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RITES AND RELIGIOUS BELIEFS OF SOCRATES ACCORDING TO XENOPHON (APOLOGY OF SOCRATES 11 AND MEMORABILIA 1.1.2)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 March 2017

Alexandre Jakubiec
Alexandre Jakubiec*
Affiliation:
École Normale Supérieure de Lyon
*
[email protected]
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Extract

Two excerpts from Xenophon, in which he states that Socrates avidly practised religious ceremonies promoted by Athens, are subject to two different interpretations by modern historians. For some, they are the proof that the Athenian city was only concerned with the rituals of its fellow citizens, and in no way with their beliefs. In contrast with this view, Hendrick Versnel feels that, by writing that Socrates performed ceremonies, Xenophon thinks that he proves that his master really did believe in the gods. Both of these interpretations are incorrect, as a careful new consideration of these passages can demonstrate.

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Shorter Notes
Information
The Classical Quarterly , Volume 67 , Issue 1 , May 2017 , pp. 291 - 293
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Copyright © The Classical Association 2017 

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References

1 Xen. Ap. 11, trans. O.J. Todd (London, 1923).

2 Xen. Mem. 1.1.2, trans. E.C. Marchant (London, 1923).

3 See also Burnet, J., Plato's Euthyphron, Apology of Socrates and Crito (Oxford, 1924), 184Google Scholar and Todd, S.C., The Shape of Athenian Law (Oxford, 1993), 311Google Scholar n. 25.

4 In general, rites have taken a bigger place in the works of the modern historians than beliefs, which are relegated to a second place, because Greek religion is seen as ritualistic. For a historiographical review about the questions of rites and beliefs in Greek religion, see Harrison, T., ‘Belief vs practice’, in Eidinow, E. and Kindt, J. (edd.), The Oxford Handbook of Ancient Greek Religion (Oxford, 2015), 21–8CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

5 Garland, R., Introducing New Gods. The Politics of Athenian Religion (London, 1992), 142Google Scholar.

6 Brulé, P., ‘La religion, histoire et structure’, in Brulé, P. and Descat, R. (edd.), Le Monde grec aux temps classiques. Tome 2, Le IVe siècle (Paris, 2004), 413–79CrossRefGoogle Scholar, at 432. He reiterates this reinterpretation in Brulé, P., ‘Contribution des Nuées au problème de l'incroyance au Ve siècle’, in Brulé, P. (ed.), La Norme en matière religieuse en Grèce ancienne (Liège, 2009), 49–67 CrossRefGoogle Scholar, at 65. Naiden, F.S., ‘Contagious ἀσέβεια’, CQ 66 (2016), 59–74 CrossRefGoogle Scholar, at 60 and 69 expresses the same idea: ‘[Xenophon] reports that Socrates was accused of ‘‘not accepting the gods’’, and was innocent because he worshipped them.’ His point of view seemed more finely shaded a few years earlier in Naiden, F.S., ‘Sanctions in sacred laws’, in Harris, E.M., Thür, G. (edd.), Symposion 2007. Papers on Greek and Hellenistic Legal History (Vienna, 2008), 125–38Google Scholar, at 136 : ‘this defense was irrelevant to the charges of atheism and corruption of the youth’.

7 Giordano-Zecharya, M., ‘As Socrates shows, the Athenians did not believe in gods’, Numen 52 (2005), 325–55CrossRefGoogle Scholar, at 338. For an identical point of view, see Vlastos, G., Socrates, Ironist and Moral Philosopher (Cambridge, 1991), 290–1CrossRefGoogle Scholar and Ober, J., ‘Socrates and democratic Athens’, in Morrison, D.R. (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Socrates (Cambridge, 2011), 138–78Google Scholar, at 142.

8 Versnel, H.S., Coping With the Gods. Wayward Readings in Greek Theology (Leiden, 2011), 557CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

9 Rudhart, J., ‘La définition du délit d'impiété d'après la législation attique’, MH 17 (1960), 87–105 Google Scholar, at 94.

10 Cf. Plut. Per. 32.2. For an argument aimed at rejecting the historicity of the decree, cf. Dover, K.J., ‘The freedom of the intellectual in Greek society’, Talanta 7 (1976), 24–54 Google Scholar, at 39–40; Stone, I.F., The Trial of Socrates (London, 1988), 233Google Scholar; Wallace, R.W., ‘Private lives and public enemies: freedom of thought in classical Athens’, in Boegehold, A.L. and Scafuro, A.C. (edd.), Athenian Identity and Civic Ideology (Baltimore, 1994), 127–55Google Scholar, at 137–8; and Filonik, J., ‘Athenian impiety trials: a reappraisal’, Dikè 16 (2013), 11–96 Google Scholar, at 32–3. For an opposing point of view, see Lenfant, D., ‘Protagoras et son procès d'impiété: peut-on soutenir une thèse et son contraire?’, Ktèma 27 (2002), 135–53Google Scholar, at 149–53; Curd, P., Anaxagoras of Clazomenae, Fragments and Testimonia (Toronto, 2007), 136Google Scholar; and Rubel, A., Fear and Loathing in Ancient Athens. Religion and Politics during the Peloponnesian War (Durham, 2014 2), 36Google Scholar.

11 Cf. Mikalson, J., Popular Religion in Greek Philosophy (Oxford, 2010), 168CrossRefGoogle Scholar: ‘Not to sacrifice to [the gods] is an act of ‘‘lack of respect’’, which indicates that one does not believe they exist.’