions of his skill at the great pan-Hellenic centers of Olympia and Delphi, and charged fees for his instruction and performances.
Hector (Ἕκτωρ) : a Trojan prince, he was a hero and the greatest warrior for Troy during the Trojan War. He is a major character in Homer's Iliad, where he leads the Trojans and their allies in the defense of Troy, killing countless Greek warriors and the occasional Hero. However he is ultimately killed in single combat by the Greek Hero Achilles, who later drags his dead body around the city of Troy behind his chariot.
Hesiod (Ἡσίοδος) : an ancient Greek poet generally thought to have been active between 750 and 650 BCE, around the same time as Homer. He is generally regarded by Western authors as 'the first written poet in the Western tradition to regard himself as an individual persona with an active role to play in his subject.' Ancient authors credited Hesiod and Homer with establishing Greek religious customs. Modern scholars refer to him as a major source on Greek mythology, farming techniques, early economic thought, Archaic Greek astronomy and ancient time-keeping.
Hippias (Ἱππίας) : a Greek sophist, and a contemporary of Socrates. With an assurance characteristic of the later sophists, he claimed to be regarded as an authority on all subjects, and lectured on poetry, grammar, history, politics, mathematics, and much else. Most current knowledge of him is derived from Plato, who characterizes him as vain and arrogant.
Hipponicus (Ἱππόνικος) [c. 485 BCE – 422/1 BCE] : an Athenian military commander. He was the son of Callias II of the deme Alopece and Elpinice of Laciadae (sister of Cimon). He was known as the "richest man in Greece".
Homer (Ὅμηρος) [born c. 8th century BCE] : a Greek poet who is credited as the author of the Iliad and the Odyssey, two epic poems that are foundational works of ancient Greek literature. Homer is considered one of the most revered and influential authors in history.
Leon (Λέων) : a historical figure, maybe the renowned Athenian general Leon of the Peloponnesian War.
Lycon : the third accuser of Socrates. He is described as "an orator," another profession Socrates held in especially low regard. Socrates contended that orators were less concerned with the pursuit of truth than in using their oratorical skills to obtain power and influence.
Lysanias : a father of Aeschines of Sphettus.
Musaeus (Μουσαῖος) : a legendary polymath, philosopher, historian, prophet, seer, priest, poet, and musician, said to have been the founder of priestly poetry in Attica. He composed dedicatory and purificatory hymns and prose treatises, and oracular responses.
Nicostratus : a son of Theosdotides, and the brother of Theodotus.
Odysseus (Ὀδυσσεύς) : a legendary Greek king of Ithaca and the hero of Homer's epic poem the Odyssey. Odysseus also plays a key role in Homer's Iliad and other works in that same epic cycle.
Orpheus (Ὀρφεύς) : a Thracian bard, legendary musician and prophet. He was also a renowned poet and, according to the legend, travelled with Jason and the Argonauts in search of the Golden Fleece, and even descended into the underworld of Hades, to recover his lost wife Eurydice.
Palamedes (Παλαμήδης) : an Euboean prince, son of King Nauplius in Greek mythology. He joined the rest of the Greeks in the expedition against Troy. He was associated with the invention of dice, numbers, and letters.
Paralus : a son of Demodocus, who had a brother Theages.
Patroclus (Πάτροκλος) : a hero of the Trojan War and an important character in Homer's Iliad. He is widely known for being the childhood friend and close wartime companion of the hero Achilles. When the tide of the war turned against the Achaeans, Patroclus, disguised as Achilles and defying his orders to retreat in time, led the Myrmidons in battle against the Trojans and was eventually killed by the Trojan prince, Hector. Enraged by Patroclus' death, Achilles ended his refusal to fight, resulting in significant Greek victories.
Plato (Πλάτων) [c. 427 – 348 BCE] : an ancient Greek philosopher of the Classical period who is considered a foundational thinker in Western philosophy and an innovator of the written dialogue and dialectic forms. He raised problems for what became all the major areas of both theoretical philosophy and practical philosophy, and was the founder of the Platonic Academy, a philosophical school in Athens where Plato taught the doctrines that would later become known as Platonism.
Prodicus (Πρόδικος) [c. 465 BCE – c. 395 BCE] : a Greek philosopher, and part of the first generation of Sophists. He came to Athens as ambassador from Ceos, and became known as a speaker and a teacher.
Sisyphus (Σίσυφος) [or Sisyphos] : the founder and king of Ephyra (now known as Corinth). He was a devious tyrant who killed visitors to show off his power. This violation of the sacred hospitality tradition greatly angered the gods. They punished him for trickery of others, including his cheating death twice. The gods forced him to roll an immense boulder up a hill only for it to roll back down every time it neared the top, repeating this action for eternity.
Telamon (Τελαμών) : the son of King Aeacus of Aegina, and Endeïs, a mountain nymph. The elder brother of Peleus, Telamon sailed alongside Jason as one of his Argonauts, and was present at the hunt for the Calydonian Boar. In the Iliad, he was the father of Greek heroes Ajax the Great and Teucer by different mothers. Some accounts mention a third son of his, Trambelus. He and Peleus were also close friends of Heracles, assisting him on his expeditions against the Amazons and his assault on Troy.
Theages : a son of Demodocus, brother of Paralus.
Theodotus : a son of Theosdotides, and the brother of Nicostratus.
Theosdotides : a father of Nicostratus and Theodotus.
Triptolemus (Τριπτόλεμος) : a hero in Greek mythology, central to the Eleusinian Mysteries. He was a mortal prince and the eldest son of King Celeus of Eleusis. He was the ancestor to a royal priestly caste of the Eleusinian Mysteries, who claimed to be Buzygae (Βουζύγαι), that taught agriculture and performed secret rites and rituals, of which Pericles was its most famous descendant.

