Apology
Introduction + Context
Plot Summary
Detailed Summary & Analysis
Themes
All Themes Wisdom, Piety, and Belief Moral Integrity Rhetoric, Persuasion, and the Truth Democracy, Judgment, and Justice
Quotes
Characters
All Characters Socrates Meletus Anytus The Delphic Oracle Crito Plato
Symbols
All Symbols The Gadfly
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Apology

by

Plato

Apology Symbols

The Gadfly

At a certain point in his defense, Socrates refers to himself as a gadfly as a way of representing the fact that his philosophical investigations are annoying but necessary to the moral health of Athens…

read analysis of The Gadfly

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