ACT III
(The Judges are seated on a tribunal. Socrates is standing.)
A JUDGE: (to Anitus)
You mustn't sit here. You are a priest of Ceres.
ANITUS:
I am only here for edification.
MELITUS: Silence. Listen, Socrates, you are accused of being a bad citizen; of corrupting the youth; of denying the plurality of the gods; of being a heretic, deist, atheist. Answer.
SOCRATES: Athenian Judges, I exhort you always to be good citizens as I have always tried to be. To shed your blood for the country as I have done in more than one battle. Regarding the youth of which you speak, do not cease to guide them through your admonitions, and especially by your examples; teach them to love true virtue, and to flee the wretched philosophy of the school; the article of the plurality of the gods is a bit difficult to discuss, but you will easily understand me. Athenian Judges, there is only one God.
MELITUS AND ANOTHER JUDGE:
Oh, the knave.
SOCRATES: There is only one God, I tell you. His nature is to be infinite. No being can share his infinity with him. Raise your eyes toward the celestial globes, turn them towards earth and the sea. All corresponds, all is made for each other. Each being is intimately linked to other beings. Everything is of the same design. There is only a single architect, a single master, a single guardian. Perhaps he's deigned to form some genies, some demons, more powerful and more enlightened than men. And if they exist they are creatures like you; they are his first subjects and not gods at all. But nothing in nature advertises to us that they exist, while all nature announces to us one God and one Father. This God has no need of Mercury and Iris to signify his orders. He has only to will it and that's enough. If by Minerva, you understand only the wisdom of God, if by Neptune you intend only his immutable laws which raise and lower the seas, I would say to you: He allows you to revere Neptune and Minerva, since under these emblems you are still adoring only the eternal Being, and so long as you are not giving occasion to people to misunderstand it.
ANITUS:
What impious balderdash.
SOCRATES: Always beware of turning religion into metaphysics: Morality is its essence. Adore and stop disputing. If our ancestors had said that the Supreme God had descended into the arms of Alcmene, of Danae, of Semele, and that he had children with them, our ancestors were imagining dangerous fables. It's insulting to the Divinity to pretend that he had committed with a woman in whatever manner it might be what we would call amongst men an adultery. That's discouraging to the rest of men to say that to be a great man, one must be born from the mysterious coupling with one of your wives or daughters. Miltiades, Cimon, Themistocles, Arisitides, that you persecuted were perhaps worth more than Perseus, Herakles and Bacchus. There being no other way to be the children of this God than by trying to please him, and by being just. Deserve that title by never rendering iniquitous judgments.
MELITUS:
What blasphemies and insolence!
ANOTHER JUDGE:
What absurdities! No one knows what he means.
MELITUS:
Socrates, if you always continue to argue, this is not what we need.
Answer briefly and precisely. Did you make fun of the owl of Minerva?
SOCRATES: Athenian judges, take care of your owls! When you propose ridiculous things to believe, too many men will choose to believe nothing at all. They have enough wit to see that your doctrine is impertinent, But they don't have enough to raise themselves to the true law. They know how to laugh at your little gods. They don't know how to adore the God of all beings, unique, incomprehensible, incommunicable, eternal, and all just as well as all powerful.
MELITUS: Ah! The blasphemer! ah, the monster! He's said more than enough. I conclude for death.
SEVERAL JUDGES:
And we, too.
A JUDGE: Several of us are not of that opinion. We think that Socrates spoke very well. We believe that men would be more just and more wise if they thought like him. And as for me, far from condemning him, I am of the opinion he ought to be rewarded.
SEVERAL JUDGES:
We think the same.
MELITUS:
The opinions seems to be divided.
ANITUS: Gentlemen of the Areopagus, let me question Socrates. Do you think that the Sun turns and that the Areopagus is of Divine Right?
SOCRATES: You have no right to ask me questions. But I have the right to show you what you are ignorant of. It matters little to society whether the earth may turn, but it matters greatly that men who turn with it be just. Virtue alone is of Divine Right. And you, the Areopagus have no other rights but those the nation has given you.
