There were heroes and heroic deaths before and after Socrates, but his death was nothing like that of the ordinary. He was not killed by a spear or sword in battle, but died drinking a cup of poison, condemned to death as a criminal. In 399 BC, the democratic court of Athens tried Socrates for impiety and corrupting the youth and sentenced him to death.

Why did the ancient Athenians execute their most important thinker? Can our society ensure freedom of thought and speech better than Athens, which it cites as a model? Should we admire Socrates? Or were the Athenians right to kill him?

The death of Socrates is, for the centuries that followed, an event of immense significance for humanity, shaping the way we confront concepts such as heroism and posthumous fame, religion and family life, individual freedom and state authority, intellect and everyday life. These concepts form the foundation of Western civilization.

Taking into account the accounts of his contemporaries (Aristophanes, Xenophon, and of course Plato), Emily Wilson approaches the death of the philosopher both as a historical event and as a field of cultural value confrontation. She examines how the death of Socrates, particularly the notion that he was able to control it, defined his life more than his actions, beliefs, or personality.

She also studies literary and philosophical texts, as well as works of art (by Cicero, Erasmus, Milton, Voltaire, Hegel, Brecht, etc.) that, in light of Socrates' death, raised issues concerning power, politics, religion, the role of the mind, and the meaning of life.