divination (Apology, 22b–c). The point, therefore, is that the foundations of thepolisare entirely conven-
tional. Given the importance ofaidosas discussed below, Socrates’profession of shame is also a joke.
22 See in general R.E. Allen,Socrates and Legal Obligation(Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press,
1981). Douglas D. Feaver and John E. Hare argue that“every section of Socrates’main speech is in fact a
parody, using the traditional [rhetorical] form with the reverse of the function traditionally attributed to it.”
“TheApologyas an Inverted Parody of Rhetoric,”Arethusa14 (1981): 205. Kenneth Seeskin,“Is the
‘Apology of Socrates’a Parody?”Philosophy and Literature6 (1982): 94–105, argues convincingly that
theApologyis directly modeled on, and is a parody of, Gorgias’Apology of Palamedes.Socrates happens
to compare himself to Palamedes atApology41b.
23 Eva Brann,“The Offence of Socrates: A Re-reading of Plato’s‘Apology,’”Interpretation7/2 (1978): 6.
See also Michael Zuckert,“Rationalism and Political Responsibility: Just Speech and Just Deed in the
‘Clouds’and the‘Apology of Socrates,’”Polity17 (1984): 297.
24 The jury raises a ruckus (thorubos) six times (Apology, 20d, 20e, 21a, 27b, 30c, and 31e) usually because
Socrates deliberately says something that he knows will look to the jury as if he is boasting of his own
superiority. Socrates discusses thethorubosof assemblies, theaters, encampments, and juries inRepublic
(492b–c). Onthorubosmore generally, see Victor Bers,“DikasticThorubos,”History of Political Thought
6 (1985): 1–15. Unfortunately, Bers does not discuss theApologybecause Plato is a“tainted witness.”
Although Xenophon does not say so explicitly, it is fair to say that the outbursts of the jury are responses to
Socrates’“big talk”(megalegoria) mentionedthree times in the first five sentences of hisApology.
25 In theCharmides153b2 Chaerophon is calledmanikos, a crazy person. In Aristophanes’Clouds, 104, 144,
504 he is miserable, unhappy, and half-dead; inBirds1296 his squeaky voice earns him the nickname“the
bat.”
26 James Riddell considered the Oracle story“unhistoric.”The“Apology of Plato”(Oxford: Clarendon,
1867), xvi. Burnet,“Euthyphro,”“Apology”and“Crito”disagrees, 91–2. Hugh Bowden,Classical
Athens and the Delphic Oracle: Divination and Democracy(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
2005), 82, said,“it is difficult to be certain whether this story is evidence of a genuine consultation of the
oracle.”The historical question is in any event separate from the dramatic one.
27 David D. Corey,“Socratic Citizenship: Delphic Oracle and Divine Sign,”The Review of Politics67 (2005): 212.
28 George Gregory,“Of Socrates, Aristophanes and Rumors,”inRe-examining Socrates in the“Apology”,
Patricia Fagan and John Russon, eds. (Evanston: Northwestern University Press, 2009), 57.
29 Leibowitz,The Ironic Defense, 102, agrees.
30 Kevin Rabb,“Asebeia and Sunousia: The Issue behind the Indictment of Socrates,”InPlato’s Dialogues,
Gerald A. Press, ed., 77–106; Saxonhouse,Free Speech and Democracy, 101 ff.
31 Feaver and Hare,“The‘Apology’as an Inverted Parody of Rhetoric,”211.
32 Socrates repeats the remark first made atApology(24c) that Meletus is joking, three additional times
(Apology, 26e, 27a, d). The pun is on Meletus andmelete, care,and leads to such witticisms as“Mr. Care
doesn’t care,”and so on.
33 Burnet,Plato’s“Euthyphro,”“Apology of Socrates”and“Crito,”105.
34 Meletus thinks thatdaimoniaare the offspring of gods and humans (Apology, 27b–e). In theSymposium
(202d–e) Socrates argues thatdaimoniaare intermediaries between gods and humans and that they cannot
be offspring of gods and humans because those two kinds of beings do not have contact with one another.
35 Brann,“TheOffenceof Socrates,”10.The analogy Socrates uses, comparing half-gods (hemitheoi) tohalf-
asses (hemionoi)“has so offended modern sensibilities that it does not appear in the Greek text in some
editions of theApologyand is thus missing from some translations.”Clay,Platonic Questions, 47; Clay,
“Socrates’Mulishness and Heroism,”Phronesis17 (1972): 53–60. The analogy also suggests that, if gods
were like big horses anddaimoneswere like mules, then humans were asses, small comical caricatures of
horses.
36 The qualification, that Socrates treats the present accusers“as if they were”different from the old accusers
arguably indicates that Socrates did not see them as different at all. Both sets of accusers were simply
prejudiced against him.
37 Robert Metcalfe,“Socrates and Achilles,”inRe-examining Socrates, Fagan and Russon, eds., 62–84.
38 Strauss sometimes translatesaneras“hombre”which certainly captures Socrates’megalegoria.
39 When Socrates uses the indefinite pronoun,tis, it almost invariably refers to the life-lovinganthropos
not a real man,aner. That is, the reference is itself insulting. SeeApology20c,28b, 29c, 34d andGorgias,
511a–b, 522c.
40 Maria L. Talero,“Just Speaking, Just Listening: Performance and Contradiction in Socrates’‘Apology,’”
inRe-examining Socrates, Fagan and Russon, eds., 27.
41 Edith Hall,“Law Court Dramas: The Power of Performance in Greek Forensic Oratory,”Bulletin in the
Institute of Classical Studies40 (1995): 39–58.
Socratic Method and Existence 31