What were the main points of Meletus's argument against Socrates?

by Kappadar
olddoubleugly

We have no account of his argument. We do have Plato's account of Socrates' cross examination. Socrates sums up Meletus' accusations as: corrupting the youth and not believing in the gods of the state.

rosemary85

We have five reports that I can find just now. The first four are not independent of one another: they're reports given by Sokrates' students (Xenophon, Plato) or derived from the same material (Diogenes Laertios). The fifth is independent from the first four.

Xenophon, Apology 10:

  • that Sokrates did not believe in (nomisd-) the gods that the state venerated, but introduced (eispher-) new divinities (daimones);
  • that Sokrates corrupted (diaphtheir-) the young.

Plato, Apology 24b-c:

  • that Sokrates did injustice by corrupting the young;
  • that Sokrates did not believe in the state gods, but in new divinities (daimonia).

Plato, Euthyphron 2c-3b:

  • that Sokrates corrupted the young;
  • that Sokrates made (poie-) new gods (theo-) and did not believe in the old ones (tous... archaious).

Diogenes Laertios 2.40 (claiming to give the exact text of the charge):

  • that Sokrates did injustice by not believing in the gods in whom the city believed, but introduced (eisÄ“ge-) new divinities (daimonia);
  • that Sokrates did injustice by corrupting the young.

Aischines Against Timarchos 173:

  • that Sokrates was shown to be the teacher of (paideu-) Kritias, the most notorious of the Thirty Tyrants who usurped the democracy in 404 BCE, killed a significant percentage of the citizen population, and stole their property.