SOCRATES
849
SOCRATES
ographers introduce Aristotle to check or to confirm their statements. The indications of Aristotle are em- inentl)' valuable. They are rarely bioijraphical. They do not diminish the regret that all the works of the censors and even calumniators of Socrates, except the Clouds, and all the sources whence Athenreus drew his discrediting reports, have been utterly lost, but lost without having influenced the general judgment of men.
Socrates was born at Athens in B.C. 468 or 469 ; be- fore 469 says Ueberweg, with great |ilausibility. His birthday was in later times commemorated as a sacred day on the 6th of Thargelion, which would fall in May. His father, Sophroniscus, was a sculptor or statuary, in humble circumstances; not a common stone-mason, if his distinguished son, who learned and practiced the fa- ther's art, produced the (iraces in front of the Acropo- lis, which were seen and noted by I'ausanias (i, 22, 8; ix, 35, 1). His mother was Mia^narete, a mid- wife, whose occupation he often employed to illustrate his own intellectual procedure, whicli may have been confirmed or suggested by it. The father's condition did not allow the son any special advantages of educa- tion. The statement that Socrates was the pupil of Anaxagoras and Frodicus can have no other meaning than that he may have read the works of the former, and may have conversed with b<ith. They, as well as Gorgias and Parmenides, were at Athens during his early or mature manhood. The ordinary education of an Athenian, with the varied aids and stimulations which rendered the average Athenian more than equal to an average member of the British Parliament, were open to him, and were doubtless turned to the best account. He would learn music and gymnastics, and these were, probably, his only school acquirements ; but music and gymnastics embraced the elements of all intellectual and phj^sical training. He has expressed, through Plato, his obligations for his public education (^Crito, xii). The free intercourse of a democracy, and of such a democracy as that of Athens in the age of Pericles, with its boast of freedom of speech and of as- sociation, would afford Socrates, who ever sought inti- macy with noted persons, every chance of instruction and information that could be desired. The education of living communion far transcends all that can be learned from books. Socrates himself professes to have been self-educated in philosophy (Xenophon, Symp. i, .')), and the profession is just, for he had none to point the way which he pursued. He might also have claim- ed self-education in other respects, but it was an educa- tion resulting from habitual intercourse with the most intelligent and the best informed of all classes and of both sexes — with the associates of Pericles and Phidias, with Aspasia and Diotima, as well as with poets, art- ists, sophists, and artisans. His indefatigable perti- nacity and curiosity would enable him readily to ac- quire the extensive knowledge ascribed to him by Xen- ophon.
There are no authentic details of the first half of the life of Socrates. To Plato and to Xenophon he was al- ways an old man. Is there not room here for suspect- ing that the tenets and inquiries and practices which were ridiculed by Aristophanes and Ameipsias, before an audience familiar with the object of caricature, may have been the pursuits and investigations of Socrates -ia, his earlier years, while groping his way towards his ultimate vocation? This suspicion merits examina- tion. It may, however, be fairly inferred from the tenor of Xenophon's and of Plato's remarks that Socrates pur- sued the simple path of his obscure life, in the perform- ance of every public and private duty, witliout failure and without blame. He discharged the civil functions devolving on every Athenian faithfully, but without thought of advancement. He rendered the regular military service witliout seeking or holding command. He distinguished himself, or is said to have done so, at Potidaia, Delium, and Amphipolis by his courage, pa- IX.— H H II
tience, and endurance. The story of the rescue of Al- cibiades by Socrates at Potidaja is incredible, for the former was barely fifteen years of age at the time. The compensating story that Alcibiades afterwards rescued Socrates has the air of fiction about it. These military expeditions were the only occasions of absence from Athens, except one visit to the Isthmus, to which Aris- totle adds a visit to Delphi (^Frag.Z). Socrates loved Athens, loved its scenes, its bustle, and its people. He married and had children, but he was happy neither in his wife nor his children. Xanthippe had the reputa- tion of a shrew throughout all antiijuity ; and the sons of Cimon, Pericles, and Socrates are commemorated to- gether as worthless (Aristotle, /We^ii, 15). It may easily be credited that Socrates neglected wife and family while interminably discussing and debating through- out the livelong day. It is a question whether he had one or two wives — the much-known Xanthippe, the mother of his daughter, and Myrto, the daughter or descendant of Aristides the .Just. This bigamy, or mat- rimonial duplicity, is repudiated by Atheiiieus (xiii, 2), by Grote, Zeller, and nearly all the moderns. Athenseus says that the allegation rests upon the authority of Cal- listhenes, Demetrius Phalereus, Satyrus, and Aristoxe- nus. This is early testimony, and in the main reputa- ble. It rests also on the higher evidence of Aristotle {Frar/. 84). as reported by Diogenes Laertius, but the reporter may be suspected.