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English 240: Ancient Literature Questions on Plato's Apology / Crito Alfred J. Drake. Hours: Cyber Cafe Tu/Th. 12-1 | ajdrake@ajdrake.com Apology 1. How does Socrates characterize his accusers, and how does he interpret the charges they have made against him? Refer to relevant sections of the text in your response. 2. It has long been a point of contention whether Socrates is “guilty” of something, or whether we are to suppose him completely innocent of any offense against Athens. What do you think, and why? Refer to the text in your response. 3. Do you think that Socrates intends his remarks as a serious legal defense? Why or why not? What exactly are the main points of his defense, and what do you suppose he is trying to accomplish by means of his remarks? 4. We have spent a fair amount of time in this class discussing Greek heroic characters. What picture of Socrates emerges from this dialogue—to what extent does he resemble a traditional Greek hero? To what extent does he differ? Refer to the text in your response. Crito 5. What is it about Socrates, at the beginning of the dialogue, that Crito finds so admirable? What contrast between their outlooks is thereby set up, and how does Socrates respond to Crito's admiration? 6. Socrates infers from a dream that he will be executed the next day, but not sooner. What is the content of that dream, and what is its significance—that is, what does it suggest about the model of heroism that Crito may be offering in the pattern of Socrates' life and death? 7. After Socrates recounts his dream, what reproaches does Crito make against Socrates' decision to stay and die—what seems most important to Crito in this regard? 8. How does Socrates begin responding to Crito's concerns—describe his method of questioning Crito about his remarks, and Socrates' framing of the correct question both should be addressing. 9. Socrates develops his exploration of the issue at hand by means of a literary fiction—namely, he personifies the Laws of Athens. What arguments do the Laws advance against Crito's suggestion of flight from the City? 10. The text concludes with a vision. Why do you suppose Plato has chosen to proceed by way of a literary device (personification) and then a final reference to ecstatic vision? Why not simply offer us straightforward arguments against leaving Athens —what effect, that is, does the literariness of the text have upon the argument itself? 11. Plato makes Socrates uphold the laws of Athens in spite of the many's abusive implementation of them. Is that how you see the nature of law and the individual's relationship to it? Namely, what should a person do when good laws are unjustly applied? What should a person do when a law itself enshrines stupidity and cruelty—as in, say, the infamous Dredd Scott case in the nineteenth century, which reaffirmed the rights of slaveholders? 12. Law seems to be something divine in the Crito, and to an extent the American Founders treat it that way, too: we are, John Adams wrote, “an empire of laws, and not of men.” To what degree can law transcend the ordinary citizen and the powerful ruler alike? Are we ever fully a government of laws alone?
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