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The Apology Of Socrates Begins
The Apology Of Socrates Begins
How you have felt, O men of Athens, at hearing the speeches of my
accusers, I cannot tell; but I know that their persuasive words almost made me
forget who I was, such was the effect of them; and yet they have hardly spoken
a word of truth. But many as their falsehoods were, there was one of them
which quite amazed me: I mean when they told you to be upon your guard, and
not to let yourself be deceived by the force of my eloquence. They ought to
have been ashamed of saying this, because they were sure to be detected as
soon as I opened my lips and displayed my deficiency; they certainly did
appear to be most shameless in saying this, unless by the force of eloquence
they mean the force of truth: for then I do indeed admit that I am eloquent.
But in how different a way from theirs! Well, as I was saying, they have
hardly uttered a word, or not more than a word, of truth; but you shall hear
from me the whole truth: not, however, delivered after their manner, in a set
oration duly ornamented with words and phrases. No indeed! but I shall use the
words and arguments which occur to me at the moment; for I am certain that
this is right, and that 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
this of me. And I must beg of you to grant me one favor, which is this - if
you hear me using the same words in my defence which I have been in the habit
of using, and which most of you may have heard in the agora, and at the tables
of the money-changers, or anywhere else, I would ask you not to be surprised
at this, and not to interrupt me. For I am more than seventy years of age, and
this is the first time that I have ever appeared in a court of law, and I am
quite a stranger to the ways of the place; and therefore I would have you
regard me as if I were really a stranger, whom you would excuse if he spoke in
his native tongue, and after the fashion of his country: that I think is not
an unfair request. Never mind the manner, which may or may not be good; but
think only of the justice of my cause, and give heed to that: let the judge
decide justly and the speaker speak truly.
And first, I have to reply to the older charges and to my first accusers,
and then I will go to the later ones. For I have had many accusers, who
accused me of old, and their false charges have continued 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 these, 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. These are the accusers whom I dread; for they are the
circulators of this rumor, and their hearers are too apt to fancy that
speculators of this sort do not believe in the gods. And they are many, and
their charges against me are of ancient date, and they made them in days when
you were impressible - in childhood, or perhaps in youth - and the cause when
heard went by default, for there was none to answer. And, hardest of all,
their names I do not know and cannot tell; unless in the chance of a comic
poet. But the main body of these slanderers who from envy and malice have
wrought upon you - and there are some of them who are convinced themselves,
and impart their convictions to others - all these, I say, are most difficult
to deal with; for I cannot have them up here, and examine them, and therefore
I must simply fight with shadows in my own defence, and examine 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 will make my defence, and I will endeavor in the short time
which is allowed to do away with this evil opinion of me which you have held
for such a long time; and I hope I may succeed, if this be well for you and
me, and that my words may find favor with you. But I know that to accomplish
this is not easy - I quite see the nature of the task. Let the event be as God
wills: in obedience to the law I make my defence.
I will begin at the beginning, and ask what the accusation is which has
given rise to this slander of me, and which has encouraged Meletus to proceed
against me. What do the slanderers say? They shall be my prosecutors, and I
will sum up their words in an affidavit: "Socrates is an evildoer, 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." That is the nature of the accusation, and that is what
you have seen yourselves in the comedy of Aristophanes; who has introduced a
man whom he calls Socrates, going about and saying that he can walk in the
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 say anything
disparaging of anyone who is a student of natural philosophy. I should be very
sorry if Meletus could lay that to my charge. But the simple truth is, O
Athenians, that I have nothing to do with these studies. 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 neighbors whether any of you have
ever known me hold forth in few words or in many upon matters of this sort.
... You hear their answer. And from what they say of this you will be able to
judge of the truth of the rest.
As little foundation is there for the report that I am a teacher, and
take money; that is no more true than the other. Although, if a man is able to
teach, I honor him for being paid. 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 they not only pay, but are thankful
if they may be allowed to pay them. There is actually a Parian philosopher
residing in Athens, of whom I have heard; and I came to hear of him in this
way: I met 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 someone 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 anyone who understands human and political virtue? You
must have thought about this as you have sons; is there anyone?" "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 modest 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, O
Athenians.
I dare say that someone will ask the question, "Why is this, Socrates,
and what is the origin of these accusations of you: for there must have been
something strange which you have been doing? All this great fame and talk
about you would never have arisen if you had been like other men: tell us,
then, why this is, as we should be sorry to judge hastily of you." Now I
regard this as a fair challenge, and I will endeavor to explain to you the
origin of this name of "wise," and of this evil fame. Please to attend then.
And although some of you may think 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,
such wisdom as is attainable 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, and will tell you about
my wisdom - whether I have any, and of what sort - and that witness shall be
the god of Delphi. You must have known Chaerephon; he was early a friend of
mine, and also a friend of yours, for he shared in the 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 there was anyone 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 this story.
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 this riddle? for I know that I have no
wisdom, small or great. What 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 a long consideration, I at last 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 to
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 wiser still by himself; and I went and 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 philosophical pretensions, and my conclusion was exactly the same. I
made another enemy of him, and of many others besides him.
After this 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, 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 some inferior men
were really wiser and better. I will tell you the tale of my wanderings and of
the "Herculean" labors, as I may call them, which I endured only to find at
last the oracle irrefutable. When I left the politicians, I went to the poets;
tragic, dithyrambic, and all sorts. And there, I said to myself, you will be
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 speak of this,
but still I must say that there is hardly a person present who would not have
talked better about their poetry than they did themselves. That showed me in
an instant 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. And 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.
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 in
this 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 - 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 the oracle that I was better off as I was.
This investigation has led to my having many enemies of the worst and
most dangerous kind, and has given occasion 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 in this oracle he means to say that the wisdom of men is
little or nothing; he is not speaking of Socrates, he is only using my name as
an 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 my way, obedient
to the god, and make inquisition into the wisdom of anyone, 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 this 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.
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 examine others themselves;
there are plenty of persons, as they soon enough 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 all
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;
Lycon, on behalf of the rhetoricians: and as I said at the beginning, I cannot
expect to get rid of this 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 this plainness of speech makes them
hate me, and what is their hatred but a proof that I am speaking the truth? -
this is the occasion and reason of their slander of me, as you will find out
either in this or in any future inquiry.
I have said enough in my defence against the first class of my accusers;
I turn to the second class, who are headed by Meletus, that good and patriotic
man, as he calls himself. And now I will try to defend myself against them:
these new accusers must also have their affidavit read. What do they say?
Something of this sort: That Socrates is a doer of evil, and corrupter of the
youth, and he does not believe in the gods of the State, and has other new
divinities of his own. That is the sort of charge; and now let us examine the
particular counts. He says that I am a doer of evil, who corrupt the youth;
but I say, O men of Athens, that Meletus is a doer of evil, and the evil is
that he makes a joke of a serious matter, and is too ready at bringing other
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 endeavor
to prove.
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