Most likely, probably, in perspective 100% legitimate.

I think that the charges in the case against Socrates are legitimate. He did corrupt the youth from the standards of his society, and while I don’t think that he was impious in not believing in the gods, he did bring in a new thought (the being that was always with him) that could be interpreted, as it was, as a new god that he did follow alongside the gods. 

He did corrupt the Athenian youth. The Oxford dictionary defines corruption as “To render morally unsound or ‘rotten’; to destroy the moral purity or chastity of; to pervert or ruin (a good quality); to debase, defile.” And it is society, the majority of people, who defines what is morally sound or rotten, decides what a good quality is and what a bad quality is. This was more so the case in Ancient Greece (and any ancient culture). We have to look and judge this case not by our standards and our realities but by the ones of the ancient culture and society that the case was made in; we cannot look at this in a modern perspective but an ancient one. In our perspective he may have enlightened the young Athenians, opened their minds to be aware of fundamental truths and realities (ones that may have even clashed by the ones society believed in), however the society we live in is a more libertine society as we like free thought, we can like people who live outside the box and question our society’s standards and such because to an extent we all do it, it is our norm. Socrates’s society was not a libertine one; in comparison with us his society was extremely conservative, where conformity was received better. This is especially so when we take in the consideration that the Athenian society had just gone through the ardous Peloponnesian War and most society’s that go through war adapt a viewpoint of ‘us against them’ or when they turn more fervently to their own society’s standards and reject all other societys viewpoints and viewpoints that clash with their own (take for example American society, after World War II they were so fervent in their own society’s standards that they went on to try to make it the world’s standards). In this perspective and understanding we can say that Socrates did corrupt the Athenian youth, he himself could be viewed as corrupted as he didn’t act in the normal manner of an Athenian by going out and starting discussions and arguments with everyone and anyone especially with how his arguments were formed which would have seemed very strange (considering the socratic method twists thoughts around, and continously loop back, it would have been new to the average Athenian), and with it he questioned every belief of his society, every thought, and generally his answers came into conflict with his society’s beliefs. He was outside of his society and he brought other people with him to the outside, in his questioning of his society even inadvertantly he’s changing the perspectives of the youth. We see it as him enlightening them but to the eyes of the Greeks? What he was doing would be seen as corruption and thus we can say, in his society’s perspective, he was fairly put on trial for it.

Now was Socrates impious? This is a bit harder to look at; from our understanding he believed full-heartedly in the gods, however we also know that he also believed in another being that was with him constantly and guided him. Now this might have been his conscious, maybe? But in the Society’s viewpoint, since he looked more towards this little voice, it could have been seen as a belief in monotheism and a rejection of their pantheon of gods. At the least we could say that by introducing this new being he was putting up competition between it and the gods, an act against the gods, even inadvertantly, and from there we can say he was impious. But really do we know what piety is or what the Athenian society would have seen it as, or what Socrates himself actually did on this subject? There is too little known on this subject to actually prove if he was impious or pious. There is too little evidence and too many unknowns for me to say whether this charge was fair or not.

I n conclusion I would say that the charges against Socrates are most likely legitimate; he did corrupt the Athenian youth against his society’s norms and standards, their definition of morality, and though there is not enough knowledge about impiety or how he was impious, bringing another ‘thing’ alongside the pantheon of gods seems almost like bringing in a new god to believe in (Pious or impious? I don’t really know).

Sources:

corrupt, v.

Second edition, 1989; online version September 2011. <http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/42035>; accessed 07 October 2011. Earlier version first published in New English Dictionary, 1893.