Plato. The Trial of Socrates can also been seen as the Trial of philosophy. [5] Having just told all of Athens that he respected the gods of the city and that he was not a corruptor of the young, Socrates would have been especially concerned to observe the city's rituals. The ancient Greek philosopher Socrates went to trial after being charged with putting the city of Athens and its youth in danger, and the trial resulted in his death. We haven't found any reviews in the usual places. Act One, like Aristophanes’ Clouds on which the act is based, is satirical. The full play was premiered on March 14, 2007, at the Chan Centre for the Performing Arts in Vancouver. Rather than offer a defence he chose instead to try to prove that the charges against him were ridiculous. The Last Days of Socrates was written by Plato. The charges against Socrates in his trial were the same accusations mentioned in the Euthyphro. The trial took place in Athens in 399 BC. The Trial and Death of Socrates remains a powerful document, partly because it is a true--perhaps in certain parts verbatim--account of the end of one of the greatest figures in history. The opera was premiered in Birmingham on May 8, 2012. Socrates and his Accusers Socrates on Trial strongly encourages audience participation. All three productions were directed by Joan Bryans. Costumes and masks were by Katerina Mpillinis. One point of historical departure in the play is that the script gives the jury only a single opportunity to vote. Additionally, Plato's Socrates is more eloquent and informative than Xenophon's, creating a character as … Alcibiades is exiled. The three men making the charges are Meletus, Anytus and Lykon. Repeatedly he tells the jury that he has never run a school or worked as a teacher. To his detractors, he was a corruptor of the young during wartime and one of the reasons Athens had suffered a humiliating defeat to Sparta in 404 BC. The trial of Socrates in 399 bce occurred soon after Athens’s defeat at the hands of Sparta in the Peloponnesian War (431–404 bce). Following the war, he became a leading member of the ruthless oligarchic regime the Spartans installed in Athens for eight months in 404-403, the Thirty Tyrants. Socrates walked around and spread knowledge and philosophy to others. Socrates was found guilty and ultimately executed. Socrates on Trial is a play depicting the life and death of the ancient Greek philosopher Socrates. Both of them wrote papers called Apology, which is the Greek word for “defense”. His trial and death have remained controversial until today. In 399 BCE Socrates was tried by an Athenian jury on charges of (a) denying the existence of deities, (b) introducing new deities, and (c) corrupting the youth of Athens. If people thought a speaker was stretching or misrepresenting the truth, they’d often yell out, much to the delight of onlookers.[8]. Socrates believed in being just, he states that everything has a role to play, and must play it well enough. Past directors have reported that participating as jurors is something audience members enjoy. Not only were Sparta and Athens military rivals during those years, they also had radically different forms of government. Socrates is one of the most influential philosophers in western civilisation, and Plato his most famous pupil. [13] Socrates' connection to Alcibiades is similarly controversial, even though many of the details of Alcibiades's flamboyant life are well known. Socrates went home and drank poison to fulfill the sentence. Act Three takes place a month later on the eve of Socrates’ execution. The play uses fresh language to emphasize what is important in the works of these ancient authors, while at the same time remaining faithful to the general tenor and tone of their writings. He was found guilty and sentenced to death. The play was originally published in 2008 by the University of Toronto Press. 5. During the narratives, Socrates gives us, as readers, insight towards his beliefs and philosophy, which are viewed as reasons for his imprisonment. [16] Originally two votes were taken: the first to determine Socrates’ guilt or innocence, the second to choose between proposed penalties after he was found guilty. Start studying Trial of Socrates--the Apology the crito-and others. In Socrates’ jail cell, Socrates’ best friend, Crito, and Socrates’ wife, Xanthippe, take turns trying to convince the condemned man that he should escape, something that might easily be arranged. Of the two authors, Plato's account is generally given more attention by scholars because he, unlike Xenophon, actually attended the one-day trial of Socrates in Athens in 399 B.C.E. In 2012, the play was adapted into the opera The Trial of Socrates, with libretto and score by Andrew Hopper of the Birmingham Conservatoire. During the narratives, Socrates gives us, as readers, insight towards his beliefs and philosophy, which are viewed as reasons for his imprisonment. [14] Even so, the degree to which Socrates may have influenced his actions remains unclear.