When the cup of hemlock, a poisoned draught, was brought to him, his friends wept, but he took the cup in his hand, and drank the contents as though it were a draught of wine.
His last words to Crito were to remind him to pay a debt. ‘Crito, we owe a cock to Asclepius,’ he said. ‘Discharge the debt and by no means omit it.’ Asclepius was the god of medicine, and in this way Socrates showed his reverence for the religious customs of his country.
He drank the contents as though it were a draught of wine
This was the man who found in Alcibiades, despite his wild ways, a noble mind and a kind heart. These he determined to educate. And his pupil was quick to see that Socrates spoke truth to him. He soon learned to appreciate his kindness and to stand in awe of his virtue. Sometimes, indeed, the words of his master ‘overcame him so much as to draw tears from his eyes, and to disturb his very soul.’
So dear did the philosopher become to Alcibiades that he often lived in the same tent with him and shared his simple meals. Yet sometimes he was tempted by his flatterers when they begged him to come to spend the days in pleasure and the nights in feasting. Then he would yield to their entreaties and for a while desert and even avoid his master.
But the philosopher did not leave his pupil unchecked to do as he wished. He ‘would pursue him as if he had been a fugitive slave.... He reduced and corrected him by his addresses, and made him humble and modest, by showing him in how many things he was deficient, and how very far from perfection in virtue.’
CHAPTER LXXI
ALCIBIADES PRAISES SOCRATES
One of the most famous disciples of Socrates was Plato. He loved his master well, and wrote down many of his conversations, so that his words may still be read.