Raised alertness
After the defeat in the Peloponnesian War, the democracy of Athens was replaced by a pro-Spartan oligarchical government. As a result, people became wearier of the potential ties of individuals to the new (non-democratic) government, which meant that people were on high alert for people undermining their previous way of life.
Aristophanes’ Clouds and Socrates
Most of the jurors at Socrates’ trial had been raised on comedies such as Aristophanes’ Clouds, in which Socrates is portrayed as someone interested in the “above and below,” anything but the day-to-day life. As such, most of the jurors already had an unfavorable opinion of the philosopher formed at a young age, imposed by an earlier generation of accusers.
The tension between politics and philosophy
“Apology” can be understood as highlighting the problem between politics and philosophy. The former focuses its attention on the need of the many, which can be in direct conflict with the freedom of thought required by proper philosophizing.
Against freedom of mind
While Apology puts a specific person on trial, namely Socrates, it has been interpreted over the years as a trial against the very idea of “philosophy.” Moreover, for many essential thinkers (e.g., John Stuart Mill), Socrates has become a cautionary tale and a key symbol in the individual resistance to political power.
Education of the elite
One of the central themes of Apology seeks to answer a fundamental question applicable to any society: who should be responsible for the education of citizens and the statesman, in particular. The question of education leads to an essential reality of the elite makeup of a city: who should rule and who ought to rule, where the ideal and practical are in many ways entirely divorced from one another.
On the rightful ruler
While being on trial by the city of Athens, Socrates is instead focused on putting the city itself on trial by answering another fundamental question in politics: who should rule? For Socrates, the democracy of Athens where the dēmos rule the polis is ill-suited for the task and instead argues (in later works, e.g., Republic) the need for the rule of a philosopher-king.
The quarrel between philosophy and poetry
Given that most jurors at Socrates’ trial already had an unfavorable opinion of him thanks to Aristophanes’ work, another fundamental question of Apology goes back to the education of elites. Who should be in charge of their education: poetry or philosophy? The severe censorship of poetry in Plato’s Republic indicates an inevitable tension and conflict between philosophy and poetry as education methods (which can only be alleviated through extreme measures).
“Moreover, these accusers are numerous and have been at it for a long time; also, they spoke to you at an age when you would most readily believe them, some of you being children and adolescents, and they won their case by default, as there was no defense.”
Poetic tradition, virtues of the warrior, and the new model of citizen
The poetic tradition symbolized by Aristophanes can be traced back to Homer’s oral tradition, which sought to instill values that emulated the warrior-like culture of the period (e.g., Achilles).