*The Hemlock Cup* By Bettany Hughes, Published by Kyushu Publishing House

Discover Socrates before he was idolized.

Through the passionate life of this great thinker,

an epic tale of power, wealth, war, and decline in the city of Athena unfolds.

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◎ About the Book

One day in May 399 BC, as the sun rose lightly over Mount Pentelicus, 500 Athenian citizens rushed through mud-brick houses, public baths, and the Temple of Athena Nike, heading straight for the religious court. They were about to judge an unconventional old man—Socrates. Accused of "impiety" and "corrupting the youth," he faced a probable death sentence. Thus, he had to stand before the jury to defend his life.

Socrates lived a tumultuous life. He rose from the humble son of a stonemason to become a soldier and a philosopher. He didn't ponder in grand academies or palaces but lectured in shoemakers' shops. He enjoyed strolling barefoot through the streets of Athens, asking random people questions, and challenging conventional notions. He worried that the pursuit of wealth would lead to blind hedonism, and that "democracy" would devolve into an excuse for strife. He cared about life and truth, and what virtue truly meant.

Yet, this great Western thinker left no written words, remaining a mystery himself. To reconstruct his life, Bettany Hughes traveled through archaeological sites in Greece, taking us into the homes, streets, assembly halls, and banquets of ancient Athenians. We meet politicians, generals, merchants, and artisans, visit the bustling Agora, enter the arenas where grand competitions were held, participate in Athens' sacred religious festivals, and reconstruct the world in which Socrates lived.

In the end, Socrates met a cup of hemlock, while the civilization Athens prided itself on faced war, infighting, and decline—the degradation of the classical spirit. Socrates asked: "I go to die, and you to live; which is better, God only knows." What is a just life? If we are not happy, what is the meaning of city walls, warships, and magnificent statues? These are the profound questions of human civilization.

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◎ Highlights of the Work

★ Break through one-dimensional, abstract stereotypes to find the real Socrates who existed in history.

Records of Socrates are fragmentary. In the minds of most people, he is merely an idol, a few familiar phrases, or a symbol of courageous opposition to an unjust society. However, the real Socrates was the son of a stonemason and a midwife, born in the peripheral areas outside Athens, ugly in appearance, pot-bellied, and wearing only a tattered robe all year round. He once donned armor and shield, fighting as a soldier on the battlefield, and was also a lover of the handsome youth Alcibiades. He understood his own fragility and foolishness, possessing wisdom and justice but also a touch of self-indulgence, humor, and comedy. He lived like countless ordinary people, loving the world, yet never ceasing to think and question, always seeking truth, virtue, and a good life.

★ A grand epic of the Peloponnesian War from beginning to end, and the rise and fall of Athenian democracy.

The Peloponnesian War was the most tragic war in ancient Greek history and a turning point for Western civilization. Socrates lived through this greatest civil war in the Greek world, witnessing the flourishing and decline of Athenian democracy, observing the brilliance and darkness of human nature. The victory in the Greco-Persian Wars inspired the Athenians, making freedom and democracy their pride. However, subsequent events such as the Battle of Delium, the Melian Dialogue, the Sicilian Expedition, the Battle of Arginusae, and the Thirty Tyrants' coup, led Athenian democracy step by step towards brutality and madness. This book's chronological account of pivotal events in Athenian history intertwines Socrates' life with the decline of Athenian democracy, presenting the brutality of war, the fragility of democracy, the preciousness of freedom, and the power of wisdom within a splendid historical narrative.

★ Reconstruct Socrates' world with abundant new archaeological materials.

The history of philosophy often emphasizes Socrates' praise of the soul and disdain for the body, but in fact, he did not separate the physical body from philosophical thought; rather, he enthusiastically experienced real life. To get closer to Socrates, the author followed his footsteps across the Greek mainland, observing the natural landscapes and cityscapes Socrates himself might have seen, experiencing the sounds and smells he might have encountered, and searching for objects he might have used or seen in Athens (archaeological finds including coins, architectural ruins, papyri, tools, spices, etc.). By combining fieldwork, archaeological discoveries, and various documentary materials, this book uses vivid language and numerous contextual descriptions to immerse readers in the material landscape of Socrates' time, thereby imagining his life.

★ Recreate the complex history behind the "Trial of Socrates" from the perspective of Athenians.

Socrates' death is one of the most famous deaths in the history of thought, marking the decline of democratic Athens and the end of the Greek Golden Age, profoundly influencing countless thinkers and artists thereafter. This book takes Socrates' trial as both its beginning and end, attempting to present the tone, atmosphere, taste, essence, and underlying currents of Socrates' trial and death from an Athenian perspective, by reconstructing the contemporary politics of Athens, conflicting ideas, unique legal system, and religious beliefs. Socrates' life had a profound impact on the Athenians, and ultimately, it was his love for humanity that led to his death. To his last breath, he still believed that all of us deserve a better life.

★ Reconstruct a brilliant ancient Athens, showcasing the lost Golden Age in its entirety.

Socrates lived during the "Greek Miracle" era, as Athens' new tholoi and the bronze statue of Athena rose, and this prosperous city-state controlled the vast Delian League, filling the Parthenon with wealth. Playwrights Sophocles, Aristophanes, historians Xenophon, Herodotus, Thucydides, philosophers Parmenides, Zeno, Democritus, Anaxagoras, and other luminaries gathered in Athens, creating countless artistic, literary, and philosophical treasures. This book describes a magnificent Golden Age of Athens, surveying its extensive military, cultural, and social landscape, presenting the bustling, wondrous, and tragic 70 years of ancient Athens—one of the greatest cities of the classical era.

★ Shortlisted for the British Academy Book Prize, a New York Times bestseller, and named Book of the Year by multiple media outlets.

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◎ Recommendations

"This masterpiece is a vivid political and social history of 5th-century BC Athens. Bettany Hughes awakens a city in flux, revisiting a golden age of democracy, new wealth, and power, entering a century ravaged by war and infighting... [She] paints a picture of Socrates as a magnificent oddball, wandering barefoot in the streets, conversing with strangers, refusing to conform... [This book] is an entertaining beacon of classical philosophy and art for today."

—The Times (UK)

"What Hughes provides is something far more important: a richly textured, atmospheric, and evocative account of Socrates' life and times, making this man, the most mysterious of all philosophers, palpable. By the book's end, we can almost see and smell the man, discovering all his quirks and weaknesses, as well as his challenged brilliance."

—The New York Times (USA)

"Hughes's prose style is like literary CGI, recreating the clamor and dazzling vibrancy of the classical city for the reader... Sometimes she leads us through the streets of modern Athens, sometimes through archaeological sites, sometimes into museum basements where rare treasures are hidden. She spares no effort to bring Socrates' world to life, and her work truly embodies the living spirit of ancient Greece."

—The Observer (UK)