The Apology | Page 5

any rate, has foreknowledge, and premonishes those whom he will of what is about to be. That is a thing which all the world believes and asserts even as I do. Only, when they describe these premonitions under the name of birds and utterances, tokens[24] and soothsayers, I speak of a divinity, and in using that designation I claim to speak at once more exactly and more reverentially than they do who ascribe the power of the gods to birds. And that I am not lying against the Godhead I have this as a proof: although I have reported to numbers of friends the counsels of heaven, I have never at any time been shown to be a deceiver or deceived."
[20] Cf. "Mem." I. i. 2.
[21] Cf. Plat. "Apol." 19.
[22] Cf. "Anab." III. ii. 11; Aristoph. "Birds," 720.
[23] Delphi.
[24] Or, "the objects that meet us." See Prof. Jebb ad Theophr. "Ch." xxviii. 5.
As they listened to these words the judges murmured their dissent, some as disbelieving what was said, and others out of simple envy that Socrates should actually receive from heaven more than they themselves; whereupon Socrates returned to the charge. "Come," he said, "lend me your ears while I tell you something more, so that those of you who choose may go to a still greater length in refusing to believe that I am thus highly honoured by the divine powers. Chaerephon[25] once, in the presence of many witnesses, put a question at Delhi concerning me, and Apollo answered that there was no human being more liberal, or more upright, or more temperate than myself." And when once more on hearing these words the judges gave vent, as was only natural, to a fiercer murmur of dissent, Socrates once again spoke: "Yet, sirs, they were still greater words which the god spake in oracle concerning Lycurgus,[26] the great lawgiver of Lacedaemon, than those concerning me. It is said that as he entered the temple the god addressed him with the words: 'I am considering whether to call thee god or man.' Me he likened not indeed to a god, but in excellence[27] preferred me far beyond other men."
[25] L. Dindorf cf. Athen. v. 218 E; Hermesianax ap. Athen. xiii. 599 A; Liban. vol. iii. pp. 34, 35; Plat. "Apol." 21 A; Paus. i. 22. 8; Schol. ad Aristoph. "Clouds," 144; Grote, "H. G." viii. 567 foll.
[26] See Herod. i. 65:
{ekeis, o Lukoorge, emon pori piona neon, Zeni philos kai pasin 'Olumpia domat' ekhousi dizo e se theon manteusomai e anthropon. all' eti kai mallon theon elpomai, o Lukoorge.}
Cf. Plut. "Lyc." 5 (Clough, i. 89).
[27] Or, "gave judgment beforehand that I far excelled."
"Still I would not have you accept this even on the faith of the god too rashly; rather I would have you investigate, point by point, what the god has said. I ask you, is there any one[28] else, you know of, less enslaved than myself to the appetites[29] of the body? Can you name another man of more independent spirit than myself, seeing that I accept from no one either gifts or pay? Whom have you any right to believe to be more just[30] than one so suited with what he has, that the things of others excite no craving in him?[31] Whom would one reasonably deem wise, rather than such a one as myself, who, from the moment I began to understand things spoken,[32] have never omitted to inquire into and learn every good thing in my power? And that I laboured not in vain, what more conclusive evidence than the fact that so many of my fellow-citizens who make virtue their pursuit, and many strangers also, choose my society in preference to that of others?[33] And how are we to explain the fact that though all know well enough that I am wholly unable to repay them in money, so many are eager to present me with some gift?[34] And what do you make of this--while no one dreams of dunning me for benefits conferred, hosts of people acknowledge debts of gratitude to myself? And what of this, that during the siege,[35] while others were pitying themselves[36] I lived in no greater straits than when the city was at the height of her prosperity? and of this, that while others provide themselves with delicacies[37] of the market at great cost, mine are the dainties of the soul more sweet than theirs,[38] procured without expense? If in all I have said about myself no one can convict me of lying, is it not obvious that the praise I get from gods and men is justly earned? And yet in spite of all, Meletus, you will have it that by such habits I corrupt the young. We know, I fancy, what such corrupting influences are; and