- In his era, good looks and proper bearing were important to a man’s social and political prospects, since beauty and goodness were linked in the popular imagination.
- All sources agree that socrates was ugly and cared little for convention. The Cynics were inspired by that and took it further
- He was tough and impervious to the effects of alcohol and weather.
- He didn’t want fame, wealth, honors or political power. That was very uncommen
- He didn’t work for a living and didn’t participate voluntarily in affairs of the state
- He embraced poverty and insisted that he was not a teacher and refused all his life to take money for what he did
- He holds a VERY high opinion of women for his time
- He likens his work to midwifery(?), claims foreign women as teachears:
- socrates is impervious to sexual desire (ace). He has a lover Alcibiades (very beautiful young man, but just talks to him. → Homosexuality in Athens
- Socrates claims he wants to improve his soul and the soul of all athenians - that is his mission.
- Socrates has a Daimonion: an internal voice that prohibited his doing certain things, some trivial and some important, often unrelated to matters of right and wrong (thus not to be confused with the popular notions of a superego or a conscience). the implication that he was guided by something he regarded as a divine or semi-divine was very suspicious