The Trials of Socrates by Plato, Aristophanes, and Xenophon

featuring Al Duncan, Assistant Professor of Classics

Meeting Dates: Tuesdays, May 21 and 28

“Lampooned in 406 B.C.E. in a blistering Aristophanic satire, Socrates was tried in 399 B.C.E. on a charge of corrupting the youth, convicted by a jury of about five hundred of his peers, and condemned to death. Glimpsed today through the extant writings of his contemporaries and near-contemporaries, he remains for us as compelling, enigmatic, and elusive a figure as Jesus or Buddha.”—Hackett Publishing

“The trial and execution of Socrates in Athens in 399 B.C.E. puzzles historians. Why, in a society enjoying more freedom and democracy than any the world had ever seen, would a 70-year-old philosopher be put to death for what he was teaching? The puzzle is all the greater because Socrates had taught–without molestation–all of his adult life. What could Socrates have said or done that prompted a jury of 500 Athenians to send him to his death just a few years before he would have died naturally?”—famous-trials.com

Register online or call 919.962.1544

Please note that the image may not reflect the edition being used for the reading group.