to kill a Greek philosopher

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Poison hemlock (Conium maculatum)

Let us suppose you have an ancient Greek philosopher to punish, how would you do it?

Oh dear. I’ve gotten ahead of myself. Let’s first talk about the crime.

According to Plato, Socrates was a gadfly, a person who rocked the status quo by asking upsetting questions. People in power do not like to be so queried. They are in charge and don’t want to be second-guessed or made to look foolish or unwise. But Socrates was quite good at posing questions difficult to answer. He was an irritant, who eventually got on someone’s nerves. Finally Socrates was put on to trail for his life for spreading descent.

Naturally, the philosopher could not stop posing paradoxical statements: "I am the wisest man alive, for I know one thing, and that is that I know nothing."

“If you kill a man like me, you will injure yourselves more than you will injure me,” opined Socrates, because he felt his role was, “to sting people and whip them into a fury, all in the service of truth.”

The philosopher was found guilty of corrupting the minds of the youth of Athens and perhaps unofficially of being a smarty pants, a royal pain in the a - -.

When asked what his punishment should be, he replied, “A wage paid by the government and free dinners for the rest of my life.” (That would have been my suggestion as well.)

The authorities were not amused. Instead, as legend has it, he was ordered to drink a potion mixed with poison hemlock and Socrates soon died.

I think of the dead Greek philosopher at this time of the year when poison hemlock is in bloom along our roadways, but I keep my paradoxical questions to myself.


And believe me, there's enough poison hemlock blooming to despatch all the ancient Greek philosophers.

"The Death of Socrates" by David

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