[15]. Music was provided by Christos Pantas. Although some modern authors see this connection as a possible indication of Socrates' sympathy for the anti-democratic Spartans, this claim is hard to reconcile with the fact that it was the Thirty Tyrants who passed a law forbidding Socrates from speaking to any man under thirty, fearing his influence over the young. The speech Socrates gives is at times humorous and at times moving. To his followers, he personified progressive Greek ideals of justice and wisdom. His personal defense is described in works two of his students: Xenophon and Plato. Socrates on Trial presents the story of Socrates as told to us by Aristophanes, Plato, Xenophon, and others. Socrates criticizes the decision to put the convicted generals to death, but they are executed anyway. It took place on April 29, 2009, and was directed by Mandy Keister. Read this book using Google Play Books app on your PC, android, iOS devices. Socrates contended that orators were less concerned with the pursuit of truth than in using their oratorical skills to obtain power and influence. In The Apology, Socrates defends himself before the Athenian court against charges of corrupting youth. While at the school, the young man is encouraged to consider both sides of every argument. At the end of the act they are also given the job of voting to determine Socrates’ guilt or innocence. His last words, after the hemlock has begun to do its work, is that he and his friends owe a debt to Asclepius, the god of medicine. puzzles historians. [10], Because Socrates’ trial took place not long after the end of the Peloponnesian War, Athens’ humiliating loss to Sparta was still on many people's minds. Why, in a society enjoying more freedom and democracy than any the world had ever seen, would a 70-year-old philosopher be put to death for what he was teaching? The Last Days of Socrates (2003) is a collection of four of Plato’s dialogues, all centred around the last days that his tutor Socrates was alive. The first workshop production of the play was mounted in Vancouver in 2006 by Vital Spark Theatre with Stephen Wexler playing the role of Socrates. Athenian juries were also not quiet. For the events on which the play is based, see. Socrates, more than most, should be in accord with this contract, as he has lived a happy seventy years fully content with the Athenian way of life. The Trial and Death of Socrates, depicts the different stages of Socrates’s life, from his prosecution until his execution. This aspect of the trial will be discussed more fully below. It tells the story of how Socrates was put on trial for corrupting the youth of Athens and for failing to honour the city's gods. Andrew D. Irvine is a professor in the Department of Philosophy at the University of British Columbia. The act opens with Strepsiades, an Athenian businessman, worried about his lazy son Pheidippides. Socrates was a job less philosopher whose only form of income was what little donations received from others he met. Suited for informal dramatic readings as well as regular theatrical performances, Socrates on Trial will undoubtedly appeal to instructors and students, and its informative introduction enhances its value as a resource. The four dialogues follow Socrates’ adventures as he goes to court to face his accusers in his trial, his conviction and his final moments before taking the poison and dying. The newly rebuilt Athenian fleet defeats Spartan forces off the island of Lesbos, but the crews of twenty five ships drown in a storm. The trial and execution of of Socrates in Athens in 399 B.C.E. The title role was played by Demophilus-Vias Mpillinis and Thanassis Nakos. Learn vocabulary, terms, and more with flashcards, games, and other study tools. The value of the play as a reliable source of knowledge about Socrates is thrown further into doubt by the fact that, in Plato’s Apology, Socrates himself rejects it as a fabrication. During wartime, it was understood by the Greeks that victory came from two sources: the protection of the gods, and the unwavering loyalty of a city's young soldiers. The translation into Greek was done by Giannis Spyridis. Act Two takes place twenty-four years later. More than 2,400 years after his death, Socrates remains an iconic but controversial figure. One effective way of holding the vote is to have audience members walk to the front of the theatre to choose either a black or white stone and place it in a bronze container. His commitment to obeying the laws is also emphasized, as is his persistent questioning of the general Athenian standard of moral education. Socrates on Trial is a play depicting the life and death of the ancient Greek philosopher Socrates. He also believed that everything is characterized by a virtue that has a direct relationship with the performance of its function. Some commentators have understood these words to mean that Socrates’ last concern, as he was preparing to enter the afterlife, was with the health of his soul. Socrates' story is one of historic proportions and his unyielding pursuit of truth remains controversial and relevant to the present day. [7] Large juries were thought to make it more difficult for jurors to be bribed. At the request of Lysander, a Spartan admiral, the Thirty men, led by Critias and Theramenes, were to administer Athens and revise the city’s democratic laws, which were inscribed on a wall … [18], In the words of reviewer Maya Alapin, “The play is refreshingly illuminating on the relationship between Socrates’ execution and the lasting influence of Aristophanes’ negative depiction of him on the evolution of the Athenian psyche. To fulfill the order of execution, Socrates is required to drink a cup of hemlock, a type of poison. The