MELITUS:
What blasphemies and insolence!
ANOTHER JUDGE:
What absurdities! No one knows what he means.
MELITUS:
Socrates, if you always continue to argue, this is not what we need.
Answer briefly and precisely. Did you make fun of the owl of Minerva?
SOCRATES: Athenian judges, take care of your owls! When you propose ridiculous things to believe, too many men will choose to believe nothing at all. They have enough wit to see that your doctrine is impertinent, But they don't have enough to raise themselves to the true law. They know how to laugh at your little gods. They don't know how to adore the God of all beings, unique, incomprehensible, incommunicable, eternal, and all just as well as all powerful.
MELITUS: Ah! The blasphemer! ah, the monster! He's said more than enough. I conclude for death.
SEVERAL JUDGES:
And we, too.
A JUDGE: Several of us are not of that opinion. We think that Socrates spoke very well. We believe that men would be more just and more wise if they thought like him. And as for me, far from condemning him, I am of the opinion he ought to be rewarded.
SEVERAL JUDGES:
We think the same.
MELITUS:
The opinions seems to be divided.
ANITUS: Gentlemen of the Areopagus, let me question Socrates. Do you think that the Sun turns and that the Areopagus is of Divine Right?