SOCRATES: THE
FINAL DAYS
A radio drama
Adapted by
Bill Olson
©1996, 2005
William David Sherman Olson
From the dialogs
"Euthyphro,"
"The Aplogy,"
"Crito,"
and "Phaedo"
by
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4191557628403069476
(From a translation by Benjamin Jowett)
Dates of adaptation:
September 20, 1995
(Section 2: July 15-25,
1990)
(Rev. 4/23/07)
ICONOSTAR PRODUCTIONS
Bill Olson
Home Page
CAST
SOCRATES -
CRITO -
MELETUS -
ANNOUNCER -
AUDIANCE / JUDGES OF THE COURT -
Original cast in 1998 production by Bill Olson: SOCRATES - Mel Jackson CRITO - Jay Blake MELETUS – Bill Olson ANNOUNCER
– Bill Olson
1
1 ANNOUNCER: Come
with us now to Ancient Greece. The elderly
and respected Socrates meets his friend, Crito.
2 CRITO: (COMING ON MIC) Socrates -- what are you
doing in the porch of King Archon?
Surely, you're not engaged in a court action.
3 SOCRATES:
“Impeachment” is the word the Athenians use.
4 CRITO: I know you wouldn't prosecute another, so
someone must be prosecuting you.
5 SOC. Yes.
6 CRITO: (SERIOUS, AS A CONCERNED FRIEND) Who?
7 SOC. A young man who is little known,
Crito. And I hardly know him
myself. His name is Meletus.
8 CRITO: I don't know him, Socrates.
9 SOC. He has a beak and long straight hair and a
beard that is ill grown.
10 CRITO: What's the charge?
11 SOC. A very serious one, which shows a great
deal of character in this young man. He
says he knows how the youth are corrupted and who their corruptors are. I assume that he's a wise man, and seeing
that I am anything but wise, he has found me out and is going to accuse me of
corrupting his young friends. It is of this our mother the state is to be the
judge.
12 CRITO: You've never corrupted anyone.
13 SOC. Well, he brings a wonderful accusation
against me: he says that I make new gods and deny the existence of old ones.
14 CRITO: There -- that's it: he knows that such a
charge as this is readily received, since the world is jealous of novelties in
religion. Whenever I speak in the
assembly about divine things, they laugh at me as a madman. They're jealous of us all.
15 SOC. Their laughter, friend Crito, is rather
unimportant. A man may be thought wise,
but the Athenians, I suspect, do not really care about this, until he begins to
make other men wise. Then for some
reason, perhaps from jealousy as you say, they become angry. I must go in now.
16 CRITO: Good luck, dear friend.
17 SOC. (GOING OFF) And to you, Crito.
2
18
THERE IS THE SOUND OF
A LOT OF PEOPLE: CLEARING OF THROATS,
MOVING OF CHAIRS, ETC. THE SOUND IS
ECHOEY AS IF WE ARE NOW IN A LARGE CHAMBER.
19 SOCRATES: How you, dear
Athenians, have been affected by my accusers, I would not know, but they almost
made me forget who I was, so persuasively did they speak. But, of all the things they said, I was most
amazed when they warned you to be upon your guard and not be deceived by my
force of "eloquence."
20 To say this, when they were
certain to be detected the moment I opened my mouth and proved myself to be
anything but a great speaker, was shameless -- unless by "force of
eloquence" they mean the force of truth; for if such is their meaning, I
admit that I am eloquent.
21 From me you shall hear the whole truth: and not from a written, revised, and wrought out oration.
22 No. I'll use the words and arguments that occur to me at the moment, for I'm confident in the justice of my cause.
22 First, I'm compelled to
address the older charges before the more recent ones, for I fear them
most. It was my first accusers who,
when you were children, took possession of your minds and told you their
falsehoods of Socrates, a wise man who speculated about the heavens above, and
the earth below and made the worse appear the better cause.
22A Those who told this tale are the people I dread, for the impressionable youth that you were in those days were apt to embroider this fantasy until accepting as a mere matter of fact that we who enquire about life and the world do not believe in the existence of the gods.
23 And hardest for me, of
course, is that I do not know the names of my accusers and cannot have them up
here with me and cross examine them, but must fight with shadows in my own
defense.
