Why Not Escape? On the Hosiotes in Plato’s Crito

Why does Socrates drink his hemlock? What motivates his rejection of Crito’s proposal to escape? These and similar questions concerning the decision made by the philosopher gave rise to a considerable number of scholarly inquiries as well as to a whole array of answers. Thus, Greenberg (1965) sought the explanation in Socrates’ “heroic temper”, while Barker (1977) argued for the decisive role of the philosopher’s elevated moral awareness. Importantly, a great deal of scholarly discussion builds on the apparent incompatibility of two accounts of civil duties in the Apology and Crito. In the Apology (29 c–d), we see Socrates challenge his audience and, in fact, the judges with the declaration that he will under no circumstances renounce philosophy, and that he will continue his instructing the Athenians. In the Crito, the philosopher chooses to reject his friend’s offer of help, and, when doing so, he implicitly accepts the death sentence.1 Whilst the two dialogues are often regarded as inconsistent, various attempts to explaining the inconsistency resulted in an impressive number of publications devoted to the