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Dieties mentioned in Apology of Socrates :

Aeacus (Αἰακός) [or Eacus] : a mythological king of the island of Aegina in the Saronic Gulf. He was a son of Zeus and the nymph Aegina, and the father of the heroes Peleus and Telamon. According to legend, he was famous for his justice, and after he died he became one of the three judges in Hades alongside Minos and Rhadamanthos. In another story, he assisted Poseidon and Apollo in building the walls of Troy.
Here (Ἥρη) [or Hera] : the goddess of marriage, women, and family, and the protector of women during childbirth. In Greek mythology, she is queen of the twelve Olympians and Mount Olympus, sister and wife of Zeus, and daughter of the Titans Cronus and Rhea. One of her defining characteristics in myth is her jealous and vengeful nature in dealing with any who offended her, especially Zeus's numerous adulterous lovers and illegitimate offspring.
Minos (Μίνως) : a King of Crete, son of Zeus and Europa. Every nine years, he made King Aegeus pick seven young boys and seven young girls to be sent to Daedalus's creation, the labyrinth, to be eaten by the Minotaur. After his death, King Minos became a judge of the dead in the underworld.
Rhadamanthus (Ῥαδάμανθυς) [or Rhadamanthys] : a wise king of Crete, the son of Zeus and Europa and brother to Sarpedon and Minos. He later became one of the judges of the dead and an important figure in Greek mythology.
Thetis (Θέτις) : a figure from Greek mythology with varying mythological roles. She mainly appears as a sea nymph, a goddess of water, and one of the 50 Nereids, daughters of the ancient sea god Nereus.
Zeus (Ζεύς) : the sky and thunder god in ancient Greek religion and mythology, who rules as king of the gods on Mount Olympus.

