PYTHAGORAS TO PLATO who delivers profound metaphysical lectures in a style of layered literary artiWce Just as it was John’s presentation of Jesus that had the greatest impact on later theological development, so it is the Socrates of Plato whose ideas proved fertile in the history of philosophy According to Xenophon, Socrates was a pious man, punctiliously observant of ritual and respectful of oracles In his prayers he let the gods decide what was good for him, since the gods were omnipresent and omniscient, knowing everyone’s words, actions, and unspoken intentions (Mem 20; 2) He taught that the poor man’s mite was as pleasing to the gods as the grand sacriWces of the rich (Mem 3) He was a decent, temperate person, devoid of avarice and ambition, moderate in his desires, and tolerant of hardship He was not an educator, though he taught virtue by practice as well as exhortation, and he discouraged vice by teasing and fable as well as by reproof He was not to be blamed if some of his pupils went to the bad in spite of his example Though critical of some aspects of Athenian democracy, he was a friend of the people, and totally innocent of crime and treason (Mem 2) Xenophon’s major concern in his memoirs was to exonerate Socrates from the charges made against him at his trial, and to show that his life was such that conservative Athenians should have revered him rather than condemned him to death Xenophon is also anxious to place a distance between Socrates and the other philosophers of the age: unlike Anaxagoras he had no futile interest in physics or astronomy (Mem 1 16), and unlike the sophists he did not charge any fees or pretend to expertise that he lacked (Mem 6–7) Xenophon’s Socrates is an upright, rather wooden person, capable of giving shrewd, commonsensical advice in practical and ethical matters In discussion he is quick to resolve ambiguities and to deXate cant, but he rarely ventures upon philosophical argument or speculation In a rare case when he does so it is, signiWcantly, in order to prove the existence and providence of God If an object is useful, Socrates argues, it must be the product of design, not chance; but our sense-organs are eminently useful and delicately constructed ‘Because our sight is delicate, it has been shuttered with eyelids which open when we need to use it, and close in sleep; so that not even the wind will damage it, eyelashes have been planted as a screen; and our foreheads have been fringed with eyebrows to prevent harm from the head’s own sweat’ (Mem 6) Such contrivances, and the 36