In Plato's dialogue Crito, Crito appeals to his friend Socrates in prison
to escape and save himself from execution. Crito's case in this dialogue
bears an interesting resemblance to the case made by Odysseus in the embassy to
Achilles in book 9 of Homer's Iliad. In this video I will explore some of the
parallels between these two stories and then ask about how we might understand
Socrates and Plato's presentation of him in Crito in a new way in light of those
resemblances. In book 9 of the Iliad Achilles is on his ship. He is refusing
to fight on behalf of the Greeks. He has withdrawn from the battle because he
feels his honor has been slighted by the commander Agamemnon, who has not given
him due honor and has taken from him spoils of war that he believes he
deserves. Achilles' withdrawal has left the Greeks in a terrible situation and
they're being slaughtered by the Trojans, especially by the Trojan champion Hector.
So Agamemnon sends an embassy of Odysseus, Patroclus, and several others to
go appeal to Achilles on his ship, to convince him to leave the ship, to come
back onto the battlefield and to fight the Trojans on behalf of the Greeks.
The case that Odysseus makes to Achilles takes several parts. He begins by noting
that the Greeks face disaster, military disaster, at the hands of Hector, and that
they require Achilles' help. We need your help, he says, and then he makes
several different types of appeal to Achilles. He notes that Hector, the great
enemy of Achilles, is raging unchecked across the battlefield and seems to have
the god Zeus on his side. He reminds Achilles that he will regret later on if
he chooses now not to help the Greeks and to let them be massacred, that later
on he will regret his choice. He reminds Achilles that he has ignored his
father's advice: when he left home his father advised him to avoid vain
quarrels and to work for the good of all the Greeks, but Achilles is not
doing this now. Instead he's sulking on his ship. Odysseus encourages Achilles again to
put aside his anger and to help the Greeks. And then he promises him lavish
gifts from Agamemnon; more than half of Odysseus's speech in total is taken
up with describing the incredible gifts that Agamemnon has promised to Achilles
if he will relent, put aside his anger, and agree to come out and rejoin the
battle against the Trojans. It's an amazing amount of wealth: power, cities,
his choice of daughters to marry, any number of wonderful things that
Agamemnon is willing to offer to Achilles. Finally Odysseus appeals to
pity: he says even if you disdain Agamemnon and all of his gifts you
should come return to the battle for the sake of your comrades, for the sake of
the men you have fought alongside all these years in the battle for Troy, the
men who are dying at the hands of the Trojans. For their sake you should come
and fight and these men, if you save them, will honor you like a god, says Odysseus.
Achilles gives his response to this appeal and his response is a flat no.
He says, absolutely not. I loathe Agamemnon, I will not accept any
of his gifts. In fact, Achilles says, I would not come fight for Agamemnon if you offered
me 10 times or 20 times as much wealth as you've just promised me now. Achilles
notes the Agamemnon is stubborn and ungrateful and has treated Achilles
unfairly, that his anger has not been a assuaged, and furthermore that he is leaving,
he is going to pack up his ship and he is going to sail away in the morning
after offering sacrifices to the gods. He says to the Greeks:
if you get up early you might see my ships passing over the horizon as I head home.
In three days I should return to my home in fertile Phthia.
Achilles even insults Agamemnon: he tells Odysseus, when you go back to
bring the bad news to Agamemnon, I want you to tell him in public, in
front of all the men, and I want you to tell him that their deaths at Hector's
hands are his fault, not my fault. Now let's take a look at the case that Crito
makes to Socrates when he appeals to him in his prison cell.
He says to Socrates: you must save yourself. He says, if you refuse to escape
and save your life, not only will I, Crito, lose a good friend, but also I will
lose honor; I will be dishonored and shamed before the Athenians because
people will think that I was able to save you but that I chose not to, that I
was too cheap or didn't value your your life and your friendship enough to
take the risks necessary to save you. When Socrates responds that this would
be the opinion of the majority, but the people who are wise and good would know
that Crito had done right, Crito responds that the majority is important. He says,
the majority you must now agree, Socrates, can inflict harm upon a good man. In fact,
they can inflict the greatest of harms: they can kill a man.
