There is also the Alcibiades, not widely accepted as a genuine work of Plato's, and the Theages, not at all considered genuine. Other mentions occur in five dialogues: Euthydemus, Euthyphro, Phaedrus, Republic, and Theaetetus.

(Xenophon offers a variation on this last argument but likewise depicts the divine sign practically speeding Socrates along to a happy death.)Īs far as the Platonic Socrates is concerned, Plato's Apology contains all the essential general information about the divine sign. He accepts the news of his death sentence with equanimity and even good cheer on the grounds that since the daimonion did not stop him, the death that will follow his behavior must not be a bad thing ( Apology 40a-c). In Plato's account of the trial, Socrates remarks on having heard no spooky peep that day either on his way to the courts or during his (impromptu, haughty) defense speech. Xenophon and Plato agree however that the divine sign of Socrates needs specially to be discussed in connection with the trial at which Socrates defended himself with such famous unsuccess. Plato consistently presents an inhibiting divine agent. Xenophon's Socrates heard a somewhat different voice, one that did not hesitate to endorse one action over another.

It was apotreptic rather than protreptic, never commanding Socrates to act some way but only making sure he heard the discouraging word whenever he chanced to embark on a harmful action ( Apology 31d).

That word daimonion is an adjective meaning ' daimôn -ish' - divine, or maybe what the English of earlier centuries called 'weird.'Īnyway the sign came as some kind of voice and Socrates claimed to have heard it since childhood.

The Socrates depicted in Plato's dialogues spoke of a daimonion signal that came to him. Smith, Pierre Destrée, Roslyn Weiss, Mark Joyal, Michel Narcy, Louis-André Dorion, and Aldo Brancacci. The chapters are written by Luc Brisson, Mark L. Ten papers from a conference on Socrates' daimonion (Brussels 2003) assess what is known today about that piece of the Socrates puzzle and debate a range of still unsettled issues.

Socrates apology