h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Plato said Socrates died of hemlock poisoning but his description was inconsistent with the symptoms. Does this mean another poison was used, Plato wasn't actually there to witness events or he altered them for artistic / philosophic purposes or that he thought reality was too unpleasant for either himself or the readers of his tract to stomach (alimentary tract my dear Watson)? All thoughts on the subject to be completed and on my desk by tomorrow morning, ladies and gentlemen, as per usual. Marks will be deducted for being de duck, Ted (come in some other costume or none at all) as I told you last week or your responses, quackers).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conium_maculatum

"Although many have questioned whether this is a factual account,[who?] it is the perspective of Bloch that careful attention to Plato's words, modern and ancient medicine, and other ancient Greek sources point to the above account being consistent with Conium poisoning"

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Does it matter? He was sentenced to death by poisoning, and he carried it out--to the extreme embarrassment of the rulers who had sentenced him, and who were hoping he would do the sensible thing and escape into exile. Instead he made himself a martyr and thus gained immortality of a sort, and gave philosophy a good name.

King Charles I did a similar thing. He overlooked several chances to escape to France, and offered himself as a sacrifice. Hence the Restoration and the return of the (Anglican/Arminian) Church of England.

"Does it matter? He was sentenced to death by poisoning, and he carried it out" [recumbentman]

Good point.

I'm not too keen on the thought of leaving this planet, even though, at 70, I've had my three-score-and-ten years. But agency matters. Choosing to live your life on your own terms, even if it means self-sacrifice, is something that might inspire those who will come after.

I dare say it mattered to Mrs Socrates and his poor orphans

I'm sorry to be the one to break it to you, but if he hadn't died there's quite a strong chance he'd be dead now anyway....

<BB<

And, like General Franco, he's still dead.