Socrates: The Wisest and Most Just? by Meg Parker (review)

BOOK REVIEWS/COMPTES RENDUS 377 MEG PARKER (tr. ). Socrates: The Wisest and Most Just? Translations from Greek and Roman Authors. cambrIdge University Press, 1980. Pp.120. Paper. U.S. $4.95. ISBN 0-521-22813-1. Others abide the question, thou alone ... or so one thought of Socrates. Was he the wisest and most just? This is the question Meg Parker poses in the title of her book which is " an attempt to help you to find out by reading extracts from the writings of Plato, Xenophon and Aristophanes how Socrates lived and died, and to form your opinions about the kind of man he wasil. Thus, we see Socrates as others saw him, as ~ saw himself, Socrates in action, Socrates brought to court and in prison; and then finally the question is asked: is it defeat or victory? It is undoubtedly convenient to have in one small neat volume so much from this many sources; surely all the predictable passages, agreeably led up to by a concise introduction, and interwoven with equally concise comments which tell the reader just enough to satisfy immediate curiosity and to arouse further interest. Any book that helps to set the scene so well for this remarkable man deserves Opening the book and reading of Socrates for the first time, one would want to read further - or might even wish one could read the original ~ But - back to the question: could he rightly be blamed for Alcibiades? At one moment we admire his mens naturaliter christiana, but is there a hint of smugness in his refusal to let the Athenians off the hook? Was he after martyrdom? Is there pride in that Delphic oracle? But we run into danger here. What may seem pride to us was simply absence of fake modesty to him. We may be grateful that his standing up for his principles, as after the Arginusae affair, led him to shun anomia and win martyrdom, and thus to put the seal on his life and his fame and bring himself down to us as a great man of his own, and of all time. UPPER CANADA COLLEGE, TORONTO TERENCE BREDIN ...