Socrates as a Religious Figure - 2

The Socrates who emerges in these three dialogues (we'll set aside the quest for the historical Socrates for the purpose of these posts, and concentrate on the Socrates we have and not worry for the moment about the Socrates we don't have) expresses his spirituality in at least three ways.  I'll deal with the first two in this post.

A)Socrates seems to recognize and trust in a divine providence.

 

           1)As he begins his defense:

             "In this let God's will be done."

                                    Apology

 

           2)In response to the vote for the death penalty:

             "Perhaps this was to be so."

                                    Apology

 

B)Socrates believes in and feels he is guided by divine inspiration.

 

           1)In the Apology he takes the Delphic oracle very seriously,

            treating its words as if they did in fact come from God.

             He reports that he pondered, puzzled, and tried those words

             until he believed he understood them:

 

                "What in the world does the god mean?  What in the

                     world is his riddle?"

                "I was puzzled for a long time to understand what he

                     meant; then I thought of a way to try to find

                     out..."

                "I asked myself on behalf of the oracle..."

                "the god in fact is wise, and in this oracle he

                     means..."

 

           2)He treats at least some dreams as divine messages.

 

                a)In prison, three days before his execution:

                  "SOCRATES:  I suppose I am to die the day after

                  that ship comes in....I don't think she'll come on

                  this day now beginning, but tomorrow.  I infer this

                  from a dream I had this very night just past, a

                  little while ago....I thought a woman came to me,

                  handsome and well grown, and dressed in white; she

                  called to me and said, 'Socrates, On the third day

                  you'll reach fertile Phthia.'

                  CRITON:  A strange dream, Socrates!

                  SOCRATES:  Not at all, quite clear, Criton, as I

                  think, anyhow."

                                    Crito

 

                b)In prison, the day of his death:

                  "In my past life, the same dream often used to come

                  to me, in different shapes at different times, but

                  saying the same thing, 'Socrates, get to work and

                  compose music!'  Formerly I took this to mean what

                  I was already doing; I thought the dream was urging

                  and encouraging me, as people do in cheering on

                  their own men when they are running a race, to

                  compose - which, taking philosophy to be the

                  highest form of composition, I was doing already;

                  but now...I thought that, if the dream should

                  really command me to work at this common kind of

                  composition, I ought not to disobey the dream but

                  to do so."

                                    Phaedo

 

           3)He hears and trusts an inner voice.

 

             "Something divine and spiritual comes to me....This has

             been about me since my boyhood, a voice, which when it

             comes always turns me away from doing something I am

             intending to do, but never urges me on."

                                   Apology