Leigh Fetner
ATHENIAN RELIGION: A HISTORY
Chapter 10 The Trial
of Socrates: And a Religious Crisis?
399 B.C.E. Socrates was condemned and put to death
BASIS FOR A RELIGIOUS CRISIS:
·The crisis was related to the mutilation of the Herms and
profanation of the Mysteries in 415.
·Thucydides tells how the great plague that began in 430
drove men to despair because the religious remedies did not work against
the plague.
·It’s possible that the experience made people lash out
against people like Socrates.
·If there was religious crisis, civic religion resumed quickly
and the interruption of festivals was temporary.
·Ways believing societies respond to catastrophes
1. Anger against the authorities
2. Look for scapegoats
3. Self-blame
·Athenians’ faith was strengthened
REASONS FOR SOCRATES’ TRIAL:
·Popular prejudice against him more than against other impious
intellectuals
·Official Charge: Socrates does wrong by not acknowledging
the gods the city acknowledges and
introducing other new powers. He also does wrong by corrupting
the young.
·The practices in the charge were not forbidden but were
used as evidence of his impiety.
·Two accusers view point of Socrates:
1. Embodiment of all that was worst in the type of the impious
intellectual
2. General charge of ‘corrupting the young’: his teachings had
produced the two men who had harmed the
city the most: Alcibiades and Critias
CHARGE OF IMPIETY:
·Accusation of impiety was almost never brought before an
Athenian court without political anxiety or
hatred
·The accused usually never committed any other offense
Was Socrates prosecuted because of a true perception that his teachings
subverted the basis of traditional
religion?
·Accusers exploited the charge against Socrates that he
introduced new powers
·Prosecution argues:
1. He abandoned the city’s gods for his personal divine voice
2. Criticized for being credited with Athenian myth—But this
could be considered pious because the myths
were accepted
·Socrates declared justice, not sacrifice was the key to
divine favour
·His religious position would never cause him to be singled
out for an attack
·Aristophanes’ Clouds is an important document
to Socrates’ trial
SOPHIST:
·Founding fathers of higher education
·Thought to have undermined traditional family authority–Socrates
was hated because he exposed the
ignorance of older men in the presence of the younger men
SOCRATES’ SCHOOL (according to Aristophanes’ Clouds):
·Taught doctrine about the heavens
·Art of making the worse appear the better cause
·Phenomena that causes the Athenians to fear the gods have
natural causes
OTHER INTELLECTUAL TRIALS:
·The trials of 415 prove that the Athenians were suspecting
the same individuals of impiety and disloyalty to the constitution since
5 of the people convicted were associated with Socrates
·Socrates’ trial was only the culmination of a series of
trials and attacks on intellectuals
·Example: Diagoras exiled for mocking the Eleusinian Mysteries
In practice the Athenians very rarely moved against verbal impiety
because there were wide varieties of opinions about the gods.
WAS THERE A RELIGIOUS CRISIS?
No, not in traditional religious sense.
Whom did the Athenians fear?
They feared the ‘atheist’ scientist who does not use the gods and
chance to explain celestial phenomena.
Scientists in the 6th century were new enough that they were admired.
By the 5th century they were
common and influential enough to be feared.
WHAT SOLVED THE RELIGIOUS CRISIS?
·Stoicism
·Stoic solution: argument from design
INTRODUCING NEW GODS:
·The charge of introducing new gods could persuade the jury
that the individual was guilty of impiety.
·New gods could only be created by:
1. The city
2. Consent from the gods via an oracle
3. Individuals or groups who introduced new gods had to have the
authorization of the city
·Athenians only attacked the people who introduced new gods
that were associated with religious associations were objectionable.
·Socrates was charged with ‘acknowledging new powers’ when
the charge was more damning of ‘not acknowledging the gods that the city
believes in’
·By charging intellectuals with introducing new gods, Athenians
were reaffirming their control over all religious practices of Attica.
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