Art Aeon

Socrates with Xanthippe on his Last Day Art Aeon

"Socrates with Xanthippe on his Last Day" by Art Aeon is a fictional narrative poem in the tercet stanzas. It sings of an imaginary dialogue between the character Xanthippe, the widow of Socrates, and the character Plato who visits Xanthippe soon after the execution of his revered mentor in Athens. The state of affairs in this story is the same as that in the Phaedo of the historic philosopher Plato (423-347 BCE): On his last day in the Athenian prison, what things Socrates discussed with his devoted friends and how he met his death. But the content of the present fiction is substantially different from Plato's Phaedo: The main topic of Plato's Phaedo is about Socrates' arguments for immortality of soul. In this fiction, the character Socrates is portrayed to discuss various topics: On the nature of death; On the meanings of mystic words such as, 'soul', 'immortality', 'god', 'muses', etc.; On the nature of justice; On the ethical problems of the Olympian gods as depicted by Homer, Hesiod, and other great Greek poets in their epics and tragedies. Socrates introduces the profound and revolutionary philosophic ideas of Xenophanes (c. 570- c. 475 BCE) who criticized Homer and Hesiod for their portrayal of the Olympian gods as humanlike and immoral. After discussions on the impossibility for any human to know the true nature of deity, they examine the tragedy Prometheus Bound of Aeschylus (c. 525- c. 455 BCE) to discuss the topic of divine justice. In time, the jailor comes in, and sends away everyone except Xanthippe. Socrates takes a nap before his execution. When he wakes up, he relates to Xanthippe his mysterious last dream: How he happened to meet Prometheus, the compassionate saviour of the mankind from the Zeus' plan of their extermination; how he repented to Prometheus for the people's vile bigotry of Zeus in disrespect of their saviour; how he learned the deep mystery of the vast cosmic drama of the universe. At sunset, Socrates thanks Xanthippe for her devotion, prays to Athena for protection of his beloved family, and dedicates his spirit to Prometheus. Then he drinks the poison in composure and meets his death in peace. Thus, Xanthippe finishes her recollection of the final day of Socrates. Deeply moved, Plato vows to Xanthippe that he will devote his life to study what Socrates taught, and to immortalize his ideals by writing them into books for all mankind to study.