Socrates denies this, and his denial is quite important for his overall
philosophy--we'll talk about that later. Crito also says, Socrates you should not
worry about the risks that your friends are running to try to spring you from
prison. We would be willing to bear this risk and much more risk in order to
save your life. He also accuses Socrates in language that Socrates is bound to
take seriously. He says: Socrates, throwing your life away by submitting to
execution when you could escape is unjust, it is not right, it is an
objective wrong that you commit by giving the victory to your enemies,
allowing them to kill you, when you could preserve your life and go on doing
philosophy in some different city. So the demands of justice,
he says, require that Socrates escape from prison and preserve his life.
Crito also appeals to pity when he says: Socrates, if you allow yourself to be
executed, your sons will be left as orphans and your wife as a widow, and
they will suffer the fate of orphans; they will suffer destitution and social
exile. This is not something that one should do to one's family, who one owes
an obligation to above all else. Better, Crito says, better to have not had any
children at all, than to have children and then abandon them by going willingly
to your death. Crito ends his first appeal to Socrates by urging speed,
saying to him: there's no time for debate and delay right now. Now is the time for
decision and action, so come with me now, be persuaded and let's activate the
escape plan. Let's look at some parallels now between the case that Odysseus makes
to Achilles and the case that Crito makes to Socrates. Where do we find some
parallels? There are some obvious parallels, in that
Achilles is on his ship and refuses to leave, and Socrates is in his prison cell
and refuses to leave. But there are some other parallels as
well, in the type of argument that each man gives. Both Odysseus and Crito
emphasize the need to act in order to prevent the victory of an enemy.
Odysseus says: Hector will win, the Trojans will win and wipe out the Greeks,
if Achilles does not come fight. Crito says: your enemies in the Athenian
assembly will have won if they succeed in killing Socrates, so in order to
thwart your enemies and prevent their victory, you should act immediately.
In this case the majority, in Plato, of the citizens of Athens, the Athenian
democracy, is playing the role of Hector, the role that Hector played in Homer's
story about the embassy to Achilles. Both men also appeal to pity, appeal to a
group of people who have a special interest in seeing this action happen.
Odysseus says: Achilles, if you don't come fight, more of your friends and comrades
who rely upon you to lead them in battle are going to be slaughtered. And Crito
says: your family will suffer, Socrates, if you willingly submit to being executed.
One major difference between these two stories is that whereas Achilles is
motivated in his refusal mainly by honor, Socrates seems to be motivated by
something else. And this is a question I will leave you with: what is it that
motivates Socrates to disagree with Crito's case, to reject his advice and to
stay in prison waiting to be executed? And what does this reveal about Socrates'
character? How can we understand Socrates being offered for us as a sort of new
Achilles by Plato, as a model of Greek manhood, that fulfills maybe in the realm
of the intellect what Achilles fulfilled in the realm of
being a warrior, of great physical prowess?
What virtues of Socrates do we find manifest in his reply to Crito, and how
do they contrast with the virtues that we learn about Achilles, or the state of
his character, in his reply to Odysseus?
Another interesting connection between
the embassy to Achilles in Homer's Iliad and the Crito dialogue
is the reference to fertile Phthia. When Achilles sayshe's going to leave the battle
the following day and sail away to his home, he says: with fair winds and the approval
of the gods, on the third day I will arrive in fertile Phthia.
This is precisely the passage from the Iliad that Socrates quotes to Crito
at the beginning of the dialogue, when he says: I had a strange dream, a beautiful woman
appeared to me and told me 'Socrates on the third on the third day you will
arrive in fertile Phythia.' So it's obvious that Plato as the author is placing in
his audience's mind this embassy to Achilles, so that they might recognize,
I think, later on in the dialogue, that Crito's case to Socrates parallels in many
important ways Odysseus's case to Achilles, but also differs from it in
some important ways. That's all for now. Thanks for watching today; goodbye.