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The Hemlock Cup: Socrates, Athens and the Search for the Good Life
We think the way we do because Socrates thought the way he did; in his unwavering commitment to truth and in the example of his own life, he set the standard for all subsequent Western philosophy. And yet, for twenty-five centuries, he has remained an a man who left no written legacy and about whom everything we know is hearsay, gleaned from the writings of Plato, Xenophon and Aristophanes. Now Bettany Hughes gives us an unprecedented, brilliantly vivid portrait of Socrates and of his homeland, Athens in its Golden Age.
His life spanned “seventy of the busiest, most wonderful and tragic years in Athenian history.” It was a city devastated by war, but, at the same time, transformed by the burgeoning process of democracy, and Hughes re-creates this fifth-century B.C. city, drawing on the latest sources—archaeological, topographical and textual—to illuminate the streets where Socrates walked, to place him there and to show us the world as he experienced it.
She takes us through the great, teeming Agora—the massive marketplace, the heart of ancient Athens—where Socrates engaged in philosophical dialogue and where he would be condemned to death. We visit the battlefields where he fought, the red-light district and gymnasia he frequented and the religious festivals he attended. We meet the men and the few women—including his wife, Xanthippe, and his “inspiration” and confidante, Aspasia—who were central to his life. We travel to where he was born and where he died. And we come to understand the profound influences of time and place in the evolution of his eternally provocative philosophy.
Deeply informed and vibrantly written, combining historical inquiry and storytelling élan, The Hemlock Cup gives us the most substantial, fascinating, humane depiction we have ever had of one of the most influential thinkers of all time.
His life spanned “seventy of the busiest, most wonderful and tragic years in Athenian history.” It was a city devastated by war, but, at the same time, transformed by the burgeoning process of democracy, and Hughes re-creates this fifth-century B.C. city, drawing on the latest sources—archaeological, topographical and textual—to illuminate the streets where Socrates walked, to place him there and to show us the world as he experienced it.
She takes us through the great, teeming Agora—the massive marketplace, the heart of ancient Athens—where Socrates engaged in philosophical dialogue and where he would be condemned to death. We visit the battlefields where he fought, the red-light district and gymnasia he frequented and the religious festivals he attended. We meet the men and the few women—including his wife, Xanthippe, and his “inspiration” and confidante, Aspasia—who were central to his life. We travel to where he was born and where he died. And we come to understand the profound influences of time and place in the evolution of his eternally provocative philosophy.
Deeply informed and vibrantly written, combining historical inquiry and storytelling élan, The Hemlock Cup gives us the most substantial, fascinating, humane depiction we have ever had of one of the most influential thinkers of all time.
528 pages, Hardcover
First published October 7, 2010
187 people are currently reading
2744 people want to read
About the author
Bettany Hughes
17 books723 followersBettany Hughes is an English historian, author and broadcaster. Her speciality is classical history.
Bettany grew up in West London with her brother, the cricketer Simon Hughes. Her parents were in the theatre: she learnt early the importance and delight of sharing thoughts and ideas with a wider public. Bettany won a scholarship to read Ancient and Modern History at Oxford University and then continued her post-graduate research while travelling through the Balkans and Asia Minor. In recognition of her contribution to research, she has been awarded a Research Fellowship at King's London.
Bettany lectures throughout the world. She has been invited to universities in the US, Australia, Germany, Turkey and Holland to speak on subjects as diverse as Helen of Troy and the origins of female 'Sophia' to concepts of Time in the Islamic world. She considers her work in the lecture hall and seminar room amongst the most important, and rewarding she does.
Bettany grew up in West London with her brother, the cricketer Simon Hughes. Her parents were in the theatre: she learnt early the importance and delight of sharing thoughts and ideas with a wider public. Bettany won a scholarship to read Ancient and Modern History at Oxford University and then continued her post-graduate research while travelling through the Balkans and Asia Minor. In recognition of her contribution to research, she has been awarded a Research Fellowship at King's London.
Bettany lectures throughout the world. She has been invited to universities in the US, Australia, Germany, Turkey and Holland to speak on subjects as diverse as Helen of Troy and the origins of female 'Sophia' to concepts of Time in the Islamic world. She considers her work in the lecture hall and seminar room amongst the most important, and rewarding she does.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 140 reviews
March 26, 2021
4.5
One of Athens's dearest held tenets was that free individuals in a democracy should, where possible, enjoy the freedom of expression. This was fine in theory, but in a tight-knit community, freedom of speech can quickly degenerate into gossip and slander. And slander is against the law. Athens was one of the first polities to allow freedom of speech – and immediately, it had to deal with the conundrum of who had the freedom to offend. (Page 179.)
Writing a biography of Socrates is difficult. Socrates didn’t leave any writings and what sources exist are the work of his disciples (Plato and Xenophon) and detractor (Aristophanes). To fill in the gaps, historian Bethany Hughes attempts to create a “vivid sketch” by examining the period in which he lived.
Socrates was born in 469 BC, the son of a stonemason and a midwife. His life spanned Athens's pinnacle and decline. Hughes depicts Socrates as a stout, pug-nosed man who dressed modestly and spent his days roaming barefoot through the Agora (the meeting grounds and marketplace below the Acropolis), engaging in dialogue with any willing Athenian in the field of ethics and ethical pretensions. The majority of his students were among the young. She also describes Socrates as a brave and courageous soldier when he served in the Peloponnesian War.
Hughes is at her best when she portrays daily life in Athens. Her depiction of Athens in decline was heart-wrenching. I knew little about the two-year typhoid plague that engulfed Athens during the Peloponnesian War and was stunned by the vivid descriptions of the streets lined with dead bodies and the chaos and despair that came when people must suddenly face the possibility of losing everything. The rise of the demagogues and Civil War that led to the overthrow of democracy followed. According to Hughes, the eight-month rule of the Spartan-backed Thirty Tyrants led to a reign of terror where the oligarchs killed their personal and political enemies, and death squads roamed the streets.
Although the Athenians defeated the oligarchs among them and d restored democracy, Hughes claims, the Athenian populace was shaken, less confident, and less tolerant of a range of opinions and ideas. While Socrates was not directly involved with the oligarchy, several of his former students were among the Thirty Tyrants. Against this backdrop, Socrates was eventually brought to trial and charged with “disrespect for the cities gods, with introducing new divinities and with the corruption of the young.” Many Athenians were deeply religious and believed that their recent calamities were signs of the gods’ displeasure.
Hughes does not focus on Socrates's ideas. Instead, she sees Socrates as a scapegoat who a frustrated, frightened Athenian jury of 500 punished because they perceived his constant probing and challenge of the status quo as a threat. Silencing him became their solution to the “conundrum of who had the freedom to offend.”
I enjoyed reading the Hemlock Cup and learned much about Athenian history. However, I feel that I did not learn a great deal about Socrates, the man. Perhaps, this was due to the lack of available sources or the author’s lack of focus on the specifics of Socrates's philosophy. For me, Socrates remains the elusive quasi-mythical figure I learned about in my youth. Reading this has made me want to dig deeper and probe more.
One of Athens's dearest held tenets was that free individuals in a democracy should, where possible, enjoy the freedom of expression. This was fine in theory, but in a tight-knit community, freedom of speech can quickly degenerate into gossip and slander. And slander is against the law. Athens was one of the first polities to allow freedom of speech – and immediately, it had to deal with the conundrum of who had the freedom to offend. (Page 179.)
Writing a biography of Socrates is difficult. Socrates didn’t leave any writings and what sources exist are the work of his disciples (Plato and Xenophon) and detractor (Aristophanes). To fill in the gaps, historian Bethany Hughes attempts to create a “vivid sketch” by examining the period in which he lived.
Socrates was born in 469 BC, the son of a stonemason and a midwife. His life spanned Athens's pinnacle and decline. Hughes depicts Socrates as a stout, pug-nosed man who dressed modestly and spent his days roaming barefoot through the Agora (the meeting grounds and marketplace below the Acropolis), engaging in dialogue with any willing Athenian in the field of ethics and ethical pretensions. The majority of his students were among the young. She also describes Socrates as a brave and courageous soldier when he served in the Peloponnesian War.