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Places mentioned in Apology of Socrates :

Amphipolis (Ἀμφίπολις) : a colony of ancient Athenians and was the site of the battle between the Spartans and Athenians in 422 BCE. It was later the place where Alexander the Great prepared for campaigns leading to his invasion of Asia in 335 BCE.
Arginusae (Ἀργινοῦσαι) : three islands off the Dikili Peninsula on the coast of modern-day Turkey, famous as the site of the Battle of Arginusae during the Peloponnesian War.
Athens (Αθήνα) : one of the world's oldest cities, with its recorded history spanning over 3,400 years, and its earliest human presence beginning somewhere between the 11th and 7th millennia BC. According to Greek mythology the city was named after Athena, the ancient Greek goddess of wisdom, but modern scholars generally agree that goddess took her name after the city. Classical Athens was one of the most powerful city-states in ancient Greece. It was a centre for democracy, the arts, education and philosophy, and was highly influential throughout the European continent, particularly in Ancient Rome. For this reason, it is often regarded as the cradle of Western civilization and the birthplace of democracy in its own right independently from the rest of Greece.
Ceos (Κεῖος) [or Kea, Keos, Tzia] : a Greek island in the Cyclades archipelago in the Aegean Sea.
Delium (Δήλιον) : a small town in ancient Boeotia with a celebrated temple of Apollo. It was located upon the sea-coast in the territory of Tanagra in Boeotia. In the Battle of Delium, the Athenians suffered a signal defeat at the hands of the Boeotians in the eighth year of the Peloponnesian War, in 424 BCE. This battle took place over several days. Hippocrates, the Athenian commander, had seized the temple at Delium, which he converted into a fortress by erecting some temporary works. Leaving a garrison there, he was on his march homewards and had already reached the territory of Oropus, 10 stadia distant from Delium, when he encountered the Boeotian army advancing to cut off his retreat. The Athenians numbered 15,000, while the Boeotians mustered 18,500. The Athenians were defeated in the ensuing battle, losing 1,200, including Hippocrates, while the Boeotians lost only 500. Socrates fought at this battle among the hoplites, and, according to one account, saved the life of Xenophon, while, according to another, his own retreat was protected by Alcibiades, who was serving in the cavalry. On the seventeenth day after the battle, the Boeotians retook the temple. The war was won in 404 BCE, with financial help from the Persians.
Delphi (Δελφοί) [or Pytho, Πυθώ] : an ancient sacred precinct and the seat of Pythia, the major oracle who was consulted about important decisions throughout the ancient classical world. The ancient Greeks considered the centre of the world to be in Delphi, marked by the stone monument known as the Omphalos of Delphi.
Elis (Ἦλις) : the capital city of the ancient polis (city-state) of Elis, in ancient Greece. It was situated in the northwest of the Peloponnese, to the west of Arcadia.
Leontium (Λεοντῖνοι) [or Lentini, Liuntini] : a town and comune in the Province of Syracuse, southeastern Sicily (Southern Italy). The city was founded by colonists from Naxos as Leontini in 729 BCE, which in its beginnings was a Chalcidian colony established five years earlier in Magna Graecia.
Olympia (Ὀλυμπία) : a small town in Elis on the Peloponnese peninsula in Greece. This site was a major Panhellenic religious sanctuary of ancient Greece, where the ancient Olympic Games were held every four years throughout Classical antiquity, from the 8th century BCE to the 4th century AD. They were restored on a global basis in 1894 in honor of the ideal of peaceful international contention for excellence.
Potidaea (Ποτίδαια) : a colony founded by the Corinthians around 600 BCE in the narrowest point of the peninsula of Pallene, the westernmost of three peninsulas at the southern end of Chalcidice in northern Greece.
Prytaneum (Πρυτανεῖον) : a seat of the prytaneis (executive), and so the seat of government in ancient Greece. The term is used to describe any of a range of ancient structures where officials met (normally relating to the government of a city), but the term is also used to refer to the building where the officials and winners of the Olympic Games met at Olympia. The prytaneion normally stood in the centre of the city, in the agora. In general in ancient Greece, each state, city or village possessed its own central hearth and sacred fire, the prytaneion, representing the unity and vitality of the community. The fire was kept alight continuously, tended by the king or members of his family. The building in which this fire was kept was the prytaneion, and the chieftain (the king or prytanis) probably made it his residence. The building contained the holy fire of Hestia, the goddess of the hearth, and symbol of the life of the city.
Salamis (Σαλαμίς) : an ancient Greek city-state on the east coast of Cyprus, at the mouth of the river Pedieos.
Sphettus (Σφηττός) [or Sphettos] : one of the twelve cities of ancient Attica, and subsequently a deme.
Troy (Ίλιον) [or Ilion] : an ancient city first settled around 3600 BCE and grew into a small fortified city around 3000 BCE. During its four thousand years of existence, Troy was repeatedly destroyed and rebuilt.

