apparently, of 280 to 221. There were no fixed penalties in Attic law for trials of this nature; instead, the
accuser and the condemned each proposed a penalty and the jury was required to choose between them.
Socrates’ accusers proposed the death penalty, while Socrates, after first claiming that he was in fact a
public benefactor deserving of rewards rather than punishment, proposed a fine equivalent to about 13
kilos of silver, to be paid by his wealthy friends. The jury, no doubt thoroughly exasperated by this point,
elected the death penalty by a vote of 360 to 141. That is, some of those who had earlier voted “not
guilty” now voted in favor of putting Socrates to death. The voice of the democracy had spoken. But
Plato, whose writings we will examine in the following chapter, was to have the last word.
Zetemata: Questions for Discussion
How did Euripides make his tragedies seem relevant to his contemporary audience while still
dramatizing familiar stories from Greek myth?
What features did fifth-century tragedy and comedy have in common, and in what ways did they differ
from each other?
What are the implications of the fact that, in spite of the large number of texts that survive from ancient
Greece, no evidence is available that tells us whether or not women attended the theater in Athens?
How did legal proceedings in ancient Athens differ from those familiar in a modern courtroom?
Why might Socrates’ jurors have been antagonized by his claim that the only way he differed from
other Athenians was that he knew that he knew nothing?Recommended for Further Reading
Dover, K. J. Aristophanic Comedy (Berkeley and Los Angeles 1972): an excellent introduction to all
aspects of Aristophanes and his theater, by the leading Aristophanic scholar of the twentieth century.
Euripides. Ten Plays, a new translation by Paul Roche (New York 1998): a very reasonably priced
volume containing over half of Euripides’ surviving dramas in fresh, readable translations.
Henderson, J. (trans.) Three Plays by Aristophanes: Staging Women (London 1996): brilliant,
uncensored, contemporary translations of Thesmophoriazusae and two other Aristophanic comedies that
are particularly concerned with women’s issues.
Kerferd, G. B. The Sophistic Movement (Cambridge 1981): a brief and very perceptive introduction to
the sophists and their important place in the intellectual and social life of fifth-century Greece.
Mastronarde, D. J. The Art of Euripides: Dramatic Technique and Social Context (Cambridge 2010): the
best general introduction to Euripides, emphasizing the variety of Euripidean drama and its probing,
questioning character.
Reeve, C. D. C. (ed.) The Trials of Socrates: Six Classic Texts (Indianapolis and Cambridge 2002):
excellent translations, with helpful notes, of Aristophanes’ The Clouds and of works by Plato and
Xenophon concerned with the trial, imprisonment, and execution of Socrates.
Sprague, R. K. (ed.) The Older Sophists (Columbia, SC 1972): a complete translation of the fragments
and the surviving works of the fifth-century sophists.