Sophroniscus

Sophroniscus - Σωφρονίσκος

Sophroniscus, (Greek Σωφρονίσκος) husband of Phaenarete, was the father of the philosopher Socrates.

Occupation

Little is known about Sophroniscus, and his relationship with his son Socrates. According to tradition, Sophroniscus was by trade a stonemason (a "stone-cutter" or a "stone-polisher"), and enjoyed some margin of success; but neither Plato nor any author before the unreliable historian Duris of Samos and the satirist Timon of Phlius - both writing in the 3rd century BCE - mentions the nature of the family's profession. Though Clement of Alexandria, Sextus Empiricus, and Diogenes Laertius all quote the same passage from Timon, where Socrates is termed a laxoos or lithoxoos in ancient Greek, Timon's work is polemical and not a serious attempt to transmit literal, historical facts. And Duris, according to Eduard Zeller, seems to have confused Socrates with Phaedo of Elis.

A passage in Plato's Euthyphro seems to confirm the tradition concerning Socrates' family trade: Socrates is there made to say that Daedalus is his ancestor. Daedalus was the mythical founder of Greek sculpture, but Daedalus' media were metal and wood, not stone. So Plato nowhere really confirms Timon's depiction. The simple fact that, in Plato's Apology of Socrates (22c-d), Socrates claims to be unfamiliar with the knowledge of craftsmen and manual artisans suggests that Plato knew nothing of statuary as the family's trade. Xenophon also has Socrates speak with craftsmen and statuaries (Memorabilia 3.10), but never has him point out that he's the son of a stonemason himself. So skepticism concerning the tradition is prudent.

Family Connections

According to Plato (in the dialogue Laches), Sophroniscus was a close friend of Lysimachus, son of the illustrious Aristides the Just, which (presumably) allowed Socrates to become familiar with members of the circle of Pericles. (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, we may safely infer that Sophroniscus was dead by 424.) The fact that one of Socrates' sons - but not his eldest son Lamprocles - was named after Sophroniscus suggests that Sophroniscus was the less illustrious of the two grandfathers (John Burnet 1911, Plato: Phaedo, p. 12) - that the father of Socrates' wife, Xanthippe, was named Lamprocles and had a more impressive pedigree than even Sophroniscus. All this suggests that Socrates' inherited social status was in fact much higher than is traditionally recognized.