A portrait of Socrates?

There are many portraits of the Athenian philosopher Socrates. But do these accurately reflect what he might have looked like?

Josho Brouwers

Socrates was a Greek philosopher whose work is considered so important that all philosophers who lived before he did are now lumped together as one group: the Pre-Socratics. Socrates was born in Athens around 470 BC and was famously sentenced to death in 399 BC on the pretext of corrupting Athens’ youths.

Socrates never wrote anything himself. Everything we know about him ultimately derives from the work of two important authors who belonged to his inner circle, namely Plato and Xenophon. Other authors add important details, such as the comic playwright Aristophanes and Plato’s student Aristotle. Everything we know about the man – his “Socratic” method, the fact that his father was a sculptor, that his wife was called Xanthippe – derives from these sources.

A portrait of the philosopher

The ancient Athenians also created portraits of this famous citizen of the city. You’ve probably seen one of these before. Below is a portrait purporting to represent Socrates from the National Archaeological Museum of Naples.

Is this an accurate portrait of the famed philosopher? A bust currently on display at the National Archaeological Museum in Naples. Photo: Josho Brouwers.

Before the Hellenistic period (i.e. after Alexander’s death in 323 BC), ancient Greek sculptors did not strive to create realistic portraits. They tended to create more idealized representations, such as the famous bust of Themistocles. Greek portraits probably did not reproduce the subject accurately. The Greeks were not like the Romans, who excelled when it came to the creation of realistic portraits of people.

In fact, this bust of Socrates seems to evoke the satyr Silenus more than a mortal man. Silenus, according to Greek mythology, was the ancestor of satyrs. Silenus was depicted with the body of a man and the ears and tail of a horse, like most satyrs. But unlike typical satyrs, he was also depicted as older, with a beard, a bald head, and a snub nose; older satyrs were likewise called sileni and modelled after him. Thus, this portrait doesn’t tell us much about Socrates himself. He may have looked sort of like this, but there’s no real way to tell.

Further points of interest

Owen Rees reminds me that there is an exchange in Plato’s Symposium where Alcibiades compares Socrates first to Silenus and then to Marsyas, specifically this passage:


Furthermore, this statue is a Roman copy of the first century AD. Like many other Roman marble copies, it was based on a Greek original that dated to the first half of the fourth century. This Greek original must have been made shortly after Socrates’ death or perhaps as much as a generation later. This makes it less likely that it is an accurate reflection of the man’s appearance.

In other words, Socrates is an elusive figure. We know of his philosophy and his life only through the writings of those who were associated with him. Likewise, we have this portrait that might not at all resemble what the man actually looked like, but rather reflects popular opinion of him: a satyr-like figure who has left an indelible mark on history.