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Full Work Summary. Plato's The Apology is an account of the speech Socrates makes at the trial in which he is charged with not recognizing the gods recognized by the state, inventing new deities, and corrupting the youth of Athens.
- Plot Analysis
Plot Analysis - The Apology: Full Work Summary - SparkNotes
- 17A - 18A
17A - 18A - The Apology: Full Work Summary - SparkNotes
- Characters
The chief accuser of Socrates, responsible for bringing him...
- 28A - 32E
28A - 32E - The Apology: Full Work Summary - SparkNotes
- 20C - 24E
20C - 24E - The Apology: Full Work Summary - SparkNotes
- Plot Analysis
Summary. Socrates now turns from his old accusers to his new ones, those who have brought him to trial. Socrates reminds the court that they accuse him of corrupting the minds of the young and of believing in supernatural phenomena of his own invention rather than in the gods of the state.
- The Trial of Socrates
- Plato’s Apology
- A Note About The Jury
- Plato’s Apology, Part One: The Main Speech
Athenian trials were much different from those of modern times in the U.S. We are used to a jury consisting of twelve people for a trial and up to twenty-three people for a grand jury. The Athenian trial jury such as that of Socrates numbered five hundred and one Athenian citizens. A jury of that size would certainly be unwieldy and preclude any se...
Plato’s early dialogues, of which the Apology is a part, were written after Socrates’ death. The Apology most likely being written soon after his execution while the events of the trial and words of Socrates’ defense were still fresh. The early dialogues all center around Socrates, as if Plato were paying due respect and honor to his teacher whom h...
As mentioned above, the jury consisted of five hundred and one Athenian citizens. These were males, thirty years of age or older, who presented themselves on any given day for jury duty. I don’t know why the one extra was needed. How often could there have been a tie among five hundred people? The jurors were chosen by lot. Athens was a democracy a...
The dialogue opens with the following statement from Socrates: Socrates uses sarcasm, an often used manner of speech among the Greeks, for effect. In beginning his defense, Socrates comes out of the gates with a strong denial of his accusers’ accusations. Instead of addressing the jury the conventional way with “gentlemen of the jury,” he instead a...
Analysis. Socrates begins his apologia by calling the jury “men of Athens,” wondering aloud how his accusers have “affected” them. “As for me,” he says, “I was almost carried away in spite of myself, so persuasively did they speak. And yet, hardly anything of what they said is true.”.
The Trial of Socrates (399 BC) was held to determine the philosopher's guilt of two charges: asebeia (impiety) against the pantheon of Athens, and corruption of the youth of the city-state; the accusers cited two impious acts by Socrates: "failing to acknowledge the gods that the city acknowledges" and "introducing new deities".
The claim that Socrates provides physical explanations for divine phenomena is true of the Presocratics, and the claim that Socrates charges a fee for teaching rhetoric is true of the sophists, but neither claim is true of Socrates himself.
In Plato’s Apology, the ancient Greek philosopher Socrates finds himself on trial for charges of impiety and corrupting the youth of Athens. The narrative, set in 399 BCE, narrates Socrates’ defense speech delivered in front of a jury of Athenian citizens.