Hughes is at her best when she portrays daily life in Athens. Her depiction of Athens in decline was heart-wrenching. I knew little about the two-year typhoid plague that engulfed Athens during the Peloponnesian War and was stunned by the vivid descriptions of the streets lined with dead bodies and the chaos and despair that came when people must suddenly face the possibility of losing everything. The rise of the demagogues and Civil War that led to the overthrow of democracy followed. According to Hughes, the eight-month rule of the Spartan-backed Thirty Tyrants led to a reign of terror where the oligarchs killed their personal and political enemies, and death squads roamed the streets.
Although the Athenians defeated the oligarchs among them and d restored democracy, Hughes claims, the Athenian populace was shaken, less confident, and less tolerant of a range of opinions and ideas. While Socrates was not directly involved with the oligarchy, several of his former students were among the Thirty Tyrants. Against this backdrop, Socrates was eventually brought to trial and charged with “disrespect for the cities gods, with introducing new divinities and with the corruption of the young.” Many Athenians were deeply religious and believed that their recent calamities were signs of the gods’ displeasure.
Hughes does not focus on Socrates's ideas. Instead, she sees Socrates as a scapegoat who a frustrated, frightened Athenian jury of 500 punished because they perceived his constant probing and challenge of the status quo as a threat. Silencing him became their solution to the “conundrum of who had the freedom to offend.”
I enjoyed reading the Hemlock Cup and learned much about Athenian history. However, I feel that I did not learn a great deal about Socrates, the man. Perhaps, this was due to the lack of available sources or the author’s lack of focus on the specifics of Socrates's philosophy. For me, Socrates remains the elusive quasi-mythical figure I learned about in my youth. Reading this has made me want to dig deeper and probe more.
April 23, 2019
Now here’s an interesting book. Hughes seems drawn to historical (or legendary) figures who are difficult to grasp, undertaking biographies of these most tricky of subjects. Usually I would dislike a book like this – one where the central figure is so scant that much of the text is taken up with providing the context of their life, leaving only a very little page space directly about the person in question. I’m not saying such figures aren’t tantalisingly fascinating, but when there simply isn’t enough material to fill a book, is the endeavour really worth it? I tend to find it a frustrating experience, as a reader. There will be plenty of readers who thus find themselves dissatisfied with The Hemlock Cup, but I wasn’t one of them. Hughes is well-aware of Socrates’ elusiveness, and casts so much light on the surrounding place and times in which he lived that it is possible to discern a (still tantalising) silhouette of the man. Given that Socrates seemed to make a point of not writing down his philosophy, this picture may in fact be the closest we get to an accurate portrait. I will say I did not enjoy the book as much as her ‘biography’ of Helen of Troy, but more than her city biography of Byzantium. Hughes’ writing style is engaging and accessible, and she has certainly done much to popularise Hellenistic history with great personal passion for the subject.
7 out of 10
July 17, 2019
Anyone who has seen Bettany Hughes' ghastly TV documentary on Socrates will be surprised how good is "The Hemlock Cup: Socrates, Athens and the Search for the Good Life". Unlike the Netflix offering, it is well-researched, wickedly funny and, in a scattergun manner, insightful. Ultimately the book is a delightful farrago by a television personality. Do not read it if you are looking for a book about philosophy or if non-academic writing makes you cross.
For all her flamboyance, Hughes' conclusions about the historical Socrates are highly orthodox. She agrees with Plato and Xenophon that Socrates was a victim of the most reprehensible demagoguery. Like Thucydides, she feels that the Athenians brought the Peloponnesian War upon themselves. "The Hemlock Cup" is a case study of how democracy can go badly wrong. It is consistent with Hughes' thesis that good political institutions do not suffice either to create a just society or to make people. What is really needed is philosophy.
Hughes makes better use of archeology than any other that I can think of to augment what can be learned from text sources. Citing archeological digs, she asserts that the Kerameikos district where Socrates lived was a very seedy section of town, filled with prostitutes asking very low prices for their services. The Kerameikos appears to have been a type of Golden Age Montmartre ideal for the artistic and philosophical mind. Hughes also uses findings of archeologists to argue that Athenian aggression was more savage and destructive than the contemporary sources suggest.
Hughes pleads an excellent case for Socrates. She argues that his philosophy was exactly what the era required. Democracy as an institution was less than a generation old in Athens when Socrates begin to teach. What democracy needed then as it does today is a citizenry able to look critically at and to ask questions about the collective decisions. Loyal dissent is a basic component of a working democracy. Executing those like Socrates who choose to ask disagree with the majority is a crime against democracy.
"The Hemlock Cup" is about a miscarriage of justice commited by a society that had recently adopted a democracy but which had not fully assimilated democratic culture. It does not in any way attempt to discuss Platonic philosophy.
The worst thing about "The Hemlock Cup", is the appalling choice of illustrations. One wonders if the photo editor even looked at the text. Hughes describes innumerable objects and mentions which collections have them but no pictures appear in the book. At the same time there are images of paintings by David and Alma-Tadema included in the volume despite the fact that Hughes assures us that these artists badly misrepresented the physical reality of Socrates' world. With a better choice of images, I would have given the book a fifth star.
"The Hemlock Cup" is great fun. Read it to prepare for a trip to Athens or to reflect on a recent visit. Undergraduates are advised to look for other readings as it does not fit with any course with you will find on a university calendar.
For all her flamboyance, Hughes' conclusions about the historical Socrates are highly orthodox. She agrees with Plato and Xenophon that Socrates was a victim of the most reprehensible demagoguery. Like Thucydides, she feels that the Athenians brought the Peloponnesian War upon themselves. "The Hemlock Cup" is a case study of how democracy can go badly wrong. It is consistent with Hughes' thesis that good political institutions do not suffice either to create a just society or to make people. What is really needed is philosophy.
Hughes makes better use of archeology than any other that I can think of to augment what can be learned from text sources. Citing archeological digs, she asserts that the Kerameikos district where Socrates lived was a very seedy section of town, filled with prostitutes asking very low prices for their services. The Kerameikos appears to have been a type of Golden Age Montmartre ideal for the artistic and philosophical mind. Hughes also uses findings of archeologists to argue that Athenian aggression was more savage and destructive than the contemporary sources suggest.
Hughes pleads an excellent case for Socrates. She argues that his philosophy was exactly what the era required. Democracy as an institution was less than a generation old in Athens when Socrates begin to teach. What democracy needed then as it does today is a citizenry able to look critically at and to ask questions about the collective decisions. Loyal dissent is a basic component of a working democracy. Executing those like Socrates who choose to ask disagree with the majority is a crime against democracy.
"The Hemlock Cup" is about a miscarriage of justice commited by a society that had recently adopted a democracy but which had not fully assimilated democratic culture. It does not in any way attempt to discuss Platonic philosophy.
The worst thing about "The Hemlock Cup", is the appalling choice of illustrations. One wonders if the photo editor even looked at the text. Hughes describes innumerable objects and mentions which collections have them but no pictures appear in the book. At the same time there are images of paintings by David and Alma-Tadema included in the volume despite the fact that Hughes assures us that these artists badly misrepresented the physical reality of Socrates' world. With a better choice of images, I would have given the book a fifth star.
"The Hemlock Cup" is great fun. Read it to prepare for a trip to Athens or to reflect on a recent visit. Undergraduates are advised to look for other readings as it does not fit with any course with you will find on a university calendar.