24 People of Athens, you're
out there saying, "Socrates, please tell us the origin of these
accusations against you; you must have been doing something strange, or these
rumors about you would have never arisen.
Please tell us, for we would be sorry to judge hastily of you."
26 SOME LAUGHTER FROM THE
AUDIENCE.
27 SOC. And this is a fair challenge. First off, I confess that my reputation as a
wise man -- with such an evil fame -- comes about because of a certain sort of
wisdom I possess.
28 -- And I must ask you to
not interrupt, regardless of how extravagant this all may sound. It is not I who lay claim to this wisdom,
but it was told by the God of Delphi.
29 It was many years ago that
Chaerephon, a dear friend of mine, and of yours, boldly asked the oracle of
Delphi -- and I beg you not to interrupt -- if there was any man wiser than
I. And the Pythian prophetess replied
that no man was wiser.
30 Well, as you know,
Chaerephon himself is dead, but his brother, who is in court, will confirm
this.
31 So, why do I mention
this? Because I'm going to explain to
you why I have such an evil name.
32 Well, of course, when I
heard of this myself, I asked, what can the god mean? For I know I have no wisdom, great or small. Yet it would be against the nature of a god
to lie.
33 After some consideration, I
decided that if I could find a man wiser than myself, I could approach the god
with a refutation in hand. Accordingly,
I went to one who had a reputation for being wise.
34 I needn't mention his
name. He was a politician, and when I
began to talk with him, I could not help thinking that he was not really wise,
though he was thought wise by many -- and still wiser by himself.
35 LAUGHTER.
36 SOC. Thereupon I tried to explain to him that
he thought himself wise but was not really wise, with the consequence that he
hated me. And this enmity was shared by
several of those present.
37
So I left, saying to
myself that although neither of us knows anything really beautiful and good, he
knows not but thinks he knows while I know not and realize that I know not. On this, I would have to say that I have
slightly the advantage of him.
38 (BEAT) Then I went to a man with still higher
pretensions of being wise, and I found the same thing. Whereupon I made an enemy of him and many
who were with him.
38 Then I went from one man to
another, from lawyer to doctor, from artisan to professor, even the poets. And I was not unconscious of the enmity that
I provoked. And it's been a constant
fear for me. But God had spoken, so I
said to myself that I must go to all I know and find out what the oracle meant.
39 And I swear to you
Athenians, by Jove, I swear -- for I must tell you the truth -- I found that
those in most repute were but the most foolish and that others you wouldn't
think about were really the wiser.
40 Many I approached had
knowledge I lacked. But on behalf of
the oracle, I asked myself, would I rather be as I was, neither having their
knowledge nor their ignorance, or like them in both? I decided I was better off as I was.
41 So, this search of mine led
to my having many enemies of the most dangerous kind. But I'm called wise since my hearers always imagine that I myself
possess the wisdom wanting in others.
42 But the truth is, people of
Athens, that God only is wise. And by
His answer, he intends to show that the person is the wisest who, like
Socrates, knows that his wisdom is in fact worth nothing.
43 Finally, young men of the
richer classes who haven't much to do follow me because they like to hear the
pretenders examined. And they often
imitate me, seeking out others who believe they are wise but in fact are
not. And as these young men soon
discover, there are many such people.
44 But when my followers begin
to challenge them, the pretenders become angry with me. "That confounded Socrates," they
say. "He’s a villainous misleader of youth!" But if someone asks them
what evil I practice and teach, they don't really know. But, so they wont appear to be at a loss,
they repeat the old ready-made charges: "Socrates is one who speculates
about the heavens above and the earth below and makes the worse appear the
better cause."
45 I've said enough on the
first class of my accusers; I turn now to the second.
46 And they are headed by
Meletus, a good man and lover of his country -- as he calls himself.
47 MILD LAUGHTER.
48 SOC. His charges against me might be stated as
follows: "Socrates is a doer of evil who corrupts the youth, and who does not
believe in the gods of state, but has other new divinities of his own."
49 This is the charge. And now let us examine the particular
counts. He says that I am a doer of
evil and corrupt the youth. But I say, good
people of Athens, that Meletus is a doer of evil in that he pretends to be in
earnest when he is only in jest, and is eager to bring men to trial from a
pretended zeal and interest about matters in which he really never had the
smallest interest. And the truth of
this I will endeavor to prove to you.
