II.

Life

Born in Athens, the son of Sophroniscus, a sculptor, and Phaenarete, a midwife, Socrates was reportedly short and unattractive, but extremely hardy and self-controlled. He received a typical education in literature, music, and gymnastics, and later familiarized himself with the rhetoric and dialectics of the sophists, the speculations of the Ionian philosophers, and the general culture of Periclean Athens. He married Xanthippe, an Athenian woman, with whom he had three children.

Initially, Socrates followed the craft of his father. He also served with the other male citizens of Athens in the Peloponnesian War with Sparta, acting bravely as an infantryman at the battles of Potidaea in 432-430 bc, Delium in 424 bc, and Amphipolis in 422 bc.

However, according to Plato’s Apology, his life was given its guiding purpose when a friend asked the oracle at Delphi whether anyone was wiser than Socrates, to which the oracle answered “no”. Socrates then devoted his life to talking at the public places in Athens with people claiming knowledge, and trying to help them understand their ignorance, as he came to understand his own, for the sake of their souls.