7. Midterm

                                           How did Socrates die? Was his death justified?
                                                        How did Socrates respond?

Before I began to talk about Socrates death I want to speak about some facts about his life something’s that I believed were important. Socrates was born c.469/470 BC in Deme Alopece, Athens it surrounded Greece. He was a Greek Athenian philosopher, he died in 399 BC he was around the age of seventy-one. Socrates was poisoned and was sentenced to death for not honoring the Greek deities and for corrupting the youth with his ideals the poison was hemlock, a hemlock is a tree that is similar to an evergreen tree. The tree has a pyramid shape look to it with drooping branches. The leaves also appear to be dark green and shiny. A trial was held and the jury was chosen randomly from male citizens who had volunteered, they found him guilty. They voted on what his punishment would be it was decided his sentence would be death. The manner chosen was to drink a liquid that contained hemlock. Which is what I had mention in the beginning of my essay about the poison. Many people believed it came down to an issue of free speech since it was not fully explained. He voiced his opinions, like about the one where he said that government said smart people should make the decisions for everyone. He may have been tried and executed because he was vocal about his beliefs which were well known and popular. It was supposed to be illegal to arrest someone for opposing views but it still happen so most people think the other charges were a cover for the real reason. Just for the fact that he did not believe in what the government he got punished with a death sentence that would forever change people’s lives. He had chosen death because he was sentenced to death so he decided to stick to that. If he were to escape as he had the chance to do so he would have undermined the law and hence his status of citizen of the polis, something Socrates cherished. He had also said that given his age death was the only thing he to look forward to at his point in his life. I believe that his death sentence was a bit too much extreme, but then again in those times back way back they would punish a person worse than now. To be sentenced to drink poison is inhumanely to me just because he had a voice of opinion and was not afraid to speak it.

 This picture shows an image that we can imagin since we were not there ourselves to really understand why he had chose to die. Even though this is just a picture and not really life it looks as if Socrates is ashamed or he just wants to get it over with already. Socrates had responded to his sentencing as if it was something that did not really matter he was not afraid of death he had said. He did not even try to bargain with the sentence or anything socrates has been proven worthy of the respect of mankind through the ages.