소크라테스의 변명 辨明 . The Book of Apology. Also known as The Death of Socrates , by Plato

소크라테스의 변명 辨明 . The Book of Apology. Also known as "The Death of Socrates" , by Plato
INTRODUCTION.
In what relation the Apology of Plato stands to the real defence of Socrates,
there are no means of determining. It certainly agrees in tone and character with
the description of Xenophon, who says in the Memorabilia that Socrates might
have been acquitted 'if in any moderate degree he would have conciliated the
favour of the dicasts;' and who informs us in another passage, on the testimony
of Hermogenes, the friend of Socrates, that he had no wish to live; and that the
divine sign refused to allow him to prepare a defence, and also that Socrates
himself declared this to be unnecessary, on the ground that all his life long he
had been preparing against that hour. For the speech breathes throughout a spirit
of defiance, (ut non supplex aut reus sed magister aut dominus videretur esse
judicum', Cic. de Orat.); and the loose and desultory style is an imitation of the
'accustomed manner' in which Socrates spoke in 'the agora and among the
tables of the money- changers.' The allusion in the Crito may, perhaps, be
adduced as a further evidence of the literal accuracy of some parts. But in the
main it must be regarded as the ideal of Socrates, according to Plato's
conception of him, appearing in the greatest and most public scene of his life,
and in the height of his triumph, when he is weakest, and yet his mastery over
mankind is greatest, and his habitual irony acquires a new meaning and a sort of
tragic pathos in the face of death. The facts of his life are summed up, and the
features of his character are brought out as if by accident in the course of the
defence. The conversational manner, the seeming want of arrangement, the
ironical simplicity, are found to result in a perfect work of art, which is the portrait
of Socrates.