Trial of Socrates Based on the account of Socrates trial by Plato this play celebrates the wit which Socrates employed during his final public appearance. It tells the story of how Socrates was put on trial for corrupting the youth of Athens and for failing to honour the city's gods. [6] During Socrates’ day, juries were much larger than they are today. One of Plato’s most important works is unquestionably the Apology, which is essentially a record of the speech Socrates gave at his trial. On his way to trial, Socrates encounters Euthyphro, a confident Athenian preparing to sue his own father. Byron Kaldis, “Philosophy and/of the Theatre,” in Anna Lazou and Georgios Patios, McPherran, Mark L. “Socrates, Crito, and Their Debt to Asclepius,”, http://www.rivetingriffs.com/Socrates%20On%20Trial.html, On the Concept of Irony with Continual Reference to Socrates, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Socrates_on_Trial&oldid=1004103565, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, This page was last edited on 1 February 2021, at 02:19. Diogenes Laertius, writing in the third century C.E., calls Lycon a "demagogue" who "made all the necessary preparations" for the trial. Socrates was put to trial, accused of spoiling the youth of Athens, tried and sentenced to death. Socrates refuses, saying that to do so would further corrupt the young, something he swore to the jury he would never do. puzzles historians. Socrates on Trial presents the story of Socrates as told to us by Aristophanes, Plato, Xenophon, and others. The play was written by Andrew David Irvine of the University of British Columbia and premiered by director Joan Bryans of Vital Spark Theatre Company in 2007 at the Chan Centre for the Performing Arts in Vancouver.[1]. Euthyphro finds Socrates outside the court-house, debating the nature of piety, while the Apology is his robust rebuttal of the charges of impiety and a defence of the … The trial and execution of Socrates in Athens in 399 B.C.E. In the time of the trial of Socrates, the year 399 BC, the city-state of Athens recently had endured the trials and tribulations of Spartan hegemony and the thirteen-month régime of the Thirty Tyrants, which had been imposed consequent to the Athenian defeat in the Peloponnesian War (431–404 BC). Socrates on Trial: A Play Based on Aristophane's Clouds and Plato's Apology ... Socrates on Trial: A Play Based on Aristophanes' Clouds and Plato's Apology ... Socrates on Trial: A Play Based on Aristophanes' Clouds and Plato's Apology, Crito, and Phaedo, Adapted for Modern Performance, G - Reference,Information and Interdisciplinary Subjects Series. The act ends with Socrates reminding the jury that he is innocent of all charges and that they have a duty, not to reward the speaker who has delivered the most polished speech, but to see that justice is done. A much more likely explanation is that the offering was simply part of an annual religious festival that recognized the debt all Athenians owed to Asclepius for having recently delivered them from the plague. The play contains adaptations of several classic Greek works: the slapstick comedy, Clouds, written by Aristophanes and first performed in 423 BCE; the dramatic monologue, Apology, written by Plato to record the defence speech Socrates gave at his trial; and Plato's Crito and Phaedo, two dialogues describing the events leading to Socrates’ execution in 399 BCE. The pace picks up significantly in the second act with Socrates' trial… Download for offline reading, highlight, bookmark or take notes while you read The Trial and Death of Socrates: Four Dialogues. The play contains adaptations of several classic Greek works: the slapstick comedy, Clouds, written by Aristophanes and first performed in 423 BCE; the dramatic monologue, Apology, written by Plato to record the defence speech Socrates gave at his trial; and Plato's Crito Socrates is one of the great Greek philosophers. A 2008 production, also at the Chan Centre, included Paul Toolan in the title role. A Play Based on Aristophanes' Clouds and Plato's Apology, Crito, and Phaedo, Adapted for Modern Performance. A fascinating exploration of piety, justice, and legal philosophy, Plato illustrates Socrates' trial in an intriguing way that could benefit any person in the modern era. Unfortunately, rather than being impressed by the Stronger Argument, which advocates virtue, excellence and moderation, Pheidippides is influenced more by the Weaker Argument, which advocates immorality, debauchery and dissoluteness. Critias was reportedly related to Plato's mother, Perictione. Voting by a public show of hands – which was common in Athenian assemblies, but rare in Athenian trials[9] – is not recommended, since a persuasive performance on the part of the actor playing the role of Socrates might encourage more audience members to vote in favour of Socrates’ acquittal than history allows. Yet, in Athens, he was put on trial for corrupting the youth of Athens and not believing in the gods. Socrates has been charged with corrupting the young and failing to recognize the city's traditional gods. The Trial and Death of Socrates: Four Dialogues - Ebook written by Plato. Socrates was accused of corrupting the youth, not believing in the Gods of the state and sometimes it is added that he is also guilty of introducing new divinities.
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