Reading room

Apology of Socrates

Plato

A recreation of the defence speech Socrates delivered in 399 BC before the Athenian popular jury, accused of not recognising the city's gods and of corrupting the young. Socrates explains the Delphic oracle, his mission of examining those who think they know, and his conscious ignorance; after the verdict he ironically proposes to be maintained in the Prytaneum, and accepts death declaring that the unexamined life is not worth living. Plato was present at the trial (34a, 38b). It is the classic doorway into philosophy.