The
Apology of Socrates Apology is Plato's version of the speech given by Socrates as he defends himself against the charges of being a man "who corrupted the young, refused to worship the gods, and created new deities"...
by
PlatoPlato , was a Classical Greek philosopher, mathematician, writer of philosophical dialogues, and founder of the Academy in Athens, the first institution of higher learning in the Western world...
names
Meletus as the chief accuser of
Socrates Socrates was a Classical Greek philosopher. Credited as one of the founders of Western philosophy, he is an enigmatic figure known only through the classical accounts of his students...
. He is also mentioned in the
EuthyphroEuthyphro is one of Plato's early dialogues, dated to after 399 BCE. Taking place in Plato's Trial and Death of Socrates, it features Socrates and Euthyphro, a man known for claiming to be a religious expert. They attempt to pinpoint a definition for piety.-Background:The dialogue is set near the...
. Given his awkwardness as an orator, and his likely age at the time of Socrates' death, many hold that he was not the real leader of the movement against the early philosopher, but rather was simply the spokesman for a group led by
AnytusAnytus, son of Anthemion, was one of the prosecutors of Socrates. An unsubstantiated legend has it that he was banished from Athens after the public felt guilty about having Socrates executed. We know that he was one of the leading supporters of the democratic forces in Athens...
.
Meletus was probably a poet by trade and likely a religious fanatic who was more concerned with allegations of impiety than with the charges of corruption that were lodged against Socrates.
The
Apology of Socrates Apology is Plato's version of the speech given by Socrates as he defends himself against the charges of being a man "who corrupted the young, refused to worship the gods, and created new deities"...
by
PlatoPlato , was a Classical Greek philosopher, mathematician, writer of philosophical dialogues, and founder of the Academy in Athens, the first institution of higher learning in the Western world...
names
Meletus as the chief accuser of
Socrates Socrates was a Classical Greek philosopher. Credited as one of the founders of Western philosophy, he is an enigmatic figure known only through the classical accounts of his students...
. He is also mentioned in the
EuthyphroEuthyphro is one of Plato's early dialogues, dated to after 399 BCE. Taking place in Plato's Trial and Death of Socrates, it features Socrates and Euthyphro, a man known for claiming to be a religious expert. They attempt to pinpoint a definition for piety.-Background:The dialogue is set near the...
. Given his awkwardness as an orator, and his likely age at the time of Socrates' death, many hold that he was not the real leader of the movement against the early philosopher, but rather was simply the spokesman for a group led by
AnytusAnytus, son of Anthemion, was one of the prosecutors of Socrates. An unsubstantiated legend has it that he was banished from Athens after the public felt guilty about having Socrates executed. We know that he was one of the leading supporters of the democratic forces in Athens...
.
Meletus was probably a poet by trade and likely a religious fanatic who was more concerned with allegations of impiety than with the charges of corruption that were lodged against Socrates. Some believe Meletus was motivated primarily by the reports that Socrates had embarrassed the poets (in Plato's
GorgiasGorgias "the Nihilist", Greek sophist, pre-socratic philosopher and rhetorician, was a native of Leontini in Sicily. Along with Protagoras, he forms the first generation of Sophists. Several doxographers report that he was a pupil of Empedocles, although he would only have been a few years younger...
, Socrates accuses poets and orators of flattery and says that they impress only women, children, and slaves).
In the
EuthyphroEuthyphro is one of Plato's early dialogues, dated to after 399 BCE. Taking place in Plato's Trial and Death of Socrates, it features Socrates and Euthyphro, a man known for claiming to be a religious expert. They attempt to pinpoint a definition for piety.-Background:The dialogue is set near the...
, Plato describes Meletus, the youngest of the three accusers, as having "a beak, and long straight hair, and a beard which is ill grown." Plato wrote that, prior to the prosecution of Socrates, Meletus was "unknown" to him. During the first three hours of trial, Meletus and the other two accusers each stood in the law court in the center of
AthensAthens , the capital and largest city of Greece, dominates the Attica periphery; as one of the world's oldest cities, its recorded history spans around 3,400 years....
to deliver previously crafted speeches to the jury against Socrates. No record of Meletus's speech survives.
However, we do have Plato's record of Socrates' cross-examination of Meletus (in those days, the defendant always cross-examined the accuser). Using his trademark
Socratic MethodThe Socratic Method , named after the Classical Greek philosopher Socrates, is a form of inquiry and debate between individuals with opposing viewpoints based on asking and answering questions to stimulate rational thinking and to illuminate ideas...
, Meletus is made to seem an inarticulate fool. He says that Socrates corrupts the young, and that Socrates is the only one to do so, but he can not provide a motive for why Socrates would do this. Socrates shows that if he were to do this it must surely be in ignorance, for no man would intentionally make bad those living around him. Concerning the accusation that Socrates believed in strange spirits and not the gods of the state, Socrates tricks Meletus into saying that spirits are the offspring of gods, and since no one believes in flutes playing without flute players, or in horses' offspring without horses, how could Socrates believe in the offspring of gods without believing in gods? For much of his cross examination Meletus remains silent, and we are led to believe that he does not have ready answers for Socrates.
Greek historian
Diogenes LaertiusDiogenes Laërtius , was a biographer of the Greek philosophers. Nothing is known about his life, but his surviving Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers is one of the principal surviving sources for the history of Greek philosophy.-Life:Nothing is known about his life. He must have lived after...
, writing in the first half of the 3rd century AD, dubiously reported that after the execution of Socrates "Athenians felt such remorse" that they banished Meletus from their city.
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