ANITUS:
Illustrious and equitable judges make Socrates leave.
(Melitus gives a sign. They lead Socrates out. Anitus continues.)
August Areopagus, instituted by heaven, you have heard him. This dangerous man denies that the Sun turns, and that you are filled with Divine Right. If these horrible opinions spread, no more magistrates, no more Sun; you will no longer be those judges established by the fundamental laws of Minerva; you are no longer masters of the state, you must no longer judge except by following the laws. And if you depend on the laws, you are ruined. Punish the rebellion, avenge heaven and earth. I am leaving: Fear the anger of the gods if Socrates remains alive.
(Anitus leaves and the judges opine.)
A JUDGE: I don't wish a quarrel with Anitus; he's a man much to be feared. If it were only a question of the gods it would still be overlooked.
A JUDGE: (to whom he just spoke) Between ourselves, Socrates is right. But he's wrong to be right so publicly. I don't make more of the case of Ceres or Neptune than he does. But he ought not to say before the whole Areopagus what should only be whispered in the ear. Where, after all, is the evil in poisoning a philosopher, especially when he's old and ugly?
ANOTHER JUDGE: If there is injustice in condemning Socrates, That's Anitus' affair. It's not mine. I put it all on his conscience. Anyway, it's late, we're wasting his time! To death, to death and no more discussion about it.
ANOTHER:
They say he's a heretic and an atheist. To death. To death.
MELITUS:
Let them call Socrates.
(Socrates is brought in)
The gods be blessed; the plurality is for death. Socrates, the gods condemn you through our mouth to drink Hemlock so that death will follow.
SOCRATES: We are all mortal. Nature condemns you all to die in a short time. And probably you will all have an end sadder than mine. Diseases which lead to death are worse than a goblet of Hemlock. As to the rest, I owe praise to the judges who opined in favor of innocence. To the others, I owe only my pity.
ONE JUDGE: (leaving)
Certainly this man deserves a state pension rather than a bowl of
Hemlock.
ANOTHER JUDGE: That's true; but at the same time what's the point of getting embroiled with a priest of Ceres?
ANOTHER JUDGE: I'm really quite comfortable in putting a philosopher to death. Those folk have a certain pride in wit which it's good to humble a little.
ONE JUDGE: Gentlemen, one thing. While our shoulder is at the wheel, wouldn't we do better to put to death all the geometers who pretend that the three angles of a triangle add up to two right angles? They strangely scandalize the populace that reads their books.
ANOTHER JUDGE:
Yes, yes, we'll hang them at the next session. Let's go to dinner.
(Exit the judges.)
(There should be a scene change here to Socrates cell. But there is no indication in the text.)
SOCRATES: I've been prepared for death for a long while. All that worries me now is that my wife, Xantippe may come trouble my last moments and interrupt the sweet composure of my soul: I mustn't be occupied except with the Supreme Being before whom I must soon appear. But here she is: I've got to be resigned to everything.
XANTIPPE: (entering) Well! Poor man! What have these law folk concluded? Are you condemned to a fine? are you banished? Are you absolved? My God! How you've upset me! Try, I beg you, not to let this happen again.
SOCRATES: No, my wife. I'll answer for that. It won't happen again. You won't be troubled by anything.
(Enter Disciples)
Be welcome, my dear disciples, my friends.
CRITO: (at the head of Socrates' Disciples) You sees us as alarmed at your fate as your wife, Xantippe. We have obtained from the judges, permission to see you. Just heaven! Must we see Socrates burdened with chains? Allow us to kiss these irons that honor you and are the shame of Athens. Is it possible that Anitus and his accomplices have been able to put you in this condition?
SOCRATES: My dear friends, let's not think of these trivia and let's continue the discussion we were having yesterday about the immortality of the soul. It seems to me we were saying that nothing is more probable than that idea. Indeed, matter changes and never perishes; why should the soul perish? Could it be made so that we, being elevated to consciousness of a God through the veil of the mortal body, would cease to know Him when the veil falls. No. Since we think, we will think forever; thought is the being of man. That being will appear before a just God who rewards virtue, who punishes crime and who excuses weakness.