Socrates May Have Been Executed For Revealing Secrets of Athens’ Religious Rituals

History Unplugged Podcast

History Unplugged

Society & Culture, History

4.2 • 3.7K Ratings

🗓️ 18 April 2024

⏱️ 45 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The influence of the ancient Greek philosopher Socrates has been profound. Even today, over two thousand years after his death, he remains one of the most renowned humans to have ever lived—and his death remains one of the greatest unsolved mysteries.

There is another side to this story: impiety, lack of reverence for the gods, was a religious crime. From the perspective of the religious authorities of the time, the charge of impiety against Socrates was warranted. The priests did not tolerate scrutiny, even in the form of philosophical critique. To understand what happened and how it happened, we have to come to terms with the motives of the priests, and as importantly, Socrates’ motives in provoking them. His trial is perhaps first, but not last, great battle between philosophy and religion.

To explore this mystery is today’s guest, Matt Gatton, author of “The Shadows of Socrates.”

Transcript

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0:00.0	Scott here with another episode of the History Unplugged podcast.
0:07.8	The Greek philosopher Socrates died over 2,000 years ago.
0:10.6	He's one of the most important intellectuals who's ever lived, thanks to doing the foundation work on Western thought.
0:16.0	But his death is in some ways the most famous unsolved murder mystery in history.
0:20.0	It's unclear how he was set up, who did it, and when he was put on trial in Athens for impiety and corrupting the youth,
0:26.4	it's unclear how he was found guilty. Well today's guest thinks he has an answer,
0:30.4	and he comes at it from an unconventional angle.
0:33.0	Matt Gatton, who's the author of the Shadows of Socrates, has studied religious rituals in
0:37.0	antiquity, specifically the use of white to create optical illusions and make viewers think
0:42.4	that something supernatural was happening.
0:44.5	This is important because one of Socrates' most famous ideas is the allegory of the cave, and the
0:49.1	religious leaders of Athens may have thought that he was revealing the secrets of their ceremony known as the mysteries of Elucesis,
0:55.0	which centered on bright figures of Greek gods appearing to float in the air, which is an optical illusion created by using a shaft of bright light in the dark chamber.
1:02.0	Gatton also thinks that Socrates was found guilty. created by using a shaft of bright light in the dark chamber.
1:02.6	Gadin also thinks that Socrates was found guilty because of the company that he kept.
1:07.4	One of his students was Alcy Viyades, an Athenian soldier who turned traitor and joined
1:11.7	with Sparta to attack Athens. Another student was
1:14.0	Critias, who was part of a brutal regime that ruled Athens and murdered hundreds of its
1:18.5	citizens. So Socrates trial has been framed traditionally as philosophy versus religion, but it also shows
1:25.2	how these different factions can be co-opted by politics and how hard it is for someone
1:29.6	rational like Socrates to live in the irrational times.
1:33.0	Hope you enjoy this discussion with Matt Gatton.
	...

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