May 30, 2015
I got Bettany Hughes’ books because when I graduated from my BA, she was awarded an honorary fellowship by my university. So naturally, after her speech, I was curious about her work. My problem with her book on Helen of Troy was mostly the organisation, and I had that problem again too; she begins at the end of Socrates’ life, jumps forward and back with foreshadowing, tells you about people’s deaths and then mentions them again a few pages later…
I can also imagine that a lot of people would find it a dry read. I found Socrates fascinating, learning about his character; I was sometimes doubtful about how Hughes could really have pieced together certain details about him. There’s plenty of references and so on in the back of the book, but then there’s also careless mistakes like referring to Elektra and Ismene’s brothers. (It’s Antigone, not Elektra. Wrong tragedy, wrong tragedian.) That makes me a little unsure of how to take it all — and of course, Socrates didn’t write down his philosophy in the way that Plato or Aristotle did, so everything we have is second or third hand anyway.
An interesting book, at any rate, but not as fascinating as the one on Helen. I actually read it while reading Jo Walton’s The Just City, to which it makes an interesting non-fictional companion!
Originally posted here.
I can also imagine that a lot of people would find it a dry read. I found Socrates fascinating, learning about his character; I was sometimes doubtful about how Hughes could really have pieced together certain details about him. There’s plenty of references and so on in the back of the book, but then there’s also careless mistakes like referring to Elektra and Ismene’s brothers. (It’s Antigone, not Elektra. Wrong tragedy, wrong tragedian.) That makes me a little unsure of how to take it all — and of course, Socrates didn’t write down his philosophy in the way that Plato or Aristotle did, so everything we have is second or third hand anyway.
An interesting book, at any rate, but not as fascinating as the one on Helen. I actually read it while reading Jo Walton’s The Just City, to which it makes an interesting non-fictional companion!
Originally posted here.
July 5, 2011
Earlier this year I read and loved Annabel Lyon's The Golden Mean, a work of fiction that gave the reader a fleshy, human, vulnerable Aristotle.
Bettany Hughes's biography of Socrates (who she describes as a 'donut' subject - a rich and tasty topic with a great big whole in the middle right where the subject ought to be) does something similar, bringing to life a Socrates who is heavyset, hairy, slovenly, physically very different from the golden youths who trailed him around Athens and - tried to, at least, possibly - share his bed.
That 'possibly' is key; Socrates left no written texts of his own (distrusted the written word, which couldn't be interrogated, couldn't talk to you as you read). So historians rely on his contemporaries - his devoted students Xenophon and Plato and the satirical playwright Aristophanes - and later texts, and archaeological evidence, trying to piece a life together.
Hughes does a wonderful job of taking us along on her historical ride, both by evoking the Athens Socrates lived and - worked? spoke? theorised? philosophised? - in, and by sharing her sources, and her excitement in tracking down shards of pottery and fragments of papyrus and standing on the sides of motorway off-ramps where great battles took place.
Because Socrates' life can only be guessed at, Hughes draws for us instead a picture of the world he lived in, and places him squarely in it. The 'Socrates might have's' and 'It is likely that he's' are palatable in this context; the opening of the book, where we follow Socrates on his walk to his trial along the streets of Athens, is a masterful piece of writing, filled with utterly visualisable detail.
After three hundred of so pages, the detail starts to overwhelm. I no longer needed to be told about feet slapping, dust rising, sweat dripping. Hughes notes at one stage that Greek statuary was not the milky marble our modern eyes link to Classicism, but brightly, hotly coloured - this book becomes a bit like that, relentless in its addition of yet more decoration to the already richly evocative.
That said, boy, did I learn a lot, and enjoyably. Here are some of the highlights:
Aristotle's famed quote 'Man is a political animal' makes a whole different kind of sense when you think of 'polis' as the city state, made up of a community that has agreed upon shared rules and responsibilities.
The Athenians had a mania for posting public notices: "Papyrus chits, graffiti, stone-carved stelai communicating new laws, fines, religious summons, would have been fund everywhere in the city." The charges against Socrates were strapped to a railing beside a row of statues, and possibly painted onto a nearby wall - a source centuries later said traces of the charges were still visible.
The first temple on the southwestern steps to the Acropolis belonged to Peitho, a goddess I've not heard of before - the wily and powerful goddess of persuasion. She is worshipped across the city, she is the daughter of Aphrodite or Fate, her priestesses had seats of honour at Dionysos's theatre when Athen enacted itself; prostitutes are her servants. Peitho is essential to the new democracy, because now men must shape each other and the world around them with words. Peitho's twisted child is pheme, a word that gives us 'fame' today, but in Socrates' time meant rumour.
Peitho also shows us the danger of words that are persuasive but empty - the words of the sophist, the rhetorician for hire. Socrates: "If you continue to delight in clever, idle arguments you'll be qualified to combat with the sophists but never know how to live with men." In the end, in court, Socrates could not persuade, and pheme and fame condemned him.
[I have to say, this book made me want the Greek gods and goddesses and godlets even more. Perhaps if I were Catholic I could pick my own personal saint, but wouldn't it be nice to be able to pick someone like Peitho to focus your thoughts on, align your action with, placate and cajole?]
Democracy flourished on the back of slavery, particularly the 20,000 slaves who toiled in Athens' silver mines. It is estimated that young and middle-aged male citizens (or just 'citizens', really) spent three quarters of their day at the gymnasiums, preparing for competition, war, admiration and religious festivals. Of which there were *a lot*: a festival every day of the year bar one.
Archaeologists have not yet found an aristocratic area of Athens from this period - it was an intimate little city, and people did not lead (outwardly) ostentatious lives. Prostitutes rubbed up against politicians - no doubt helpful if you were looking to arrange a 'middle of the day marriage'.
The 'Academy' and the 'Lyceum' were names of exercise grounds - a lovely origin. Socrates though was given to philosophising in the street and in shops rather than in gyms or private homes, where he might have been paid for his thinking.
Theatre was massively important to the Greeks - it brought them closer to the gods. And it was fundamental to the way Athens functioned - "art" wasn't something separate from life, but as integral as "society" or "politics". When the Athenians invaded Syracuse and foundered just outside the city limits, the Sicilians who defeated them revenged themselves by packing the soldiers in tight then forcing them to recite lines from Euripedes until they fell from exhaustion or were cut down.
Finally, hemlock was an expensive drug. A bloodless crucifixion blood was polluting) was the choice of execution for slaves and common criminals - hemlock poisoning was for a better class of people. Although the Romantic painters might have depicted Socrates with a large cup:
Bettany Hughes's biography of Socrates (who she describes as a 'donut' subject - a rich and tasty topic with a great big whole in the middle right where the subject ought to be) does something similar, bringing to life a Socrates who is heavyset, hairy, slovenly, physically very different from the golden youths who trailed him around Athens and - tried to, at least, possibly - share his bed.
That 'possibly' is key; Socrates left no written texts of his own (distrusted the written word, which couldn't be interrogated, couldn't talk to you as you read). So historians rely on his contemporaries - his devoted students Xenophon and Plato and the satirical playwright Aristophanes - and later texts, and archaeological evidence, trying to piece a life together.
Hughes does a wonderful job of taking us along on her historical ride, both by evoking the Athens Socrates lived and - worked? spoke? theorised? philosophised? - in, and by sharing her sources, and her excitement in tracking down shards of pottery and fragments of papyrus and standing on the sides of motorway off-ramps where great battles took place.
Because Socrates' life can only be guessed at, Hughes draws for us instead a picture of the world he lived in, and places him squarely in it. The 'Socrates might have's' and 'It is likely that he's' are palatable in this context; the opening of the book, where we follow Socrates on his walk to his trial along the streets of Athens, is a masterful piece of writing, filled with utterly visualisable detail.
After three hundred of so pages, the detail starts to overwhelm. I no longer needed to be told about feet slapping, dust rising, sweat dripping. Hughes notes at one stage that Greek statuary was not the milky marble our modern eyes link to Classicism, but brightly, hotly coloured - this book becomes a bit like that, relentless in its addition of yet more decoration to the already richly evocative.
That said, boy, did I learn a lot, and enjoyably. Here are some of the highlights:
Aristotle's famed quote 'Man is a political animal' makes a whole different kind of sense when you think of 'polis' as the city state, made up of a community that has agreed upon shared rules and responsibilities.
