The so-called Prison of Socrates

In front of you open three chambers cut into the rock. For centuries, Athenians have called them the Prison of Socrates. It's easy to picture the philosopher here, sentenced to death in 399 BC for impiety and corrupting the young, talking with his followers before drinking the hemlock.

1What the texts say

Plato tells of his teacher's last days in the “Crito” and the “Phaedo”: Socrates spent a month locked in the desmoterion, the public prison, waiting for the sacred ship to return from Delos, because no one could be executed while it was away. That prison was almost certainly near the Agora. In its southwest corner, archaeologists excavated a building that some identify as the prison, where small bottles were found that have been linked to poison, although the identification is still debated.

2So what is this place?

Nobody knows for sure. Suggestions include rock-cut dwellings, baths or tombs. The name “Prison of Socrates” is a modern tradition, popularised by travellers. During the Second World War, though, the chambers really did hold a treasure: they were sealed with concrete to hide antiquities from the Acropolis and the National Archaeological Museum.

Socrates never slept here, but Athens may have saved part of its memory here.

3What to look for

• The three openings and the tool marks on the rock.
• The paved paths designed by the architect Dimitris Pikionis in the 1950s.
• The view of the Acropolis through the pines.