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35 3 Of Socrates, Aristophanes, and Rumors George Gregory Were we to try to provide the simplest description of the Apologia Sokratous , there is very little to say: this work of Plato’s is the script of a play whose dramatis personae are Socrates, the “men of Athens,” and one of Socrates’ accusers, Meletus.1 We know the historical background. In 399 b.c. Socrates was brought to trial, accused of not honoring the gods the city honored and of corrupting the youth. We know he was found guilty and we know he was condemned to death. We do not know that the speech Plato’s dramatic character gives in the script of the play is the same as or resembles the speech given by the historical Socrates. We do not know that the speech in the play was conceived by Plato to be what Socrates should have said that day. In the script of the play, the dramatic character “Socrates” says (Apology 34a) that Plato was present at the trial, but the script does not indicate that Plato spoke at the trial. Whereas it may be a historical fact that Plato was present at the trial, that fact testifies only to Plato’s knowing what is historical in his composition and what is his own work in the Apologia Sokratous play. So, while we can know that Plato knew what he was doing when he composed the script, we cannot know from historical evidence what Plato knew. None of the things we do not know can enter into a description of the Apologia Sokratous.2 We are left with the simplest description: the Apologia Sokratous is Plato’s script of a play. The script of a play is all there is to interpret. We can only entertain more or less plausible speculation about everything else. Speculation cannot serve as a mooring for interpretation. Interpretation based on speculation would be little better than rumor. The consequences of spreading rumors in the transmission of speculations might seem to be relatively negligible, but they can hardly be negligible when rumor is the basis for criminal accusations in court. In the script of this play, Socrates says that the basis for the accusations against him was rumor. So it ought to be worthwhile to view and listen to the play to find out what the nature of rumor is. The script of the play is sometimes read 36 O F S O C R A T E S , A R I S T O P H A N E S , A N D R U M O R S to say that the comic poet Aristophanes was the origin of the rumor behind the accusations against Socrates, but that reading—I will argue—is a rumor, so it seems worthwhile to listen to the play to find out what it says about the role of Aristophanes’ play, The Clouds, in the accusations against Socrates. Plays are better performed for a viewing and listening audience than read. A performance cannot ignore the form of the work, i.e., that it is a performance of a play. Reading the script of the play often ignores the form. However seldom the penalty may be recognized, reading may result in the generation of “rumors” about what the script “says” just because the form is ignored. Whereas a performance may be a wrong or faulty interpretation, it speaks to an audience as the composer intended to speak, if it is merely an honest performance. What is read often gives rise to rumors that become entrenched regardless of what the work says to the audience of the play. In reading, for example, we underline statements and claim that a certain “Socrates” said what we underline. As far as the work is concerned, this is to generate a mere rumor that we propagate in a way extirpated from any consideration of the simplest framing of the statement, that is, regardless of the addressee of the statement. In principle, the form of a play-script entails that the action of the play is Socrates’ speaking to the immediate audience in court that day. The audience of the action of the play views and listens to what he says to that audience in court, while listening as that audience listens and judging its own understanding of what it hears. The form and the context in which Socrates speaks, and how he says what he says, bounds the content of what Socrates can...

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