The Athenians had a mania for posting public notices: "Papyrus chits, graffiti, stone-carved stelai communicating new laws, fines, religious summons, would have been fund everywhere in the city." The charges against Socrates were strapped to a railing beside a row of statues, and possibly painted onto a nearby wall - a source centuries later said traces of the charges were still visible.
The first temple on the southwestern steps to the Acropolis belonged to Peitho, a goddess I've not heard of before - the wily and powerful goddess of persuasion. She is worshipped across the city, she is the daughter of Aphrodite or Fate, her priestesses had seats of honour at Dionysos's theatre when Athen enacted itself; prostitutes are her servants. Peitho is essential to the new democracy, because now men must shape each other and the world around them with words. Peitho's twisted child is pheme, a word that gives us 'fame' today, but in Socrates' time meant rumour.
Peitho also shows us the danger of words that are persuasive but empty - the words of the sophist, the rhetorician for hire. Socrates: "If you continue to delight in clever, idle arguments you'll be qualified to combat with the sophists but never know how to live with men." In the end, in court, Socrates could not persuade, and pheme and fame condemned him.
[I have to say, this book made me want the Greek gods and goddesses and godlets even more. Perhaps if I were Catholic I could pick my own personal saint, but wouldn't it be nice to be able to pick someone like Peitho to focus your thoughts on, align your action with, placate and cajole?]
Democracy flourished on the back of slavery, particularly the 20,000 slaves who toiled in Athens' silver mines. It is estimated that young and middle-aged male citizens (or just 'citizens', really) spent three quarters of their day at the gymnasiums, preparing for competition, war, admiration and religious festivals. Of which there were *a lot*: a festival every day of the year bar one.
Archaeologists have not yet found an aristocratic area of Athens from this period - it was an intimate little city, and people did not lead (outwardly) ostentatious lives. Prostitutes rubbed up against politicians - no doubt helpful if you were looking to arrange a 'middle of the day marriage'.
The 'Academy' and the 'Lyceum' were names of exercise grounds - a lovely origin. Socrates though was given to philosophising in the street and in shops rather than in gyms or private homes, where he might have been paid for his thinking.
Theatre was massively important to the Greeks - it brought them closer to the gods. And it was fundamental to the way Athens functioned - "art" wasn't something separate from life, but as integral as "society" or "politics". When the Athenians invaded Syracuse and foundered just outside the city limits, the Sicilians who defeated them revenged themselves by packing the soldiers in tight then forcing them to recite lines from Euripedes until they fell from exhaustion or were cut down.
Finally, hemlock was an expensive drug. A bloodless crucifixion blood was polluting) was the choice of execution for slaves and common criminals - hemlock poisoning was for a better class of people. Although the Romantic painters might have depicted Socrates with a large cup:
All most men needed was a small measure - a solution that would fit into an eye-bath; a number of modest phials of just such dimensions survive (there are two rows of them in the Agora Museum). Black-glazed, rough-cast, they are straightforward, functional objects.
February 26, 2012
The Hemlock Cup is actually three narratives in one book: the physicality and history of Athens during Socrates' life, a largely-guesswork biography of Socrates, and a guided tour through the digs in modern Greece that resulted in the foundations for a lot of Bettany Hughes' supposition.
Each chapter is riveting, engaging, and makes me want to look things up so that I can know more. Taken as a whole, the piece is disjointed and jumpy, uneasily sitting between the history of Athens and the after-image of Socrates.
It's odd the things she explains to her readers and the things she doesn't, often seeming as if she's forgotten to put in a parenthetic statement or footnote in a number of passages (the introduction of Alcibiades was particularly frustrating to me). I was left with the feeling that she wrote some chapters with an academic audience in mind, and others with a popular audience in mind.
Each chapter is riveting, engaging, and makes me want to look things up so that I can know more. Taken as a whole, the piece is disjointed and jumpy, uneasily sitting between the history of Athens and the after-image of Socrates.
It's odd the things she explains to her readers and the things she doesn't, often seeming as if she's forgotten to put in a parenthetic statement or footnote in a number of passages (the introduction of Alcibiades was particularly frustrating to me). I was left with the feeling that she wrote some chapters with an academic audience in mind, and others with a popular audience in mind.
October 23, 2015
From BBC Radio 4 - Book of the Week:
Written by Bettany Hughes. We think the way we do because Socrates thought the way he did. His aphorism 'The unexamined life is not worth living' may have originated twenty-five centuries ago, but it is a founding principle of modern life.
Socrates lived in a city that nurtured the key ingredients of contemporary civilisation - democracy, liberty, science, drama, rational thought- yet, as he wrote nothing in his lifetime, he himself is an enigmatic figure. "The Hemlock Cup" tells his story, setting him in the context of the Eastern Mediterranean that was his home, and dealing with him as he himself dealt with the world.
Episode 2: The young Socrates listens to the great thinkers of Athens and begins to form his own philosophical thoughts on life.
Episode 3: War engulfed much of Socrates' life. Now a young man, he must take up his sword and fight for his beloved Athens.
Episode 4: Socrates debates with the young men of Athens, suggesting that their future may lie in a simpler life of good.
Episode 5: The Spartans break down Athenian walls and Socrates is barred from associating with the city's youth. His card is marked.
Socrates was a soldier, a lover, a man of the people. He philosophised neither in grand educational establishments nor the courts of kings but in the squares and public arenas of Golden Age Athens. He lived through an age of extraordinary materialism, in which a democratic culture turned to the glorification of its own city; when war was declared under the banner of democracy; and, when tolerance turned into intimidation on streets once populated by the likes of Euripides, Sophocles and Pericles.
For seventy years he was a vigorous citizen of one of the greatest capitals on earth, but then his beloved Athens turned on him, condemning him to death by poison. Socrates' pursuit of personal liberty is a vibrant story that Athens did not want us to hear. But Bettany Hughes has painstakingly pieced together Socrates' life, following in his footsteps across Greece and Asia Minor, and examining the new archaeological discoveries that shed light on his world. "The Hemlock Cup" relates a story that is as relevant now as it has ever been.
Abridged by Libby Spurrier
Reader: Bettany Hughes
Producer: Joanna Green
A Pier production for BBC Radio 4.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00wdf44
Written by Bettany Hughes. We think the way we do because Socrates thought the way he did. His aphorism 'The unexamined life is not worth living' may have originated twenty-five centuries ago, but it is a founding principle of modern life.
Socrates lived in a city that nurtured the key ingredients of contemporary civilisation - democracy, liberty, science, drama, rational thought- yet, as he wrote nothing in his lifetime, he himself is an enigmatic figure. "The Hemlock Cup" tells his story, setting him in the context of the Eastern Mediterranean that was his home, and dealing with him as he himself dealt with the world.
Episode 2: The young Socrates listens to the great thinkers of Athens and begins to form his own philosophical thoughts on life.
Episode 3: War engulfed much of Socrates' life. Now a young man, he must take up his sword and fight for his beloved Athens.
Episode 4: Socrates debates with the young men of Athens, suggesting that their future may lie in a simpler life of good.
Episode 5: The Spartans break down Athenian walls and Socrates is barred from associating with the city's youth. His card is marked.
Socrates was a soldier, a lover, a man of the people. He philosophised neither in grand educational establishments nor the courts of kings but in the squares and public arenas of Golden Age Athens. He lived through an age of extraordinary materialism, in which a democratic culture turned to the glorification of its own city; when war was declared under the banner of democracy; and, when tolerance turned into intimidation on streets once populated by the likes of Euripides, Sophocles and Pericles.
For seventy years he was a vigorous citizen of one of the greatest capitals on earth, but then his beloved Athens turned on him, condemning him to death by poison. Socrates' pursuit of personal liberty is a vibrant story that Athens did not want us to hear. But Bettany Hughes has painstakingly pieced together Socrates' life, following in his footsteps across Greece and Asia Minor, and examining the new archaeological discoveries that shed light on his world. "The Hemlock Cup" relates a story that is as relevant now as it has ever been.
