At the elderly age of seventy, Socrates found himself fighting against anindictment of impiety. He was unsuccessful at trial in the year 399 B. C.
Thecharges were corrupting the youth of Athens, not believing in the traditionalgods in whom the city believed, and finally, that he believed in other newdivinities. In Platos Apology, Socrates defends himself against thesecharges. He claims that the jurors opinions are biased because they hadprobably all seen Aristophanes comedy The Clouds. The Socrates portrayed inAristophanes Clouds is an altogether different character than that of theApology.
The two different impressions of Socrates lead to quite oppositeopinions with regard to his guilt. In The Clouds, Socrates actions provideevidence of his guilt on all three charges. However, in the Apology, Socrates isfairly convincing in defending his innocence on the first two charges, but fallsshort on the third charge. Socrates, in The Clouds, is portrayed as an idiot whothinks hes walking on air and is interested primarily in gnats rumps. Heis delineated as a natural philosopher/sophist. He is hired to teachPheidippides to make the “worse argument”, the argument that is reallyincorrect and unjust the “better”to his fathers creditors so thatStrepsiades, Pheidippides father, will not have to pay his debts.
While thisin itself is corrupt, it was that he changed Pheidippides from the time heentered Socrates “Thinkery” into a corrupt scoundrel, completely devoidof morality that was even more deplorable. At the beginning, Pheidippides is arespectful son who loves his father, but after “graduating” from theThinkery he is beating his father with a stick (lines 1321-1333). Socrates wasso successful in corrupting Pheidippides that he even attempts to justify hisbehavior using rhetorical techniques learned from Socrates. In response to hisfather questioning his actions he claims “Yes by God; whats more, Illprove its right to do so. . .
with unbeatable arguments. ” He has obviouslybeen extremely corrupted if he could talk in this manner to his father. Notbelieving in the traditional gods, which is the second charge fits theAristophanic Socrates perfectly. Socrates explicitly frowns upon the gods whenhe exclaims, “what do you mean, the gods? In the first place, godsarent legal tender here” (lines 247-248). Later, when explaining theelements to Strepsiades, Socrates exclaims “Zeus you say? Dont kid me!Theres no Zeus at all” (lines 368-369).
He is undoubtedly saying that hedoes not believe in the traditional gods. The claim that Socrates believed innew divinities, the third charge, is clearly seen when he “enter (s) intocommunion with the clouds, who are our deities” (lines 253-254). Socratesproves methodically how it could not be Zeus who causes phenomena such as rain,thunder, and lightening, but rather is merely the work of the Clouds. For, if itwere indeed the work of Zeus, then he would bring rain in absence of any clouds. The fact that the clouds are always present during precipitation attests totheir power as opposed to that of Zeus.
As the Clouds were not traditional gods,Socrates guilt on this charge is rather evident. Even as Socrates ispresented as a blabbering fool, full of hubris, in the Clouds, an entirelydifferent perspective on this alleged sophist is given to us in the Apology. Throughout Platos works including the Clouds, Socrates himself claims not tohave any wisdom (he did not have any knowledge of arete) so he could notpossibly have been a sophist. In terms of the charges he seems to absolvehimself of the first two charges of corrupting the youth of Athens, and notbelieving in the traditional gods; though he is less convincing in his claimthat he has no allegiance to other gods.
Socrates claims he could not possiblybe guilty of the first charge for several reasons. He feels the charge arisesout of anger towards him for when he applies his “Socratic method” whilequestioning others beliefs, it often has the effect of leaving them feelingembarrassed and ridiculed. However, Socrates maintains that his objective ismerely to ascertain the ultimate truths, a noble act for sure. In fact, Socratesbelieves that the pursuit of truth is the most important work of man. Besides,the youth following is not as a result of recruitment but rather “of their ownfree will” (23cl-2). And on the actual charge of corrupting the youth, whenprodded by him to give an example of these acts, none is forthcoming.
Theypresent it in a general sense lacking any specific incidence. Furthermore, it isillogical for one to willingly corrupt ones companions, for “if I make oneof my associates wicked I run the risk of being harmed by him so that I do sucha great evil deliberately, as you say?” (25e 3-5). Socrates further arguesthat if he truly did corrupt the youth, it may explain why his “students”did not accuse him of such, but it wouldnt account for the absence of inquiryfrom their distraught families. If those closely involved have not shown anyconcern, this is further evidence of his innocence (33 d1-34 e3). Perhaps, mosttelling is that Socrates was willing to sacrifice his life for his convictionsinstead of pleading for clemency by detracting from his views. This shows thehigh character of Socrates who holds steadfast to his beliefs under even themost trying of circumstances.
The second charge of not believing in thetraditional gods seems to be a trumped up charge as well. Socrates tells of hismission to discern the enigmatic statement that Chairephon, his friend, hadreceived from the oracle at Delphi, stating that he is wisest among men(20e6-22e5). The temple at Delphi was a shrine to Apollo, a traditional god. Hewas impoverished and hated because of it. If Socrates did not believe in thetraditional gods, he would not have devoted his life to realize the ultimatetruths using his unsurpassed wisdom, which would thereby confirm the claim ofthe oracle at Delphi. Believing in new divinities, though, the third charge, isperhaps legitimate.
Socrates claims to get a divine sign every once in a whileand says “whenever it speaks it turns me away from something I am about to do,but it never encourages me to do anything” (31d2-3). This goes against theprevailing notion that the gods control the behavior of mortals like puppeteersas was often espoused in Greek lore. But rather, that gods are benevolenttowards their human subjects. Thus, Socrates seems to have conjured up a newkind of divinity, thereby making him guilty of Meletus third charge. Althoughneither depiction of Socrates is entirely accurate, they each illustrate someguilt on Socrates part.
The Aristophanic Socrates is completely guilty whilethe Platonic Socrates is only guilty on one account. In both works, he probablydid not deserve to be condemned to death but more so in Platos work it seemsthat Socrates has wrongfully been put to death. For an argument can be made thatnot only was Socrates not guilty of the charges, (at least most of them), butthat his pursuit of morality and his view of the gods was invaluable to thesociety at large.
