Quotation
Last reviewed:
“The god attached me to the city as a gadfly to a large, well-bred but sluggish horse.”
Socrates · Socratic · Ancient · 399 BCE
What does it mean?
The mainstream reading is that Socrates casts himself as a divine irritant whose sting keeps a great but drowsy city awake. A competing reading hears an arrogant claim to a private mission, which the jury was free to find intolerable rather than pious. The image sits at Apology 30e–31a, after he has said he will not stop questioning people. He adds that Athens may swat him and then go back to sleep.
Did Socrates really say this?
The library’s label is Paraphrase or translation. Plato's report of Socrates in the Apology, not a transcript. The English is close to G. M. A. Grube's translation of the gadfly image at 30e.
Where it comes from
Plato, Apology 30e
Approximate date: 399 BCE.
How to use it
A residents' meeting that only hears thanks will miss the leak, the bullying, or the quiet fraud. The gadfly's job is the awkward question, not the insult that enjoys itself. Ask whether the sting is aimed at a real drowsiness, such as a board that nods through the accounts, and a city, or a street, can still decide the fly is not worth the pain.
A mindset reading
The habit is to distinguish a useful irritant from a person who needs to be the irritant. Socrates ties the role to a god and to the city's good, not to his temperament. Without that test, the image licenses any heckler.
Understand the philosophy
He is answering why Athens should put up with him. The god, in this speech, is the Delphic oracle's source and the sign he says checks him. A gadfly stings a horse into motion; the horse is well-bred, so the city is not called wicked, only sluggish. Killing him, he warns, is easier than finding another sting.
- society
- ethics
FAQ
What does it mean?
The mainstream reading is that Socrates casts himself as a divine irritant whose sting keeps a great but drowsy city awake. A competing reading hears an arrogant claim to a private mission, which the jury was free to find intolerable rather than pious. The image sits at Apology 30e–31a, after he has said he will not stop questioning people. He adds that Athens may swat him and then go back to sleep.
Did Socrates really say this?
Paraphrase or translation. Plato's report of Socrates in the Apology, not a transcript. The English is close to G. M. A. Grube's translation of the gadfly image at 30e.
Which work is it in?
Plato, Apology 30e Approximate date: 399 BCE.