Abridged by Libby Spurrier
Reader: Bettany Hughes
Producer: Joanna Green
A Pier production for BBC Radio 4.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00wdf44
December 12, 2012
This book is an incredible accomplishment, exhaustively researched and notated, weaving together knowledge from an incredible array of sources such as Thucydides, Xenophon, and Plato, as well as contemporary research and archaeology. It weaves a compelling story and picture of the places and people of Golden Age Greece. I've always been a Hellene-ophile and feel like I've been looking for this book since I was a kid. I'm not a historian, though, so I can't comment on the accuracy of the book's historical depiction. The notes and bibliography are exhaustive and will serve as an invaluable source for further reading and exploration. I think I appreciated the book more having already read a reasonable amount of the literature from this period, but it has made me want to go back and re-read many works, such as Thucydides, Euripides, and some of the dialogs of Plato, especially the Symposium, Apology, and Phaedrus. Also a great source for launching further explorations into the archaeology of ancient Athens, as well as for contemplating the philosophy of Socrates and all descendant philosophical traditions.
May 10, 2019
Bettany Hughes has a unique ability to give all the facts while still putting you right in the middle of the action.
November 4, 2011
Socrates was forced to kill himself in 399BC via drinking poison (hemlock) because he was found guilty of corrupting the youth of Athens and disrespecting the Gods. He was a philosopher during the 'Golden Age' of Classical Greece, a time during the fifth century BC that saw Athens and the Hellenistic World develop a new, libertarian ideology called 'Democracy', an ideology (although that term was very new) that saw our Western societies of the present day adopt and herald. Not only was Socrates a philosopher, he also served as an Athenian Hoplite - a sort of 'citizen soldier' and saw active duty in the Peloponessian Wars that eventually saw Athens succumb to Sparta and end its Golden Age.
Bettany Hughes' book has many layers. Yes, it is primarily concerning the life of Socrates, interspersing various quotes from famous Greeks such as Plato that have been ascribed to him, detailing his life, loves, teachings and eventual trial and murder, but she also paints around his life detailing the period she is concerned with - Classical Greek society. It is not a straight biography of one mans life, rather it reads as a historical study of this period (the fifth century BC). She explains the rise of the 'polis', the dawn of the first ideological state based around a libertarian and democratic ethos, explaining about how almost anyone could have a say in the Agora (of course if they were not a slave...), which was a kind of forum or meeting place if you like. She also reminds us that, despite it egalitarian veneer, there was, below the surface of their idealistic society, still slavery and exploitation of lower castes, quite severe exploitation of Women (whose places was seen primarily as being in the home), racism or a severe form of xenophobia that allowed Athens to demand monetary tribute from other Greek City States and basically, despite its almost romantic artistic brush strokes that have been idealised and painted throughout the ages, was still a very brutal period of history.
The book is well researched - there are pages of references and notes in the back of the book, an incredible bibliography and she is familiar with all of the epochs poets, writers and philosophers. Bettany Hughes writes in a fluid, captivating style - short segments and short chapters split into Acts make the book immeasurably readable, not too academic (or at least not too dry) but shows that she has done her research and her love for both the protagonist and era she writes about. Saying this however, I think I preferred her first study of Helen of Troy (her first book) - but that maybe is just a personal preference. Regardless, Classical Greece, the birthplace of our Western Democracy, the conflict between the city-states is a period of Ancient History I know so little about, as well as knowing limited facts about who Socrates was, so really, 'The Hemlock Cup' was informative and useful. I eagerly await another Television history study of Socrates coming from her book.
Bettany Hughes' book has many layers. Yes, it is primarily concerning the life of Socrates, interspersing various quotes from famous Greeks such as Plato that have been ascribed to him, detailing his life, loves, teachings and eventual trial and murder, but she also paints around his life detailing the period she is concerned with - Classical Greek society. It is not a straight biography of one mans life, rather it reads as a historical study of this period (the fifth century BC). She explains the rise of the 'polis', the dawn of the first ideological state based around a libertarian and democratic ethos, explaining about how almost anyone could have a say in the Agora (of course if they were not a slave...), which was a kind of forum or meeting place if you like. She also reminds us that, despite it egalitarian veneer, there was, below the surface of their idealistic society, still slavery and exploitation of lower castes, quite severe exploitation of Women (whose places was seen primarily as being in the home), racism or a severe form of xenophobia that allowed Athens to demand monetary tribute from other Greek City States and basically, despite its almost romantic artistic brush strokes that have been idealised and painted throughout the ages, was still a very brutal period of history.
The book is well researched - there are pages of references and notes in the back of the book, an incredible bibliography and she is familiar with all of the epochs poets, writers and philosophers. Bettany Hughes writes in a fluid, captivating style - short segments and short chapters split into Acts make the book immeasurably readable, not too academic (or at least not too dry) but shows that she has done her research and her love for both the protagonist and era she writes about. Saying this however, I think I preferred her first study of Helen of Troy (her first book) - but that maybe is just a personal preference. Regardless, Classical Greece, the birthplace of our Western Democracy, the conflict between the city-states is a period of Ancient History I know so little about, as well as knowing limited facts about who Socrates was, so really, 'The Hemlock Cup' was informative and useful. I eagerly await another Television history study of Socrates coming from her book.
December 15, 2014
If you're looking for a wider historical-cultural-economic context on Socrates' Greece, look elsewhere. If you're looking for a book that will immerse you in the world of Socrates' Athens, as this one attempts--but fails--to do, keep looking.
If you simply want to learn about ancient Greece, you might be able to from this book, if you knew absolutely nothing about it before, and if you have the patience to glean single kernels of basic knowledge from between 500+ pages of Hughes's bloated attempts at prose-poetry. I have to admit it's well researched, or at least that the author knows a lot about ancient Greece, so it's not impossible to learn from it, if you want to invest the time.
If you can read a sentence made up of two independent clauses linked by a comma and not notice anything wrong with it or if you actually use the word "orientated" without intending any irony, you might be able to worry through this book. If you don't understand that such breakdowns in grammar are symptomatic of a breakdown in logic (and Socrates was nothing if not an exacting logician), not to mention a breakdown in copy editing, then this book is for you!
Hughes doesn't come off as insulting her reader's intelligence so much as she seems to flatter it unjustifiably. As far as I can tell, people who appreciate The Hemlock Cup don't want to learn about or understand Socrates or his time so much as they want to bask, uncomprehending, in the glow of the meaningless verbal effluvia of an intelligent Romantic poet. Or that of a very poetic professor of antiquities, possibly, and her six-pound book.
If you simply want to learn about ancient Greece, you might be able to from this book, if you knew absolutely nothing about it before, and if you have the patience to glean single kernels of basic knowledge from between 500+ pages of Hughes's bloated attempts at prose-poetry. I have to admit it's well researched, or at least that the author knows a lot about ancient Greece, so it's not impossible to learn from it, if you want to invest the time.
If you can read a sentence made up of two independent clauses linked by a comma and not notice anything wrong with it or if you actually use the word "orientated" without intending any irony, you might be able to worry through this book. If you don't understand that such breakdowns in grammar are symptomatic of a breakdown in logic (and Socrates was nothing if not an exacting logician), not to mention a breakdown in copy editing, then this book is for you!
Hughes doesn't come off as insulting her reader's intelligence so much as she seems to flatter it unjustifiably. As far as I can tell, people who appreciate The Hemlock Cup don't want to learn about or understand Socrates or his time so much as they want to bask, uncomprehending, in the glow of the meaningless verbal effluvia of an intelligent Romantic poet. Or that of a very poetic professor of antiquities, possibly, and her six-pound book.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 1, 2014
With her breezy informal style it's hard not to picture Hughes walking through some of the sites she describes, narrating the book as if it were one of her television productions. The travelogue aspect can be a bit intrusive, but I rather enjoyed it. Her goal is to put the trial of Socrates in historical context, so detailed descriptions of the sites where Socrates walked is surely appropriate, if not always enlightening.
