Socrates of Athens was an Athenian philosopher, the son of the stonemason Sophroniscus and the midwife Phaenarete. He served as a hoplite in the Peloponnesian War and spent his life in Athens engaging citizens in philosophical dialogue. He employed a question-and-answer method, the elenchus, to examine ethical concepts.
In 399 BCE, he was tried and executed by drinking hemlock after being convicted on charges of impiety and corrupting the youth. Socrates authored no written works. All philosophical ideas attributed to him are preserved in the writings of others, primarily his students Plato and Xenophon, and the playwright Aristophanes. The one short text the site holds under his name, the Fragments on Gods and Wisdom, is itself a collection of attributed lines: it invokes Δήλιος Ἀπόλλων and Ἄρτεμις, has Aesop speak in it, and sets σοφίη (cleverness) against ἀρετή (excellence).
He stands at the beginning of Western philosophy, marking a shift toward ethics and critical inquiry. His trial and death became a defining symbol of the philosopher’s commitment to truth, and his method directly inspired the traditions of Plato and Aristotle. The "Socratic problem"—distinguishing the historical Socrates from his literary portrayals—remains central to scholarship.
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