Apology (Plato) - Socrates' Accusers

Socrates' Accusers

The three men who brought the charges against Socrates were:

• Anytus, son of a prominent Athenian, Anthemion. Socrates says Anytus joined the prosecution because he was "vexed on behalf of the craftsmen and politicians" (23e-24a). Anytus makes an important cameo appearance in Meno. Anytus appears unexpectedly while Socrates and Meno (a visitor to Athens) are discussing the acquisition of virtue. Having taken the position that virtue cannot be taught, Socrates adduces as evidence for this that many prominent Athenians have produced sons inferior to themselves. Socrates says this, and then proceeds to name names, including Pericles and Thucydides. Anytus becomes very offended, and warns Socrates that running people down ("kakos legein") could get him into trouble someday (Meno 94e-95a).

Plutarch gives some information that might help us realize the real reason behind Anytus' worries. He says that Anytus wanted to be friends with Alcibiades but he preferred to be with Socrates. And also we hear that Anytus' son had a sexual relationship with Socrates, which was an accepted relationship between teacher and pupil in classical Athens.

• Meletus, the only accuser to speak during Socrates' defense. Socrates says Meletus joined the prosecution because he was "vexed on behalf of the poets" (23e). He is mentioned in another dialogue, the Euthyphro, but does not appear in person. Socrates says there that Meletus is a young unknown with an aquiline nose. In the Apology, Meletus allows himself to be cross-examined by Socrates and stumbles into a trap. Apparently not paying attention to the very charges he is bringing, he accuses Socrates both of atheism and of believing in demi-gods.

• Lycon, about whom, according to one scholar, "we know nothing except that he was the mouthpiece of the professional rhetoricians." Socrates says Lycon joined the prosecution because he was "vexed on behalf of the rhetoricians" (24a). Some scholars, such as Debra Nails, identify Lycon as the father of Autolycus, who appears in Xenophon's Symposium 2.4ff. Nails also identifies Socrates' prosecutor with the Lycon who is the butt of jokes in Aristophanes and became a successful democratic politician after the fall of the Four Hundred; she suggests that he may have joined in the prosecution because he associated Socrates with the Thirty Tyrants, who had executed his son, Autolycus. Others, however, question the identification of Socrates' prosecutor with the father of Autolycus; John Burnet, for instance, claims it "is most improbable".

Socrates says that he has to refute two sets of accusations: Socrates was charged with disrespect toward the gods and corruption of the youth. He did believe in the gods, but questioned their abilities.

Socrates says that the old charges stemmed from years of gossip and prejudice against him and hence were difficult to address. These so-called 'informal charges' Socrates puts into the style of a formal legal accusation: "Socrates is committing an injustice, in that he inquires into things below the earth and in the sky, and makes the weaker argument the stronger, and teaches others to follow his example" (19b-c). He says that these allegations are repeated in a certain comic poet, namely Aristophanes. In his play, The Clouds, Aristophanes lampooned Socrates by presenting him as the paradigm of atheistic, scientific sophistry. Yet it is unlikely that Aristophanes would have intended these charges to be taken seriously, since Plato depicts Aristophanes and Socrates as being on very good terms with each other in the Symposium.

Socrates says that he cannot possibly be mistaken for a sophist because they are wise (or at least thought to be) and highly paid. He says he lives in "ten-thousandfold poverty" (23c) and claims to know nothing noble and good.