This is not a purely scholarly affair; the book is written for the same folks who would watch her shows, though it is far more detailed and focuses on the mystery that is Socrates. She draws from all the familiar sources (Plato, Xenophon, Aristophanes, Diogenes Laertius) but spends a fair amount of time on the archaeological evidence, and takes some fascinating side trips into the erotic life of Socrates and the lives of women in fifth century Greece. Down to earth and thorough.
This is not a purely scholarly affair; the book is written for the same folks who would watch her shows, though it is far more detailed and focuses on the mystery that is Socrates. She draws from all the familiar sources (Plato, Xenophon, Aristophanes, Diogenes Laertius) but spends a fair amount of time on the archaeological evidence, and takes some fascinating side trips into the erotic life of Socrates and the lives of women in fifth century Greece. Down to earth and thorough.
March 8, 2024
A brilliantly readable account of 4th century BC Athens and Socrates and why he died - I have absolutely no expertise to argue on the strengths or qualities of Ms. Hughes's arguments but her book should encourage you, as did me, to learn more about this unusual man and period in history.
I reread this book, as I did many of those on shelves, during the COVID lockdown and it reignited my love of the ancient history of Greece, and elsewhere. I have given it another star because although I acknowledge my woeful lack of knowledge, in terms of up-to-date reading, of this whole period I do believe Ms. Hughes's book is an excellent one for anyone to read - she is a very good popular historian, but with the academic training and knowledge that makes her book so superior to many efforts. She is far more subtle and interesting then her TV programs might lead you to believe.
A first rate history book.
I reread this book, as I did many of those on shelves, during the COVID lockdown and it reignited my love of the ancient history of Greece, and elsewhere. I have given it another star because although I acknowledge my woeful lack of knowledge, in terms of up-to-date reading, of this whole period I do believe Ms. Hughes's book is an excellent one for anyone to read - she is a very good popular historian, but with the academic training and knowledge that makes her book so superior to many efforts. She is far more subtle and interesting then her TV programs might lead you to believe.
A first rate history book.
June 6, 2019
i cannot remember a time in my life when i was not in love with someone. (xenophon, symposium)
[crying in the club because we've lost so much to the vestiges of history and my heart hurts]
so. this was not my first bettany hughes book, and i should preface this by saying that her helen of troy biography is a 5* read for me. i read that one when i was volunteering in thermopylae last summer (picture the scene: me, in delphi, under blisteringly hot sun, thinking about apollo), and this one invoked the same kind of emotions in me even though i was reading it in the comparatively dreary setting of my flat in edinburgh. the writing style is so deep and vividly imagined its impossible not to feel, during many of the passages, that you aren't in an ancient athens - walking the streets, smelling the smells, hearing the voices. i love it. it makes me want to go back to greece: to touch the stones, to stand where so many people have stood, to just attempt to imagine how many eyes have seen the same things.
there's a whole host of historical figures that are drawn to life here, and they did feel close enough to touch - i really appreciated how fact and conjecture worked together to flesh out socrates, and it was also nice to see pictures of athens as an imperial state in all its ugly, horrible, bloody reality. i find hughes' writing and content really easy to access - and i say this as someone whose knowledge of ancient history comes from mainly recreational interest (i took elective classes in classics during uni, but i definitely do not have an academic scope), and even though the narrative does ping-pong between time periods pretty rapidly, the longer you spend in the book, the easier it is to follow.
i could say a lot more, but i couldn't say it well, so i'll leave it there, except to acknowledge that i am biased - this period of ancient history fascinates me, and i'm easily wowed. my mind is repeatedly blown by what the greeks were contemplating centuries bc: the "atom", the shape of the world, concepts of evolution, the sun... it's wild. and, of course, socrates, that elusive old chestnut: my dream is to be so central to history, and yet simultaneously so absent from written literature, that future historians will write entire books on me and have to rely on the words of my closest friends as character witnesses.
[crying in the club because we've lost so much to the vestiges of history and my heart hurts]
so. this was not my first bettany hughes book, and i should preface this by saying that her helen of troy biography is a 5* read for me. i read that one when i was volunteering in thermopylae last summer (picture the scene: me, in delphi, under blisteringly hot sun, thinking about apollo), and this one invoked the same kind of emotions in me even though i was reading it in the comparatively dreary setting of my flat in edinburgh. the writing style is so deep and vividly imagined its impossible not to feel, during many of the passages, that you aren't in an ancient athens - walking the streets, smelling the smells, hearing the voices. i love it. it makes me want to go back to greece: to touch the stones, to stand where so many people have stood, to just attempt to imagine how many eyes have seen the same things.
there's a whole host of historical figures that are drawn to life here, and they did feel close enough to touch - i really appreciated how fact and conjecture worked together to flesh out socrates, and it was also nice to see pictures of athens as an imperial state in all its ugly, horrible, bloody reality. i find hughes' writing and content really easy to access - and i say this as someone whose knowledge of ancient history comes from mainly recreational interest (i took elective classes in classics during uni, but i definitely do not have an academic scope), and even though the narrative does ping-pong between time periods pretty rapidly, the longer you spend in the book, the easier it is to follow.
i could say a lot more, but i couldn't say it well, so i'll leave it there, except to acknowledge that i am biased - this period of ancient history fascinates me, and i'm easily wowed. my mind is repeatedly blown by what the greeks were contemplating centuries bc: the "atom", the shape of the world, concepts of evolution, the sun... it's wild. and, of course, socrates, that elusive old chestnut: my dream is to be so central to history, and yet simultaneously so absent from written literature, that future historians will write entire books on me and have to rely on the words of my closest friends as character witnesses.
April 6, 2021
I have seen some of Bettany Hughes' programmes on TV so came to her writing that way. I like to read and find out about things but am not a historian by any means so wanted something that felt like it was accessible and this really was the book. I know the name Socrates and that's about as much as I knew. This tells us the story of Socrates but in the midst of what was happening in Ancient Greece 400 BC. What was democracy? How did life work? What did people believe? How did Socrates fit into that and how did he really live? Do we really know much about him at all? I found this a book that was readable without being patronising. It also felt very honest. I have come away though with lots of questions. Socrates was probably seen a bit of a misfit. Sat in gymnasia, chatting to the young men and questioning what? How? Why? He didn't tow the line in ancient Athens and ended up being put to death because he really didn't defend himself. This has multiple things in common with the life of Jesus Christ. Spoke to the normal people, questioned things and ended up being put to death. So, why was a religion built on JC and yet Socrates was 'just' a philosopher? Just a mater of timing? I'm not suggesting that Socrates should have been seen as a god but it does make me amused as to how people latched onto JC and have perpetuated his myth for two further millennia!!
I'm off on a tangent. Great book. Highly recommended. Now I need to read more but not sure how to find something equally informative yet readable.
I'm off on a tangent. Great book. Highly recommended. Now I need to read more but not sure how to find something equally informative yet readable.
July 10, 2019
I give it five stars because this book was exactly what I needed, even if I can't speak to its depth or accuracy.
Still fresh in my interest in classical philosophy and the history of Athens, I looked for an overview that would tell me more about the philosophers of the time as well as the culture they lived in. This delivered! And as an added bonus, it shed a lot of light on the events I had trouble following in Mary Renault's fantastic "The Last of the Wine." Who knew the Peloponnesian War was so complicated and yet so fascinating to follow?
Recommended, and here I go to re-read "The Last of the Wine" with new appreciation in the near future.
Still fresh in my interest in classical philosophy and the history of Athens, I looked for an overview that would tell me more about the philosophers of the time as well as the culture they lived in. This delivered! And as an added bonus, it shed a lot of light on the events I had trouble following in Mary Renault's fantastic "The Last of the Wine." Who knew the Peloponnesian War was so complicated and yet so fascinating to follow?
Recommended, and here I go to re-read "The Last of the Wine" with new appreciation in the near future.