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Terms mentioned in Apology of Socrates :

Antiochis : one of the ten tribes into which the Ancient Athenians were divided.
Clazomenian : relating to Clazomenae/Klazomenai, one of the 12 ancient anatolian ion city at the south coast of symrna gulf Ionia and a member of the Ionian League. It was one of the first cities to issue silver coinage.
Drachma (δραχμή) [or drachmae, drachmas] : an ancient currency unit issued by many city-states during a period of ten centuries, from the Archaic period throughout the Classical period, the Hellenistic period up to the Roman period. The ancient drachma originated in the Greece around the 6th century BCE. The coin, usually made of silver or sometimes gold had its origins in a bartering system that referred to a drachma as a handful of wooden spits or arrows. The drachma was unique to each city state that minted them, and were sometimes circulated all over the Mediterranean. The coinage of Athens was considered to be the strongest and became the most popular.
Minæ (μνᾶ) [or Mina] : an ancient Near Eastern unit of weight for silver or gold, eventually also became a unit of currency. Different city states used minae of different weights. In ancient Greece, it originally equalled 70 drachmae but later, at the time of the statesman Solon (c. 594 BCE), was increased to 100 drachmae. In those day, the price of a sheep was one drachma or a medimnos (about 40 kg) of wheat. Thus a mina was worth 100 sheep.
Parian : pertaining to Paros (Πάρος), the Greek island in the central Aegean Sea. Part of the Cyclades island group, it lies to the west of Naxos.
Prytanes (πρυτάνεις) [or Prytaneis] : the executives of the boule of ancient Athens.
Pythian : relating to or characteristic of Pythia, the priestess of Apollo at Delphi in ancient Greece.
Salaminian : pertaining to Salamis (Σαλαμίς), an ancient Greek city-state on the east coast of Cyprus, at the mouth of the river Pedieos.
Sophist (σοφιστής) : a teacher in ancient Greece in the fifth and fourth centuries BCE. Sophists specialized in one or more subject areas, such as philosophy, rhetoric, music, athletics and mathematics. They taught arete, "virtue" or "excellence", predominantly to young statesmen and nobility.
The Eleven : a board of magistrates, selected by lot, to oversee the people in the prison, and to punish with death people arrested as thieves and kidnappers and footpads that confess their guilt, but if they deny the charge to bring them before the lawcourt, and if they are acquitted discharge them, but if not, then execute them; and the bring before the lawcourt lists of property to be declared as public property and to hand over to the vendors those that it is decided to confiscate; and to bring in information, for these too are brough in by the Eleven, though the legislators also bring in some information.
The Thirty Tyrants (οἱ τριάκοντα τύραννοι) : an oligarchy that briefly ruled Athens from 405 BCE - 404 BCE. Installed into power by the Spartans after the Athenian surrender in the Peloponnesian War, the Thirty became known for their tyrannical rule, first being called "The Thirty Tyrants" by Polycrates. Although they maintained power for only eight months, their reign resulted in the killing of 5% of the Athenian population, the confiscation of citizens' property and the exile of other democratic supporters.
Trojan : pertaining to Troy.

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