Abstract
We owe a great debt to Gerasimos Santas, who has done so much to establish Socrates as a precursor to the modern analytic philosopher. In the Apology, as Santas notes, Socrates “conceives of himself as being commanded by god, or as having been stationed by god, with orders to philosophize.”1 Santas’ focus is on the Socrates who questions himself and others, refutes their answers, offers arguments and criticizes them, and challenges ordinary beliefs by defending paradoxical doctrines. This portrait of Socrates the philosopher dominates Plato’s early dialogues. Yet Socrates took a surprising turn at the end of his life, according to Plato’s Phaedo. When Cebes asked Socrates why he began to write poetry after he went to prison, putting the fables (logoi) of Aesop into verse and composing a hymn to Apollo, Socrates replied that he was responding to a recurring dream that commanded him to practice and cultivate the arts.
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Miller, F.D. (2011). Socrates Mythologikos . In: Anagnostopoulos, G. (eds) Socratic, Platonic and Aristotelian Studies: Essays in Honor of Gerasimos Santas. Philosophical Studies Series, vol 117. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-1730-5_5
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