50 Stand up then, Meletus, and
let me ask a question of you.
51 You think a great deal
about the improvement of youth?
52 MELETUS: Yes, I
do.
53 SOC. Then tell the judges who their improver
is.
54 SILENCE.
55 SOC. Speak up, Meletus. Your silence is proof of what I was
saying. Do not disgrace yourself this
way. Who is their improver?
56 MEL. The laws.
57 SOC. You misunderstand me, good sir. I want to know who the person is; who in the
first place knows the laws?
58 MEL. The judges who are present in court.
59 SOC. You mean the judges are able to instruct
and improve the youth?
60 MEL. Certainly they are.
61 SOC. All of them, or only some of them?
62 MEL. All of them.
63 SOC. By the goddess Hera, that is good
news! There are plenty of improvers,
then. And what do you say of the
audience, do they improve them?
64 MEL. Yes, they do.
65 SOC. And the senators?
66 MEL. Yes, the senators improve them.
67 SOC. But perhaps the members of the assembly
corrupt them? Or do they improve them?
68 MEL. They improve them.
69 SOC. Then, every Athenian improves them, and I
alone corrupt them.
70 MEL. That is what I stoutly affirm.
71 SOC. I'm very unfortunate if you're right. But happy indeed would be the condition of
our youth if they had but one corrupter.
And now, Meletus, another question: which is better, to live among bad
citizens or among good ones? Do not the
good do their neighbors good, and the bad do them evil?
72 MEL. Certainly.
73 SOC. And is there any one who would rather be injured
than benefited by those he lives with?
74 MEL. Certainly not.
75 SOC. And do you accuse me of corrupting the
youth intentionally, or unintentionally?
76 MEL. Intentionally, of course.
77 SOC. But you have just admitted that the good
do their neighbors good and the bad do them evil. Now am I, at my age, in such darkness and ignorance as to not
know that if I corrupt a man I must live with, I will be harmed by him, and yet
I continue to corrupt him -- and intentionally, too?
78 NO ANSWER.
79 SOC. Very well, then, Meletus, I would now like
to know in what I am affirmed to corrupt the youth. I suppose you mean, as I infer from your indictment, that I teach
them to not acknowledge the gods of the State, but instead some other
divinities or spiritual agencies.
80 MEL. That's what I say.
81 SOC. Then, when we say “gods,” Meletus, of whom
are we speaking? Do you affirm that I
teach other men to believe in only some gods and not those acknowledged by the
City, and am therefore not a complete atheist? Or do you mean that I am a
complete atheist?
82 MEL. I mean that you are a complete atheist.
83 SOC. What an extraordinary statement! Dear
Athenians, I would now like you to join me in examining what I believe to be an
inconsistency.
84 Now then, Meletus, did a
man ever believe in human things and not of human beings?
85 NO ANSWER.
86 SOC. Did any man ever believe in horsemanship
and not in horses? Or in flute playing
and not in flute players? (BEAT) Well,
then, I'll answer for you: There is no one who ever did.
87 Now, please answer the next
question: Can a person believe in spiritual and divine agencies and not in
spirits or demigods?
88 MEL. He cannot.
89 SOC. You got your voice back; how lucky a day
for Justice!
90 LAUGHTER FROM THE COURT.
91 SOC. But my friend, you swear in your
indictment that I teach and believe in divine and spiritual agencies, and if
this is true, I must then believe in spirits or demigods must I not?
92 (BEAT) To be sure I must,
and I may assume that your silence gives consent.
93 Now what are spirits or
demigods? Are they not either gods or the progeny of gods?
94 MEL. Certainly they are.
95 SOC. This, Meletus, is what I call the
facetious riddle invented by you: The demigods or spirits are gods, and you say
first that I do not believe in gods and then again that I do believe in gods --
that is, if I believe in demigods.
96 For if the demigods are the
illegitimate sons of gods, what human being will ever believe that there are no
gods if they believe in the sons of gods?
You might as well affirm the existence of mules and deny that of horses
and asses.
97 Such nonsense, Meletus, could
only have been intended by you to make trial of me. You've put this into the indictment because you had nothing real
of which to accuse me. And as I had
stated earlier, you bring this indictment on behalf of a pretended zeal, with
no true commitment to your own charges.
