David Konstan, “Xenophon’s Subversive Socrates: A Reading of Memorabilia 4.1-4.”

Abstract: That Socrates seemed to Xenophon to be the best of men does not necessarily imply that he would have been perceived that way by the majority of contemporary Athenians.  Xenophon’s intention was to exonerate Socrates of the charges of impiety and harming the youth by showing that he conformed to what he regarded as consummate piety and beneficence.  But what if Xenophon’s conception of these exemplary qualities was not that of the average Athenian?  To put it starkly, I suggest that an Athenian, upon reading Xenophon’s Memorabilia, might as easily have concluded that the jurors were right in convicting Socrates as that they were terribly misguided.