It is the story of Theseus and the Minotaur, and it is referenced by Socrates at the opening of the Phaedo, the dialogue that captures the conversation in Socrates’s jail cell on the day of his death. So, I’d like to open my talk with a walk back to the age of heroes, some 600 years or so before the time of Socrates, and tell you a story about Theseus, the consolidator of Athens and founder of its democracy. Socrates too compares himself to some of the greatest: Hercules, Achilles, and Theseus, all of whom faced great trials without fear and slew many enemies, though they died most unhappy deaths.
Plato is fond of likening Socrates to the great heroes at the dawn of Greek and Athenian civilization. I mean it to remind us of the monsters our hero must vanquish, his monsters and ours. But ‘hero’ is a strong word, and I mean it to conjure up images of the great trials a hero must face in life, including the final trial we all must face when we see the end approaching. John’s College, a model of radical inquiry, the embodiment of the liberally educated person, and a man who faced his own death well, even beautifully. Plato’s Socrates is a local hero to many of us at St.
I am speaking now only of the Socrates we come to know through the dialogues of Plato, and particularly through the three dialogues concerning the trial and final days of Socrates, the Apology, Crito, and Phaedo.
Of course, it’s not every life that is told through the story of its death, but I think this is particularly appropriate in the case of Socrates. I am grateful for the opportunity to have reflected on the life of Socrates as I wrote this evening’s lecture.
The body of Socrates may be gone but the Real Socrates has stayed with Phaedo, his friends and with all of us who will take up a life devoted to philosophy.
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