The heart of the Socratic Problem, then, is not our lack of sources. If we had more Socratic writings, we might find it even more difficult to reconstruct the historical figure of Socrates.
Many of these texts - including those that survive by Plato and Xenophon - took the form of Socratic dialogues, a new and revolutionary genre which would have an enor- mous influence on later literature. They were imaginary or partly imaginary conversations, featuring Socrates talking to a range of different people. The characters and settings are 'real' in the sense that they are based on people and places that existed. They are 'realistic' in the sense that they evoke conversations that could have taken place. But they were never intended simply to record Socrates' actual conversa- tions. Rather, they were an enormously flexible instrument to express widely differing ethical and philosophical beliefs. Socratic dialogues anticipated and influenced the develop- ment of two genres that had not yet been invented: biogra- phy and the novel. Plato's own student Aristotle could find no obvious literary category in which to put the Socratic dia- logue; the closest parallel, he thought, was dramatic mime - a theatrical genre.
Phaedo - the slave-boy who features as narrator in Plato's eponymous dialogue - was himself the author of Socratic dialogues. It is from Phaedo that we get the story of Socrates' encounter with the physiognomist, Zophyrus (who was sur- prised that Socrates' character did not match his face); and Phaedo probably invented the idea of Socrates' conversa- tions with Simon the Shoemaker (who is the forefather of the game, 'Simon Says').
Other Socratic authors included Eucleides of Megara, who wrote at least six dialogues, probably focusing on the idea that the virtues are all the same.
The most prominent writer of Socratic dialogues in the immediate aftermath of Socrates' death was probably Antisthenes - a teacher and relatively senior follower, who was present at the drinking of the hemlock, and whose Socratic writings emphasised the goal of self-sufficiency. He was famously hostile to all pleasure, especially sexual pleasure. 'I would rather go mad than have fun', Antisthenes claimed.
It must have been annoying for the earlier Socratics to see the young upstart, Plato, setting himself up as the real heir to the Socratic tradition. Antisthenes retaliated by writing a satirical dialogue called the Sathon - a word which rhymes with Plato's name (Platon), but means 'Willy' or 'Prick'.
The enormous imaginative dominance of Plato over the western tradition has made it difficult to think of Socrates except through the eyes of Plato, who created the Socratic character that has been of most interest to later readers - especially, as we shall see, in the past 300 years or so.
But before turning back to Plato, we should remember the one other Socratic writer whose work survives in fulclass="underline" Plato's contemporary Xenophon.
xenophon's socrates
Xenophon was, like Plato, a young follower of Socrates at the time of the latter's death. He was an Athenian from a fairly wealthy, established family. He wrote several books featuring Socrates, including extensive Memoirs of Socrates, a comic description of Socrates at a drinking party (Symposium) and a short account of Socrates' defence speech at his trial (Apology). Xenophon's Socrates is - in sharp contrast to the character created by Plato - not a gadfly. He is a harmless wise man with a fairly conventional, vaguely ascetic mindset. He offers sound advice about diet, exercise, money and family relationships. No topic is too banal for him to discuss. Xenophon's Socrates teaches his followers that one should not eat too much; exercise is important; you earn money by hard work; children should honour their parents. None of these precepts can be much of a surprise to any reader, but we may be glad to be reminded of our duty.
Xenophon himself did not always follow his master's advice. He consulted Socrates when he was consider- ing joining an expedition to Persia as a mercenary soldier. Socrates recommended that he ask the Delphic oracle whether he should go. But Xenophon, who was raring to make the trip, instead asked the oracle how he should best go - a clever but evasive move, which annoyed his teacher.
The social milieu evoked by Xenophon is significantly different from that of Plato's dialogues. As we will see, Plato's Socrates subsumes politics, war and the family into the world of male philosophical conversation. Xenophon, by contrast, shows us a Socrates who is interested in giving political, domestic and strategic advice to a wide range of people. He offers advice on dating, for example, gleaned from Aspasia, and he is happy to help couples with their marital difficulties.
Xenophon describes Socrates' own marriage as chal- lenging. Socrates was married to Xanthippe, and they had three sons, Lamprocles, Sophroniscus and Menexenos. Two of these were still little children at the time of his death. According to Xenophon, when the oldest boy, Lamprocles, was angry with his mother, Socrates gave him a good solid lecture about the importance of being respectful and grate- ful to one's elders. A follower of Socrates, Antisthenes (the Cynic who wrote his own Socratic dialogues), asks him why he puts up with such a truculent wife; why does he not train her into submission? Socrates explains that he chose a high- spirited wife in order to teach himself to deal with people who behave in excitable, uncontrolled ways, just as an ambi- tious rider would feel unchallenged by too docile a horse.
'If I can put up with her,' he says, 'I shall find it easy to get along with any other human being.'
Apart from Xanthippe, most of the people to whom Socrates talks are very glad of his recommendations and often treat them as great revelations. He suggests to an aris- tocrat whose household is starving that everybody might be better off if the women worked to earn money for food. The aristocrat is amazed, follows the advice and everyone is happier. Similarly, Xenophon's Socrates offers this profound tip to a man who is worried about making a long journey: 'Don't you know that if you put together the walks you take in five or six days, you can easily cover the distance from Athens to Olympia?' It is good advice, but it is not clear that only the wisest man in Greece could have thought it up. You can imagine Xenophon's version of Socrates running a series of motivational seminars on self-improvement and empow- erment through abstinence.
The ordinariness of his hero leaves Xenophon with an obvious problem. How could such an inoffensive man have been put to death by the Athenian state?
Xenophon's political views provided him with an answer. He was a great admirer of the ascetic way of life practised by Athens' great enemies the Spartans. He served the Spartan king after 394 bc, was banished from Athens and wrote a treatise about the Spartan constitu- tion. Xenophon emphasises Socrates' asceticism: Socrates is admirable because he seems to live a Spartan lifestyle, even in Athens. Xenophon's Socrates comments that hunger is the best sauce. His pleasure in shopping is the opposite of most people's. It is anti-retail therapy. When he sees gold and silver in the market, he exclaims with delight, 'How many things I don't need!' Xenophon's love for Socrates can also be connected to his misgivings about Athenian democracy. For Xenophon, the death of Socrates shows the folly and moral decadence of the Athenians.
He combats directly the claim of 'the accuser', Polycrates, that Athens was right to put Socrates to death because of his associations with Alcibiades and Critias. In fact, Xenophon remarks, both these characters were perfectly good as long as they were under their teacher's influence. They were cor- rupted by later, worse company. Alcibiades was too popular for his own good: 'Just as athletes who gain an easy victory at the Games often neglect their training, so Alcibiades neglected himself.' Xenophon sees Socrates more as a moral trainer than as a teacher. Teachers, one might think, should be able to influence their pupils even in absentia; trainers are more hands-on.