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.