98 (Beat) I have said enough
in answer to the charge of Meletus. Any
elaborate defense is unnecessary. But I
know only too well how many are the enmities I have incurred. And this is what will be my destruction if I
am destroyed, not Meletus, but the envy and detraction of the world, which has
been the death of many good men and will probably be the death of many more;
there is no danger of my being the last of them.
99 Some will say: "Are
you not ashamed, Socrates, of a course of life which may bring an untimely
death?"
100 To this I would answer: A
man who is good for anything should not calculate the chance of living or
dying, but only to consider whether what he is doing is right or wrong.
3
101 SOCRATES: (WAKING UP) Uh -- Crito;
why have you come at this hour?
102 CRITO: Well, I --
103 SOC. It must be quite early; what time is it?
104 CR. Dawn is breaking.
105 SOC. I'm surprised the guard let you in.
106 CR. I know him well, Socrates; he owes me one.
107 SOC. (YAWNS) Mm. You just came
in?
108 CR. No, I came some time ago.
109 SOC. You should've awaken me at once.
110 CR. You seemed so peaceful in your slumber. I let you sleep to minimize your anguish
over this calamity.
111 SOC. When a man reaches my age, Crito, he should not fear the
approach of death.
112 CR. But other old men fear death.
113 SOC. True, but why have you come at such an early hour?
114 CR. I must urge you to take my advice and escape.
115 SOC. Now, Crito, I --
116 CR. If you die, Socrates, not only shall I lose a beloved friend
who can never be replaced, but many people will believe I was unwilling to
bribe the guard to let you escape. They'll
think I value money more than the life of a friend.
117 SOC. Awe -- why worry about the many; good people are the only ones
whose opinion is worth worrying about, and such good people will understand the
truth.
118 CR. But opinion of the many must be regarded -- if not for them,
after all, you would not be here now.
So you see? Such people can do the greatest evil.
119 SOC. I only wish it were so, for if they could do the greatest evil,
they could also do the greatest good.
But they can do neither, for they cannot make a man wise or foolish, and
whatever they do is the result of chance.
120 CR. I won't dispute that, but tell me: do you refuse to escape for
fear that I'll get into trouble?
121 SOC. Yes, Crito, this is one of my fears.
122 CR. Well fear not -- the informers can be silenced with only a
little money.
123 SOC. I have always been one who must be guided by reason, so I ask
you, what is to be chiefly valued, life, or a good life?
124 CR. A good life, Socrates.
125 SOC. Then on this basis, let's discuss whether I should escape or
not. Tell me, is doing wrong always
evil and dishonorable?
126 CR. Yes.
127 SOC. Then we must do no wrong?
128 CR. Certainly.
129 SOC. And if we are injured, we must not injure in return, as the many
believe we should, for we must injure no one?
130 CR. Clearly.
131 SOC. And what of doing evil in return for evil, which is the morality
of the many, is that just or not?
132 CR. Not just.
133 SOC. For doing evil to another is the same as injuring him?
134 CR. Yes.
135 SOC. Then we ought not to retaliate or render evil for evil to anyone,
no matter what evil we have suffered.
But I wonder if you really believe this, Crito, because the many believe
retaliation is acceptable and often good.
136 CR. I definitely agree with you, Socrates.
137 SOC. Very well. My next point
then: Should a person do what he believes is right, or should he betray what he
believes is right?
138 CR. He should do what he believes is right.
139 SOC. Then consider that I am about to escape, and the government come
up to me and asks, "Tell us Socrates, do you think a state can subsist and
not be overthrown when the laws have no power, but are trampled upon by individuals?"
Suppose I say, Crito, "Yes -- but the state has injured me and given me an
unjust sentence."
140 CR. I'm listening.
141 SOC. Then the government responds, "Did we agree to give you a
just sentence, or that you should abide by the sentence?" Should I show astonishment at this question,
the government could add, "What justifies you in attempting to destroy
us? Did we not bring you into existence? Your mother and father married by our aid
and begat you. Have you objections to
those of us who regulate marriage?"
I would tell them no.
142 And they would ask, "And have you
objections against those of us who regulate the nurture and education of
children by which you were trained?"
Again I would reply no.
