Sophroniscus (

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

: Σωφρονίσκος, ''Sophroniskos''), husband of

Phaenarete Phaenarete ( Greek Φαιναρέτη), wife of Sophroniscus, was the mother of the Greek philosopher Socrates and his half-brother, Patrocles. (Since Sophroniscus had died before 424 BC, he was probably Phaenarete's first husband, while Chaere ...

, was the father of the philosopher

Socrates Socrates (; ; –399 BC) was a Greek philosopher from Athens who is credited as the founder of Western philosophy and among the first moral philosophers of the ethical tradition of thought. An enigmatic figure, Socrates authored no te ...

Occupation

Little is known about Sophroniscus and his relationship with his son Socrates. According to tradition, Sophroniscus was by trade a stonemason or sculptor. Plato scholars Thomas Brickhouse and

Nicholas D. Smith Nicholas D. Smith (born 1949) is an American philosopher and James F. Miller Professor Emeritus of Humanities and Professor of Philosophy at Lewis & Clark College. He won the “Outstanding Academic Book for 1994” award for his book ''Plato’s ...

question the authenticity of that tradition, mainly on the grounds that the earliest extant sources of the story are comparatively late and that it is unmentioned by more reliable sources such as

Plato Plato ( ; grc-gre, Πλάτων ; 428/427 or 424/423 – 348/347 BC) was a Greek philosopher born in Athens during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. He founded the Platonist school of thought and the Academy, the first institution ...

Xenophon Xenophon of Athens (; grc, wikt:Ξενοφῶν, Ξενοφῶν ; – probably 355 or 354 BC) was a Greek military leader, philosopher, and historian, born in Athens. At the age of 30, Xenophon was elected commander of one of the biggest Anci ...

Aristophanes Aristophanes (; grc, Ἀριστοφάνης, ; c. 446 – c. 386 BC), son of Philippus, of the deme In Ancient Greece, a deme or ( grc, δῆμος, plural: demoi, δημοι) was a suburb or a subdivision of Athens and other city-states ...

, or

Aristotle Aristotle (; grc-gre, Ἀριστοτέλης ''Aristotélēs'', ; 384–322 BC) was a Greek philosopher and polymath during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. Taught by Plato, he was the founder of the Peripatetic school of phil ...

. According to John Burnet, the earliest extant mention of Socrates as a statuary or stonemason is in Timon of Philius, as quoted by

Diogenes Laërtius Diogenes Laërtius ( ; grc-gre, Διογένης Λαέρτιος, ; ) was a biographer of the Ancient Greece, Greek philosophers. Nothing is definitively known about his life, but his surviving ''Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers'' is a ...

2.19. Burnet claims that Timon "is a very unsafe authority for anything", and that the attribution "appears to have arisen from an almost certainly false interpretation of ocrates'references to

Daedalus In Greek mythology, Daedalus (, ; Greek: Δαίδαλος; Latin: ''Daedalus''; Etruscan: ''Taitale'') was a skillful architect and craftsman, seen as a symbol of wisdom, knowledge and power. He is the father of Icarus, the uncle of Perdix, an ...

as the ancestor of his family" (in Plato's ''Euthyphro'' 11c, 15b). Burnet points out that Daedalus had nothing to do with stone-cutting or marble sculpture; his media were instead metal and wood. Burnet furthermore argues that Xenophon and Plato would at some point have explicitly mentioned Socrates' background in stone-craftsmanship, if it were real, since both writers so often make Socrates mention craftsmen. Another early source of the claim that Socrates was a stone-worker is

Duris of Samos Duris of Samos (or Douris) ( grc-gre, Δοῦρις ὁ Σάμιος; BCafter 281BC) was a Greek historian and was at some period tyrant of Samos. Duris was the author of a narrative history of events in Greece and Macedonia from 371BC to 281BC, ...

, who described Socrates as a slave. According to

Eduard Zeller Eduard Gottlob Zeller (; 22 January 1814, Kleinbottwar19 March 1908, Stuttgart) was a German philosopher and Protestant theologian of the Tübingen School of theology. He was well known for his writings on Ancient Greek philosophy, especially Pr ...

, Duris seems to have confused Socrates with

Phaedo of Elis Phaedo of Elis (; also ''Phaedon''; grc-gre, Φαίδων ὁ Ἠλεῖος, ''gen''.: Φαίδωνος; fl. 4th century BCE) was a Greek philosopher. A native of Elis, he was captured in war as a boy and sold into slavery. He subsequently c ...

. In direct contradiction to Plato's ''Crito'' 50d-e, one scholar of

ancient Greek music Music was almost universally present in ancient Greek society, from marriages, funerals, and religious ceremonies to theatre, folk music, and the ballad-like reciting of epic poetry. It thus played an integral role in the lives of ancient Greek ...

has claimed that "Socrates received no training in ''mousikē'' in boyhood...", based on the assumption that " s father, a stonemason, was typical of a class that did not receive a training in ''mousikē''."

Family connections

According to Plato (in the dialogue '' Laches''), Sophroniscus was a close friend of Lysimachus, son of the illustrious

Aristides Aristides ( ; grc-gre, Ἀριστείδης, Aristeídēs, ; 530–468 BC) was an ancient Athenian statesman. Nicknamed "the Just" (δίκαιος, ''dikaios''), he flourished in the early quarter of Athens' Classical period and is remember ...

the Just, which (presumably) allowed Socrates to become familiar with members of the circle of

Pericles Pericles (; grc-gre, Περικλῆς; c. 495 – 429 BC) was a Greek politician and general during the Golden Age of Athens. He was prominent and influential in Athenian politics, particularly between the Greco-Persian Wars and the Pelopo ...

. (Since Plato has Lysimachus refer to Sophroniscus in the past tense, and since the dialogue's dramatic date is not long after the

battle of Delium The Battle of Delium (or Delion, a city in Boeotia) took place in 424 BC, during the Peloponnesian War. It was fought between the Athenians and the Boeotians, who were allies of the Spartans, and ended with the siege of Delium in the following we ...

, we may safely infer that Sophroniscus was dead by 424.)p. 235,

Debra Nails Debra Nails (born November 15, 1950) is an American philosophy professor who taught at Michigan State University. Nails earned her M.A. in philosophy and classical Greek from Louisiana State University before going on to earn a Ph.D. in philosophy ...

, ''The People of Plato'', Hackett, 2002. The fact that one of Socrates' sons — but ''not'' his ''eldest'' son

Lamprocles Lamprocles ( el, Λαμπροκλῆς) was Socrates' and Xanthippe's eldest son. His two brothers were Menexenus and Sophroniscus. Lamprocles was a youth (μειράκιον ''meirakion'') at the time of Socrates' trial and death. According to ...

— was named after Sophroniscus suggests that Sophroniscus was the less illustrious of the two grandfathers ( John Burnet 1911, ''Plato: Phaedo'', p. 12); the father of Socrates' wife,

Xanthippe Xanthippe (; , , ; 5th–4th century BCE) was an ancient Athenian, the wife of Socrates and mother of their three sons: Lamprocles, Sophroniscus, and Menexenus. She was likely much younger than Socrates, perhaps by as much as 40 years. Name ...

, was named Lamprocles and had a more impressive pedigree than Sophroniscus. All this suggests that Socrates' inherited social status was in fact much higher than is traditionally recognized.

References

{{Socrates navbox 5th-century BC Athenians Family of Socrates Ancient Greek merchants