September 9, 2025
"His death reminds us to care about the world we live in, to respect it, to challenge it, but above all to remember ta erotika - the 'things of love', the things that drive us to pursue the good."
April 26, 2025
Fascinating, well-written description of the history of ancient Athens and what led to the execution of Socrates. As I was reading I couldn't help seeing a parallel to what's happening in this country today. History indeed is repeating in that the people of Athens eventually voted for dismantling of its own democracy. Socrates served in several wars before coming home to walk the streets of Athens and the Agora speaking to young men he saw as eager to learn new things, teaching them to think for themselves. This was one of the charges lodged against him by the aristocratic - oligarchic - leaders of the day: "the corruption of the young". Like Caiaphas condemning Jesus, they saw Socrates as a threat to their own power. Socrates must die. It was the regime change and loss of democracy that resulted in Socrates' death.
March 6, 2014
*she often lists from thesaurus, which comes over as rather affected, and grates after a while; one fallen star right there.*
R4 Monday - book of the week. TRAILER
blurb - Written by Bettany Hughes. We think the way we do because Socrates thought the way he did. His aphorism 'The unexamined life is not worth living' may have originated twenty-five centuries ago, but it is a founding principle of modern life.
Socrates lived in a city that nurtured the key ingredients of contemporary civilisation - democracy, liberty, science, drama, rational thought- yet, as he wrote nothing in his lifetime, he himself is an enigmatic figure. "The Hemlock Cup" tells his story, setting him in the context of the Eastern Mediterranean that was his home, and dealing with him as he himself dealt with the world.
Socrates was a soldier, a lover, a man of the people. He philosophised neither in grand educational establishments nor the courts of kings but in the squares and public arenas of Golden Age Athens. He lived through an age of extraordinary materialism, in which a democratic culture turned to the glorification of its own city; when war was declared under the banner of democracy; and, when tolerance turned into intimidation on streets once populated by the likes of Euripides, Sophocles and Pericles.
For seventy years he was a vigorous citizen of one of the greatest capitals on earth, but then his beloved Athens turned on him, condemning him to death by poison. Socrates' pursuit of personal liberty is a vibrant story that Athens did not want us to hear. But Bettany Hughes has painstakingly pieced together Socrates' life, following in his footsteps across Greece and Asia Minor, and examining the new archaeological discoveries that shed light on his world. "The Hemlock Cup" relates a story that is as relevant now as it has ever been.
Abridged by Libby Spurrier Reader: Bettany Hughes
Producer: Joanna Green A Pier production for BBC Radio 4.
R4 Monday - book of the week. TRAILER
blurb - Written by Bettany Hughes. We think the way we do because Socrates thought the way he did. His aphorism 'The unexamined life is not worth living' may have originated twenty-five centuries ago, but it is a founding principle of modern life.
Socrates lived in a city that nurtured the key ingredients of contemporary civilisation - democracy, liberty, science, drama, rational thought- yet, as he wrote nothing in his lifetime, he himself is an enigmatic figure. "The Hemlock Cup" tells his story, setting him in the context of the Eastern Mediterranean that was his home, and dealing with him as he himself dealt with the world.
Socrates was a soldier, a lover, a man of the people. He philosophised neither in grand educational establishments nor the courts of kings but in the squares and public arenas of Golden Age Athens. He lived through an age of extraordinary materialism, in which a democratic culture turned to the glorification of its own city; when war was declared under the banner of democracy; and, when tolerance turned into intimidation on streets once populated by the likes of Euripides, Sophocles and Pericles.
For seventy years he was a vigorous citizen of one of the greatest capitals on earth, but then his beloved Athens turned on him, condemning him to death by poison. Socrates' pursuit of personal liberty is a vibrant story that Athens did not want us to hear. But Bettany Hughes has painstakingly pieced together Socrates' life, following in his footsteps across Greece and Asia Minor, and examining the new archaeological discoveries that shed light on his world. "The Hemlock Cup" relates a story that is as relevant now as it has ever been.
Abridged by Libby Spurrier Reader: Bettany Hughes
Producer: Joanna Green A Pier production for BBC Radio 4.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 10, 2011
i was put off at first because of the way the author drops in references about her real life visits to the sites mentioned; i hate when the flow of the story is broken like that. i've never read a biography and i was hoping for more of a novel type of book, but it didn't take long to get used to the style. in the case of attempting to understand socrates' life, the normal goal of an author - to allow the reader's imagination to shape the world - would have failed miserably. now that i've finished it, i can look back and see that the way she does it really was the best way. it isn't a story, it was a description of a dude's life, and her interruptions really are necessary. they force you to think about what's happening in more than one way, and that's what it takes to get a good picture of what life and culture may really have been like two and a half millennia ago.
in other words, it took me a while to get used to the style, but now i appreciate it. other than my personal initial disagreement with that one aspect of style, the prose is very well composed and i love her complete lack of timidity in her choice of words. things like "…a word better left to the imagination" or "…herm, well, you get the point" would have totally interrupted the flow. the athenians weren't afraid to use the necessary words, so neither must a historian be.
as for socrates himself, the fact that i even started this book shows how interesting i thought he would be, and the fact that i finished it should tell you how interesting i continue to find him and his world.
i wholeheartedly recommend a study of socrates' life and ideas, and this book is an excellent place to start or continue that journey.
in other words, it took me a while to get used to the style, but now i appreciate it. other than my personal initial disagreement with that one aspect of style, the prose is very well composed and i love her complete lack of timidity in her choice of words. things like "…a word better left to the imagination" or "…herm, well, you get the point" would have totally interrupted the flow. the athenians weren't afraid to use the necessary words, so neither must a historian be.
as for socrates himself, the fact that i even started this book shows how interesting i thought he would be, and the fact that i finished it should tell you how interesting i continue to find him and his world.
i wholeheartedly recommend a study of socrates' life and ideas, and this book is an excellent place to start or continue that journey.
August 18, 2015
I read this book at the perfect time, while I was traveling in Athens. Bettany Hughes has written a biography of Socrates, but since the known facts of his life are few, she compensates by detailing what we know about life in Athens in general during his lifetime. I learned a lot! But at times Hughes's writing style annoyed me.
My main problem was that she tends to write purple prose. There were a lot of invented, hyphenated adjectives. Perhaps she was attempting to evoke the Ancient Greek language, but to me it just came across like bad English. In other places, she would use sentence fragments. Something like this. Or this. When I discovered that she is a well-known presenter for TV history programs, the book began to sound like an extended documentary narration.
With all that said, Hughes has put together many interesting pieces to suggest why an Athenian jury condemned Socrates to death in 399 BC. She seems to have visited every relevant site in the Greek world, and includes details from the latest archaeological research. These details were very interesting to me, as I was in the midst of visiting some of the same sites myself. And the book helpfully includes both maps and illustrations that help the reader visualize the events discussed.
On balance, I would rate The Hemlock Cup 3.5 stars, but I've rounded up to 4. If you are interested in learning more about Socrates and Ancient Greek life, you will find a lot to like in this book. But if you're like me, you will find yourself constantly rewriting sentences in your head.
My main problem was that she tends to write purple prose. There were a lot of invented, hyphenated adjectives. Perhaps she was attempting to evoke the Ancient Greek language, but to me it just came across like bad English. In other places, she would use sentence fragments. Something like this. Or this. When I discovered that she is a well-known presenter for TV history programs, the book began to sound like an extended documentary narration.
With all that said, Hughes has put together many interesting pieces to suggest why an Athenian jury condemned Socrates to death in 399 BC. She seems to have visited every relevant site in the Greek world, and includes details from the latest archaeological research. These details were very interesting to me, as I was in the midst of visiting some of the same sites myself. And the book helpfully includes both maps and illustrations that help the reader visualize the events discussed.
On balance, I would rate The Hemlock Cup 3.5 stars, but I've rounded up to 4. If you are interested in learning more about Socrates and Ancient Greek life, you will find a lot to like in this book. But if you're like me, you will find yourself constantly rewriting sentences in your head.
