This paper examines Xenophon's "Apology for Socrates," focusing on the philosopher's controversial defense strategy before the Athenian jury. Rather than seeking mercy or humiliation, Socrates boldly asserts his wisdom and virtue, incurring the jury's envy. Xenophon argues that Socrates viewed his death sentence not as unjust but as divinely arranged—a merciful end before age could diminish his mind and body. The paper explores Socrates' reasoning that a life lived in justice and wisdom remains valuable regardless of death, his rejection of bodily desires, and his counterargument against charges of corrupting youth. Through this account, Xenophon presents death as preferable to a degraded existence, challenging conventional Athenian attitudes toward self-defense and mortality.
Xenophon explains well the rule or tendency of the jury of his time regarding persons it accused of vanity or vainglory. Socrates was accustomed to display his wisdom and excellence to the people of his day. He particularly annoyed the jury, which was prone to show compassion and favor to a person who seeks pity and humiliates himself. But Socrates was the opposite, and that was why he incurred the disfavor and envy of the jury. Rather than performing the conventional defense ritual—pleading for mercy and degrading himself before his judges—Socrates maintained his dignity and openly asserted his intellectual superiority.
Nonetheless, Xenophon did not think that Socrates' sentence of death was untimely, even in Socrates' own eye. By his own words and defense, Socrates claimed that God had pre-arranged him to die early and in the easiest way because of his accomplishments, virtue, and wisdom. This, he explained, was why the jury—which condemned him to die by poisoning—was allowed to do so. It was actually more a favor than a disfavor.
Already contented with the way he had lived, Socrates felt that he had lived better than any man had ever lived. He lived in justice and wisdom in his youth. If he should proceed to old age, he would be plagued with illnesses and disabilities, which would weaken his gifts. He would suffer hearing loss, reduced ability to learn, and would become forgetful, like any mortal who is subject to deterioration and decay. He felt that when these happened to him, he would find fault with himself, and then his life would be unpleasant. He did not want these to happen to him. In this way, Socrates reframes capital punishment as a merciful intervention that preserves his excellence intact.
He boasted of his mind and body's health and said that a person with such robust health would be missed if he dies young. The gods wanted him to be missed by mortals and thus did not oppose his defense speech. In effect, they allowed him to be condemned and to die before he could grow old. He was too noble to lose his self-esteem, which the jurors envied. Blatantly, he chose to die rather than go on living a life where he would have to beg just to survive. Death was much more preferable and more dignified than that in his eyes.
He lamented that he was accused of bringing in a demon and of corrupting the youth. How could he share wisdom and bring in a demon at the same time? His listeners and followers were his witnesses. He did not find any person who enjoyed so much freedom as he did. No one lived in perfect moderation better than he did. He added that even Lycurgus confused him with a god because he and Lycurgus found him to be a human being who surpassed other human beings in the way he lived.
Socrates was not a slave to his body or senses like other mortals. He did not accept gifts or wages for sharing his wisdom, yet very many wanted to give him so many things. He adapted to what he had so that he did not need to desire what others possessed. His followers and advocates openly expressed indebtedness to him and what they learned from him. While others delighted in the things money or riches could buy, he enjoyed the highest form of delight in the soul, the most pleasant kind.
He could not possibly corrupt the youth and make them turn against their parents. People listen more to doctors than to their own parents. They also prefer to hire those who had greater sensibilities than their own relatives. That was what he did with the youth. He believed that these young people learned from him what they needed to learn and at the best time of their lives.
"Virtue transcends mortality and remains eternally worthy"
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