50 Fun Facts About Socrates

Socrates lived in which ancient Greek city?

He was born in 470 or 469 BC to relatively affluent citizens.

How many written works did Socrates himself leave behind?

Everything known about him comes from others, chiefly his students Plato and Xenophon and the playwright Aristophanes.

What was the trade of Socrates's father Sophroniscus?

His mother's profession, he later joked, was the model for his own way of drawing ideas out of people.

In which Athenian deme was Socrates born?

Being born there to citizen parents made him an Athenian citizen himself.

Xenophon was elected a leader of which retreating Greek mercenary army at age 30?

They had marched with Cyrus the Younger in his failed bid for the Persian throne; the story fills his Anabasis.

What is the scholarly difficulty of reconstructing the real Socrates from contradictory sources called?

Plato, Xenophon and Aristophanes all give different pictures.

Which Aristophanes comedy features a caricature of Socrates as an absurd atheist?

Plato's Apology cites the play as one reason for the prejudice that led to the trial.

In Aristophanes's play, what is the name of the school Socrates runs?

Strepsiades enrols to learn how to argue his way out of his debts.

How did Aristophanes's play about Socrates fare when first produced at the City Dionysia in 423 BC?

The playwright had hoped for much better.

In what year was Socrates tried and executed?

The trial lasted a single day.

Alongside corrupting the youth, what was the other charge against Socrates?

The Greek term for it was asebeia.

How long did the trial of Socrates last?

He then refused offers from friends to help him escape.

What poison did Socrates drink to carry out his sentence?

He died the next morning, surrounded by friends.

Per Plato, Socrates's last words said the group owed what to the god Asclepius?

Asclepius was the god of healing, so the offering has been read as thanks for a cure, perhaps from life itself.

Which Plato dialogue shows Socrates discussing the immortality of the soul in the hours before his death?

It is narrated by Phaedo of Elis, who was present at the deathbed.

In the dialogue Crito, what does Socrates personify to argue he must not flee prison?

He holds that injustice may never be answered with injustice and turns down Crito's offer to fund an escape.

Socrates's friend Chaerephon asked which oracle whether anyone was wiser than Socrates?

The Pythia's reply set Socrates off questioning everyone in the city to test it.

How did the oracle reply to the question about Socrates?

Socrates concluded he was wiser only in recognising his own ignorance.

Socrates said his questioning earned him a reputation as what kind of creature, pestering the city?

He acquired a bad reputation among the city's politically powerful as a result.

What is the Greek term for the Socratic method of question-and-answer refutation?

The conversations usually end at an impasse, with nobody able to define the virtue under discussion.

In the Theaetetus, Socrates compares his method to which profession?

The Greek maieutikós gives English the adjective 'maieutic'.

What did Socrates call the inner voice that his accusers said had a divine origin?

It warned him against actions rather than telling him what to do.

What was the name of Socrates's wife, mother of his son Lamprocles?

He married her in his fifties; she was probably about 30 years younger.

How many sons did Socrates have with his wife?

He was also married, at some point, to the daughter of a prominent statesman.

In a famous anecdote, what did Socrates's wife pour over his head?

He reportedly quipped that after her thunder came rain; Chaucer's Wife of Bath makes it a jug of urine.

Which of Chaucer's Canterbury pilgrims retells the story of Socrates being doused by his spouse?

Medieval writers largely repeated the ancient picture of her as a difficult wife.

Which poet initiated the accusations against Socrates and demanded the death penalty?

Anytus and Lycon were the other accusers.

According to Plato, how many votes would have had to change for Socrates to be acquitted?

On a jury of 501 that implies a conviction by about 280 to 221.

According to Diogenes Laërtius, how many jurors voted for the death penalty?

That left 220 for a lesser punishment; Plato gives no numbers for that second vote.

What did Socrates, per Plato, cheekily suggest as his 'punishment' after conviction?

More seriously he proposed a fine, and his friends offered 3,000 drachmae; the jury chose death.

How large a fine did Plato, Crito and other supporters offer to pay on Socrates's behalf?

The judges decided a fine was insufficient punishment.

According to Plato, Socrates distinguished himself in how many campaigns of the Peloponnesian War?

He served as an ordinary citizen-soldier and carried out his duty abroad.

Whom did the Thirty Tyrants order Socrates and four others to arrest for execution?

Socrates refused, but did nothing to warn the man, who was seized by the other four.

Which physical feature was NOT part of Socrates's famously ugly appearance as described in the sources?

His friends joked about his looks; he was also said to bathe rarely and own one ragged coat.

What was Socrates known to wear on his feet?

He neglected personal hygiene and owned only one ragged coat.

Who coined the term logos sokratikos, 'Socratic dialogue', for the new literary genre?

He was born after Socrates's death and studied under Plato at the Academy for twenty years.

Which philosopher's 1818 essay attacked Xenophon's account of Socrates as naive and biased?

By the early 20th century Xenophon's version was largely rejected as a result.

Which follower of Socrates was later regarded as the founder of Cynic philosophy?

He was born around 446 BC and wrote about his teacher after his death.

Which pupil of Socrates founded the hedonistic Cyrenaic school?

He returned to his home city of Cyrene and endorsed an easy life of physical pleasure, a long way from his teacher.

Who painted The Death of Socrates in 1787?

It shows the philosopher upright on his bed, one hand over the cup, still teaching.

Where has The Death of Socrates hung since 1931?

The painting draws on Plato's account of the final scene.

In Plato's Symposium, Socrates recounts what he learned about love from which wise woman?

She teaches that the greatest knowledge is knowledge of the form of beauty.

The dictum 'no one errs willingly' comes from Socrates's remarks in which Plato dialogue?

It is the hallmark of Socratic virtue intellectualism: to know the good is to do it.

Which Xenophon work defends Socrates from the charges by collecting stories into a new apology?

His Oeconomicus instead records a Socratic chat about household management.

Xenophon's Socrates places more emphasis than Plato's on which virtue?

His Socrates also lacks the professed ignorance and the refutation method of Plato's version.

By roughly how many decades did Plato outlive his teacher?

That long career is one reason scholars distinguish an early 'Socratic' Socrates from a later 'Platonic' one.

Socrates's second marriage was to a daughter of which Athenian statesman?

Which of his two marriages came first is not clear.

At what age had Socrates already drawn Athenians' interest, judging by comic references?

Aristophanes's caricature dates from that period of his life.

Which two modern philosophers are named as evidence of continued fascination with Socrates?

Renaissance humanists and medieval Islamic scholars studied him too.

Which Renaissance essayist linked Socrates to rationalism as a counterweight to religious fanatics?

He wrote extensively on the Athenian.