The Prosecution of Socrates - Essay Example

no. The prosecution of Socrates Socrates was a great Athenian thinker who lived approximately in the 5th century B.C. Socrates used to engage in conversations with young and old people alike in the assembly, whereby he shared with them his wisdom or “ignorance”. Due to his constant criticism of the political and pious life of the Athenians, Socrates was put to trial and then executed in 399 B.C. One of the reasons put forward for the execution of Socrates was that he had corrupted the youth into being high headed and disobedient.

Secondly, Socrates was accused of not believing in the Olympian gods that the city believed in (24). The name of the person who had indicted Socrates is Meletus, a young man from one of the demes in Athens. During the trial, Socrates was brought before the king-archon, a principal magistrate who oversaw cases concerning disobedience to the Olympian gods (3). Written literature only documents Socrates trying to defend himself during the trial. We do not have any material concerning the prosecutor.

It is the purpose of this essay, therefore, to write a speech that a prosecutor would use to prove that Socrates was guilty as charged. “Your honor and members of the jury, the accused, Socrates, has done the city of Athens a great deal of harm by engaging in activities that have corrupted our youth and made them question our very beliefs. The accused has wronged the city of Athens by studying what is in the sky and what lies below the earth. His antics do not stop with studying of the skies and earth, but he also teaches the same things to our youth.

He even walks on air and starts talking of things that are incomprehensible. Socrates is also known for charging young people in order to give them what he considers “wisdom”. This is because Socrates considers himself wiser than other men in Athens. He even calls it “human wisdom”, whatever that means. Socrates argues that oracle at Delphi is a witness to the type of human knowledge that he possesses. The accused here even goes to the extent of alleging that the oracle at Delphi once spoke to Chaerephon and told him that there was no one wiser than Socrates.

Your honor, it is against custom for anyone to boast of being wise and teach of things that are not comprehensible to others. Secondly, Socrates has been going around soiling the reputation of our sophists. He claims that sophists such as Gorgias are free to move about in any city, teach the youth and collect fees form them. He claims that one Evenus teaches for a moderate fee of five minas. As if discrediting the sophists is not enough, your honor, Socrates has also been dishonoring our public men, whom we owe a lot of respect.

The accused claims to have said to one of the public men that he thought he was wise but soon realized that the man was not as wise as he thought. The accused even went ahead to embarrass the public man in the presence of bystanders. Evidently, this was a bad show, especially for the youth who were taught to disrespect their elders and leaders. This shaming habit did not stop there, as Socrates went ahead to disrespect and embarrass many wise people in our city, in an effort to prove his wisdom.

The accused has ruined the reputation of politicians, poets, craftsmen, and even respected writers. As a result of his actions of publicly humiliating men of great wisdom in public, the accused has corrupted the minds of our young people. The latter now follow him around wherever he goes and try to outwit their leaders. The youth have totally lost respect for their elders and are always trying to prove how unwise the elders are, just like Socrates has taught them. The accused further goes ahead to doubt our very religious grounds by asserting that our prophets and seers do not even understand the things they teach our people.

That, your honor, is an act of blasphemy. He makes innovations in religious matters by saying that the divine sign keeps coming to him and showing him things that only he can comprehend. He even claims to have conversations with Apollo the god at Delphi. As you well know, your honor, Athenians believe that the gods are discordant and have enmities for each other. He argues that if the gods were as pious as it is believed, then they would agree on everything that is just and good. He, therefore, argues that the gods are not as pious as Athenians would want to believe.

Your honor, the accused even goes as far as claiming that the sun and the moon are not gods. He asserts that the sun is just stone and that the moon is earth. This is in contravention to our religion. All that I have presented in this court goes to show that the accused is guilty of corrupting the minds of our young people and disrespecting our customs and religious views. The constant humiliation of our leaders cannot be tolerated either. To this extent, I hereby urge this court to hand down the maximum punishment for this offender of Athenian laws and customs.

Thank you, your honor.” Works cited Cooper, John. Five Dialogues. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company Inc, 2002. Print.