SOCRATES, sok'ra-tez, Greek philosopher: b. Athens, in 469 a.c.; d. 399' B.C. His father, Sophroniscus, was a sculptor, and Socrates him self followed this occupation for a time. His mother, Phenarete, was a midwife. In his youth he received the education prescribed by the laws, and also made himself acquainted with geometry and astronomy. That he had listened to Anaxagoras or Archelaus is only reported by untrustworthy authorities; Plato accounts for his master's acquaintance with the works of the former by supposing that he had read the work written by that philosopher. According to Xenophon he was familiar with the doctrines of other natural philosophers, although he did not accept them. Plato repre sents Socrates as saying that, while still very young, he met Parmenides, the most important of the Eleatic philosophers, who was then ad vanced in years, as the latter was expounding his doctrines. A material influence on his philosophical development was exercised by the Sophists, to whose discourses he occasion ally listened, and with whom he frequently entered into conversation. Excepting in con nection with his philosophical career, only a few circumstances of his life are known. He served as a hoplite or heavily armed soldier in the campaign of Potidma (432-429 a.c.), where he excelled his fellow soldiers in the ease with which he endured the hardships of a winter campaign, distinguished himself by his valor, saved the life of his- friend Alcibiades and re signed to that youth the prize of honor whicl was awarded to his own bravery. He fought at the battle of Delium (424), and according to one account saved the life of Xenophon, while according to another his own retreat was pro tected by Alcibiades. In 422 he marched with Clcon against Amphipolis. On two occasions he came boldly to the front in politi cal life. After the battle of Arginusa (406) 10 naval officers were publicly arraigned for neglecting the sacred duty of burying the slain in consequence of a violent storm. The clamor for their condemnation rose so high that the court wished to proceed in violation of all legal forms; but Socrates, the presiding judge on that day, refused to put the question. He soon after showed that he could withstand tyrants as well as the populace. He was sum moned by the Thirty to proceed with four other persons to Salamis to bring back Leon, an Athenian citizen who had retired thither to escape the cruelty and rapacity of the new government. He alone refused, while the others obeyed the order. He declined taking further share in public affairs, giving as a reason the warnings of an internal voice, a divine Men tor, of which he was wont to speak.
In the writings of the disciples of Socrates, he appears almost always as a man advanced in years, such as they themselves had known him. With remarkable physical strength and endur ance, he trained himself to coarse fare, scanty clothing, bare feet, and indifference to heat or cold, aiming thus to reduce the number of his wants, as a distant approach to the perfection of the gods, who want nothing. He had a flat nose, thick lips, prominent eyes, bald head, squat figure and ungainly gait, so that Alcibi ades likened him to an uncouthly sculptured Silenus containing within the images of the gods. He brought into thorough subjection his naturally impetuous appetites and irascible 'temper and has been called the most illustrious example in history of the moral conscience, and the creator of moral science. But though a sage he was wholly removed from the gloom and constraint of asceticism; he indeed exem plified the finest Athenian social culture, was a witty as well as a serious disputant, and on festive occasions would drink more wine than any other guest without being overcome. Of his wife Xanthippe, all that has passed into history is that she bore him three sons, that she was an arrant shrew, and that he married and endured her for self-discipline. Among the most distinguished of his companions were Plato, Xenophon, Crito, Euclid of Mcgara. An tisthenes, Aristippus, Phwdon, iEschines, Cebes and Alcibiades. He devoted his life especially to the education of youth and for the accom plishment of this end he relied on erbs, love. which, without excluding its sensuous element, he refined and utilized as an instrument in the conduct of souls and the common development of his thoughts and those of his listeners. Soc rates was firmly convinced that he was charged with a special religious mission. He believed he was called by the Deity to strive, by means of his teaching and life, after a revival of moral feeling, and the laying of a scientific foundation for it. For this reason he had been warned against participating in public affairs by the internal divine voice already men tioned. Relying, too, like his countrymen, on divine intimations by dreams and oracles, he believed that his mission had been signified to him by these. Aristophanes, in his comedy of The Clouds) (first represented in 423), at tributes to Socrates not only traits of character and opinions which really belonged to him, but also Anaxagorean doctrines and sophistical tendencies.