March 13, 2011
If the ancient Athens of your imagination is a collection of white marble buildings and dead white males in white togas, you owe it to yourself to read this book, which shows the Athens of Socrates's day to be a vivid, cacophonous place where the statues--as numerous as the crowds of people in the agora--and buildings are painted metallic and day-glo colors, where beauty in human form (especially the unclothed male form) is a sign of divine favor, where divine favor upon divine favor must be continually sought through services to a growing pantheon of deities, where a sense of the superiority of the Athenian democratic scheme asserts itself in imperialistic aggression that dooms the entire enterprise. The life of Socrates is intertwined with the rise and fall of Athens--he is a veteran of her wars, he hones his philosophy in daily conversation with her people, and he dies at the hands of religious conservatives looking for scapegoats for the city's fall from grace.
The author's reconstruction of history is interspersed with notes on her visits to present-day Athens and to the museums that house the clues to the way it used to be. In effect, she puts invididual puzzle pieces together with a dramatic rendering of the entire puzzle. I found this juxtaposition to make for fascinating reading.
The author's reconstruction of history is interspersed with notes on her visits to present-day Athens and to the museums that house the clues to the way it used to be. In effect, she puts invididual puzzle pieces together with a dramatic rendering of the entire puzzle. I found this juxtaposition to make for fascinating reading.
October 3, 2023
I admit that I'm biased as I'm a huge fan of Bettany Hughes's work, on television and in writing, so it was more than easy to dive into The Hemlock Cup. I love her verbose, visceral style in this.
As Socrates never wrote anything down and we have very few concrete details about him, Hughes instead paints elaborate sets around Greece during his lifetime. How better to understand a man who was both deeply of his time, Athenian from cradle to grave, and also stood so apart from the crowd that he was condemned to death for it than to understand the society he lived in? By detailing the world around Socrates, Hughes hopes to place what we know do know about the man within his lived context. In that goal I think she succeeds with aplomb.
I can easily see how some might find Hughes' avid use of adjectives to be overkill, but I love it. I also really liked when she put in her own experiences of visiting the modern day places in Greece and around the Aegean. I thought those parts worked particularly well at reminding the reader that Athens remained a living, transforming city.
Oh, and an aspect of Socrates legacy that I found fascinating was how popular Socrates was in Eastern philosophy as well as Western.
As Socrates never wrote anything down and we have very few concrete details about him, Hughes instead paints elaborate sets around Greece during his lifetime. How better to understand a man who was both deeply of his time, Athenian from cradle to grave, and also stood so apart from the crowd that he was condemned to death for it than to understand the society he lived in? By detailing the world around Socrates, Hughes hopes to place what we know do know about the man within his lived context. In that goal I think she succeeds with aplomb.
I can easily see how some might find Hughes' avid use of adjectives to be overkill, but I love it. I also really liked when she put in her own experiences of visiting the modern day places in Greece and around the Aegean. I thought those parts worked particularly well at reminding the reader that Athens remained a living, transforming city.
Oh, and an aspect of Socrates legacy that I found fascinating was how popular Socrates was in Eastern philosophy as well as Western.
April 25, 2014
I was really looking forward to this book and initially it met my expectations, but after a while I spotted some historical inaccuracies which made me wonder how pervasive it is in the book. Later on it became obvious that the author had an agenda, she wanted to prove how visionary Socrates was and therefore she made him as appealing to today's tastes as possible. Quite a substantial part of the book was trying to argue that Socrates was a feminist and that this was one of the reasons why he was eventually so hated. Even if it was true that he treated women with more respect, I do not think it was very important aspect of who he was (unless you have an agenda like the author of the book). Granted, it shows what were his priorities and that he was open-minded. But it was not a political gesture. Overall, all that the author describes about Socrates ends up as a cultural event. That makes it probably very digestible for the target audience, but it also makes it very empty. Finally, the whole parallel between Socrates' life and the life of Athenian democracy was very repetitive and tiring. 2 stars.
May 26, 2011
Interesting, inconsistently engaging contextual biography of Socrates by a popular British classicist, The Hemlock Cup presents Socrates as both a product and anomaly of his times. He rises in democratic Athens but falls in the paranoid politics of Imperial Athens. Tarred with the Sophist brush by popular opinion, an opinion that Aristophanes helped forge in his comedy, The Clouds, the philosopher of the nettlesome questions was bound for exile or doom. The book is authoritative but disjointed and some passages read like a voice over for a documentary, casual and unnecessary in a text. Hughes at her best is very good but the episodic nature of the book’s organization disrupts its own narrative momentum. So enjoy the sustained sections on Athenian education, court system, warfare. Enjoy the set pieces regarding Plato, Alcibiades, Pericles and Aspasia, and other major figures of the Golden Age, but prepared for flat spots. It’s informative always, fascinating often, but not as successful as it might have been.
January 24, 2012
I have a keen interest in history and picked this up hoping to find a good biography of Socrates and/or a good history of ancient Greece in Socrates time. What I got was a wildly inconsistent read. Long stretches of the book were a struggle to get through. I don't know whether this means that my interest in ancient Greek history is not what I thought or whether it was just uninteresting writing. Either way, I struggled to get through this book (which is very unusual for me). The beginning and some of the ending was good but long stretches in the middle offered no drama, repeatedly used grand cliches that provided no educational value and in the end the book did not really give me a personal feel for the life and times of Socrates. I would suggest this for only the most diehard of history buffs. Others - stay away.
June 24, 2012
I wish I had read this book before my Open University A219 module. It contextualised so much of the course content. Socrates was born at the dawn of democracy, he fought in and survived many of the battles of the Peloponnesian War. This book brought home the tactics employed first to ensure the smooth running of the state, then the driver for empire / enslavement of the region.
Half way in I really went off Aristophanies; till then one of my favourite playwrites - its easy to see where the Nazis learned the knack of making those you fear figures of fun thus diminishing them in other's eyes. Mine was a Kindle book, as such the timelines towards the end of the book were rendered unreadable.
Bettany Hughes truly highlights the nineteenth century construct that was democratic Athens.
Half way in I really went off Aristophanies; till then one of my favourite playwrites - its easy to see where the Nazis learned the knack of making those you fear figures of fun thus diminishing them in other's eyes. Mine was a Kindle book, as such the timelines towards the end of the book were rendered unreadable.
Bettany Hughes truly highlights the nineteenth century construct that was democratic Athens.
November 1, 2024
The Hemlock Cup by Bettany Hughes brings Socrates vividly to life, grounding his story in the turbulent landscape of 5th-century Athens. Hughes’ detailed portrayal allowed me to understand not just Socrates the philosopher but also Socrates the person—an iconoclast deeply shaped by his city and its complex politics. The book explores his relationships, especially his love for Alcibiades and his appreciation for women. Hughes masterfully reveals the personal and political events leading to his execution, making Socrates’ fate feel inevitable yet profoundly tragic. By the end, Socrates emerges not only as a thinker but as a fully realized individual, deeply interwoven with the life of Athens.
December 17, 2013
This is a marvelous book! I became a fan of Bettany Hughes after reading her book on Helen of Troy. I purchased Hemlock Cup right after it was published, but it took me this long to finish. The reason was not because the book was boring, oh no, not at all. It was because there was so much information, that I needed to take it all in. Ms. Hughes really brings the period (470 B.C. - 399 B.C.) alive in all its glory and then in its sad dissolution. Not a philosophy book, but a History book with a capital "H" and you are so much the richer for it!
Highly recommended without reservations!
Highly recommended without reservations!
May 16, 2013
About as comprehensive a narrative on the life of Socrates as one could expect given the paucity of written information from and about the man. I thought the book was very readable. My main disappointment in this book was that more attention was not given to the 'Socratic method' and the impact of Socrates' approach to philosophy in his own time and to the present day. I was also a little annoyed at the number of unattributed quotes throughout the book ( not really unattributed, but the quotes required frequent paging back and forth to the page notes at the end of the book. All in all, well worth the read, however.
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