142A Then they may also say,
"Then having brought you into the world, and nurtured and educated you,
and having given you and every other citizen every good we had to give, we also
gave the liberty to any citizen who, when he comes of age, decides he does not
like it here, may go to another country with no interference from us.
142B “But if he chooses to
stay, he is in an implied contract with us to obey our laws or to persuade us
to change them. And if he fails, yet
decides to remain as a citizen and resident, he must then obey our laws.
143 "Now you, Socrates," they will
say, "have -- more than anyone -- acknowledged the agreement, for you of
all Athenians have been the most constant resident. One must suppose that you love Athens so, for you have never
left, except for military service. You
never left to visit, nor to explore, nor to see the games. And you begat and raised your own children
here, which is proof of your satisfaction with the city.
143A “Moreover, during your
trial, you could have reduced your penalty
to banishment; the state that refuses to let you go now would have let you go
then. But you claimed to prefer death
to exile. You were at that time willing
to die, yet now you have forgotten these sentiments and wish to escape, thus
destroying the power of our laws and the security of our government."
(BEAT) Tell me, Crito, how would we answer that? Must we not assent?
144 CR. We must, certainly, Socrates.
145 SOC. And if I escape and go, for example, to Thebes or Megara, both
of which are well governed, then I would be forced into exile, forced to leave
behind my property, and deprived of my citizenship. I would retreat to a city where the government and all patriotic
citizens would cast an evil eye upon me as a subverter of the laws. And this will confirm in the minds of the
judges that I am a corrupter of the young.
Will I then flee from well-ordered cities and virtuous people, and
continue fleeing into the treacherous outlands of barbarism? Would existence be worth having on these
terms?
146 The government again might tell me,
"Listen, Socrates, to us who have brought you up, think not of life first
and justice afterwards, but of justice first, that you may be justified before
the princes of this world and the one beyond.
So now, depart in innocence, a sufferer and not a doer of evil: a victim
not of laws but of men."
147 This, Dear Crito, is what I hear murmuring
in my ears, as if a pipe I must march to.
I now know that anything more that you say will be in vain, yet speak if
you have anything to say.
148 CR. I have nothing to say, Socrates.
149 SOC. Then leave me, Crito, to fulfill the will of God and to follow
whither he leads me.
4
150 CR. Have you any commands for me, Socrates?
151 SOC. Nothing particular, Crito, only as I have always told you, take
care of yourself. That is a service you
may always render to me. And be of good
cheer and say that you are burying my body only.
152 CR. The jailer has told me the time will soon arrive.
153 SOC. We must do as we're told, Crito. Therefore, let the cup be brought if the poison is prepared. If it is not, let the attendant prepare
some.
154 CR. The cup was brought and Socrates drank and finished the
draught. My own tears were flowing so
fast. I covered my face and wept, not
for him, but at the thought of having to part from such a dear friend. I looked around and saw even the guards,
even he who had dispensed the hemlock, were weeping. Socrates alone was calm.
155 SOC. What is this outcry? I sent away the women mainly to avoid such
display, for I have been told that a man should die in peace. So be quiet and have patience.
156 CR. As the poison grabbed hold of his body, he became weak and lost
feeling in his feet, then his legs, and on up.
We knew that when the poison reached the heart, that would be the
end.
157 He was beginning to grow cold as he spoke
his last words:
158 SOC. (WEAKLY) Crito, I owe a cock to Asclepius; will you remember to
pay the debt?
159 CR. I was not able to answer, for in a moment, his eyes were
still. I closed them and continued to
sit beside his body. His sacrifice of a
cock to Asclepius, the god of healing, was payment for a comfortable
death. Of this, I too was thankful and
would honor his debt.
159A As time has passed, I've
missed my friend, but his wisdom has remained with me, as well as his outlook
on life. He had a way about him of not
only revealing our own wisdom or lack of wisdom with his questions, but of showing
us the way toward joy when only sorrow seemed certain. I leave you, then, with a sentiment he
imparted to us shortly before his execution:
160 SOC. I say, let a man be of good cheer about his soul, who having cast
away the pleasures and ornaments of the body as alien to him, has sought after
the pleasures of knowledge; and has arrayed the soul, not in some foreign
attire, but in her own proper jewels: temperance and justice and courage and
nobility and truth -- in these adorned, she is ready to go on her journey to
the world beyond, when her hour comes.
THE
END