Plato’s Apology, Xenophon’s Apology, Study Guide for Plato’s Apology.

Readings in Greek:

Plato’s Apology of Socrates
Xenophon, Apology

Outside Readings (on Socrates) suggestions:

Choose one and write a page about the presentation of Socrates as it compares to that familiar from Plato’s Apology:

Xenophon’s Memorabilia (Memoirs of Socrates)
Xenophon’s Symposium
Aristophanes’ Clouds
Diogenes Laertius, Book ii (selections)
Plato, Euthyphro
Phaedo
* Cratylus
Maxwell Anderson, Barefoot in Athens
Christopher Phillips, Socrates Café

Paper or Other project

Graduate Students and those who have had more than two years of Greek will work on a research project (to be presented in brief to the class).

Sample topics:

Early study of Language (Cratylus) [Natali]
Thucydides [David]
The Trial of Socrates
Socratic Knowledge
Socratic Politics
Socratic Irony
Socratic Piety
Socrates and the Sophists

Undergraduates/ those who have had fewer than three years of Greek may choose to concentrate on solidifying their knowledge of Greek and work with the study guide or to work on a report topic.

The class will meet once a week for about two hours. Attendance is required.

Outlines of the Plato’s Apology

Standard Outline

• Opening remarks (17a1-18a6) Socrates’ manner of speaking
• Outline (18a7-19a7) The laying out of the plan of the defense
• The Defense

• 1. The defense against the caricature of Socrates (19a8-24b2)
• 2. The defense against the formal charges and cross-examination of Meletus (24b3-28a1)

• Digression (28a2-34b5) Socrates mission
• Epilogue (34b6-35d8) return to the themes of the opening

II

• Counterpenalty (35e1-38b9)

III

• Closing address (38c1-42a5)

C. D. Reeve’s Outline

• The False Socrates (17a1-24b2) negative characterization: he is NOT the caricature
• Defense against Meletus (24b3-28a1) also negative, but because of the use of the elenchus (question and answer) it is more positive in showing Socrates as he normally is.
• The True Socrates: positive characterization (28b3-42a5)

Some recommended readings:

Brickhouse, Thomas C. and Nicholas Smith, Socrates on trial, Princeton, N.J. : Princeton University Press, 1989.

__________, The Trial and Execution of Socrates, OUP, 2002.

Harris, Roy, Landmarks in linguistic thought : the Western tradition from Socrates to Saussure, London ; New York : Routledge, 1989.

Reeve, C. D. C., Socrates in the Apology : an essay on Plato's Apology of Socrates, Indianapolis : Hackett, 1989.