The Function of the Quest or Journey Motif in the Apology...

The quest, in the classical era to the modern notions of the word has meant a coming of age or to notions of learning where at the beginning there was nothing known. The quest in its very nature is a search to find an answer, an artifact of power and wealth or perhaps even for peace; in the platonic dialogues they play a crucial role in the Apology of Socrates and the Crito. The Apology in the trial and death of Socrates is an example of a quest or journey motif applied, whether or not quest or journey is the preferred word is left to you who are reading this. In the apology, Plato is accused of corrupting the youth of Athens and of Atheism, to elaborate on these they are one and the same as Socrates is claimed to have corrupted the minds†¦show more content†¦It is to fulfill some such function that I believe the god has placed me in the city† and further claims his works were for the betterment of the people in his state, never to have charged a fee to teach and never to have been a madman as portrayed by the play of Meletus, Aristophanes, a portrayal of him walking on air and a series of nonsense. From an alternate perspective the Apology is more or less a dissection of the journey motif in a narrative as it explains the process of how Socrates arrived at his ill fate of death and condemnation by his peers, mirrored by other forms of storytelling like Shakespeare’s literary works. A point to be taken of the quest motif applied to the apology is the actions taken by asking the questions he needed to deduce that politicians were liars to the people, poets didn’t understand their own meanings and works and that craftsmen were pretentious speaking as if he were the voice of the oracle of Delphi. His actions thus earning him the ire of the people he claimed to such, the most prominent of which in their stand against Socrates were Meletus, Anytus and Lycon, this represents the establishment of an antagonistic force to be combated by Socrates in his defense, an important part of the motif that purveys the story to continue on. In retrospect the use of the quest in the apology is to convey the knowledge learned by