SOCRATES, 469-399 B.C., was the son of Sophronius, a stonemason, and his wife Phaenarete. Although his father had been reasonably wealthy, Socrates was later reduced to poverty. He was the first person to apply serious critical and philosophical methods to the examination of the conduct of life and to question the assumptions upon which people based their general conduct. His method of questioning his fellow citizens and of forcing them to answer their own questions aroused the anger and suspicions of the older generation, and in 399 B.C. he was charged before the judges with two crimes: denying the gods of the state and corrupting the youth of the city. The latter charge may have been prompted by Alcibiades's arrogance and pranks in Athens's most sacred places. Socrates was found guilty and sentenced to exile. He refused to comply and was condemned to death. Thirty days after his conviction, he drank the hemlock (Diogenes Laertius II.5). Plato's Apology gives an account of the trial; his Phaedo relates Socrates's last conversation and his composure in the face of death.
The Middle Ages saw the growth of the tradition that Socrates's wife Xantippe was a shrew. One story appears in Jerome's Epistola adversus Jovinianum (Letter Against Jovinian) I.48 (PL 23: 278). The confessor tells how Socrates endured the torments of his wicked wife, Confessio Amantis III.640-713. Socrates's name was also synonymous with "philosopher." Throughout the Epistle of Othea (1399), Christine de Pizan attributes many philosophical sayings to him not found in classical sources. In marked contrast to the antifeminist portrayal of Xantippe, Christine's portrait in The Book of the City of Ladies II.21.1 shows Socrates and Xantippe in loving relationship.
The death of Socrates is written in the stars, MLT 197-203. Alys of Bath recounts a story about Xantippe, which Jankyn read from his book of wikked wyves, WBP 727-732. The dreamer exhorts the Man in Black to remember how Socrates was steadfast against anything Fortune could do, BD 717-719. The story of Socrates's life and death appear in RR 5831-5838, which Chaucer knew. Lady Philosophy says that while Plato lived, Socrates won the victory of "unryghtful deth," Bo I, Prosa 3.26-28. Chaucer glosses "the heritage of Socrates" as Socrates's doctrine of "felicitee," which the Epicureans and the Stoics seized, Bo I, Prosa 3.29-34. Socrates, like Anaxagoras and Zeno, suffered because he was brought up in the ways of Lady Philosophy, Bo I, Prosa 3.53-59 Lady Philosophy follows Socrates's judgment that it is not lawful to conceal the truth, Bo I, Prosa 4.157-162. A stanza on Socrates begins with an apostrophe to the philosopher, whom Fortune could not torment, Fortune 17-24. [Anaxagore: Xantippa: Zeno]
Socrates occurs twice in medial positions, WBP 728; Fortune 17; twice in final rhyming position, MLT 201; BD 717; and in the prose of the Boece.