The book “Pharmakon” by Michael Rinella goes into some detail as to the scarcely-known details behind the “impiety” charge against Socrates. If I recall correctly from the book, it was not just that Socrates rhetorically disavowed belief in the gods. The final straw that broke the camel’s back was when Socrates and his disciples engaged in a “symposion” one night, basically an aristocratic cocktail party where they would drink “mixed wine” (wine sometimes infused with other substances like opium or other psychoactive herbs) and then perform poetry/discuss philosophy/discuss politics/etc., and then afterwards a not-infrequent coda to such “symposions” would be a “komos” or drunken parade of revelry of the symposion-goers through the public streets of Athens late at night. Allegedly, during one of these late-night “komos” episodes, Socrates and his followers committed a terrible “hubris,” which was to break off all of the phalloi of the Hermes statues in the city, which was simultaneously juvenile and obnoxious and a terrible sacrilege.
The book “Pharmakon” by Michael Rinella goes into some detail as to the scarcely-known details behind the “impiety” charge against Socrates. If I recall correctly from the book, it was not just that Socrates rhetorically disavowed belief in the gods. The final straw that broke the camel’s back was when Socrates and his disciples engaged in a “symposion” one night, basically an aristocratic cocktail party where they would drink “mixed wine” (wine sometimes infused with other substances like opium or other psychoactive herbs) and then perform poetry/discuss philosophy/discuss politics/etc., and then afterwards a not-infrequent coda to such “symposions” would be a “komos” or drunken parade of revelry of the symposion-goers through the public streets of Athens late at night. Allegedly, during one of these late-night “komos” episodes, Socrates and his followers committed a terrible “hubris,” which was to break off all of the phalloi of the Hermes statues in the city, which was simultaneously juvenile and obnoxious and a terrible sacrilege.
Fascinating! Though that once again gives the charge of “corrupting the youth” a different connotation than the one assumed in Duncan’s post.