«Тахиййат»: Сборник статей в честь Н. Н. Дьякова

Beyond the Boundaries:an Egyptian Literary Adaptation of Greek Philosophy m 83 n Socrates answers her negatively, his excuse is that he does not know lying and deceit, acting, flattering, changing faces and maneuvering. He seeks to reach the truth by a shortest way that is through a straight line, but for Democratia and other politicians, all lines are wavering and crooked, interconnected and interwoven, even changeable and fickle, sometimes you can't even find a single line. As we have seen, Socrates is too bold in exposing the inconsistencies of democracy, and Democratia, as so many politicians, hates to be tested in argu- ment, that is why she took action against Socrates who provoked her. Interestingly enough, Etman employs the notion of Athens as a democracy over-romanticized to drop hints into the mouth of Socrates that he is criti- cizing the restless democracy in Egypt, as well as uncovering the errors and weaknesses of democracy anywhere else in the whole world. The topics of Socrates' conversations with Democratia correspond closely to issues taken up in Etman's play from the Egyptian society when it was at the mercy of too ambitious politicians of the eighties. The dangers attributed by Socrates to the Athenian democracy are actually inherent in Egyptian political life. Though there are some interesting questions for the specialist in the play, the general receptive public readers of Etman's play stand at a remove from a generally informed understanding of Etman's Socratic views. So Etman out of a necessity for the reader's ease of understanding has to simplify those Socratic views, to help the reader make the most extraordinary leaps of the imagination to bridge the gaps. The events of the play took place in 399 BC, the year of the indictment of Socrates. The trial of Socrates was one of the most famous trials in his- tory. Etman uses the trial as a way of introducing not only a full picture of the Egyptian society, but also his vision of the world as he knows it in war and peace. Strictly speaking, Etman is referring to the late fifth or fourth centuries BC, but in practical terms, it could be extended to embrace Egypt's modern history and state of affairs, and many other places in the world. The charges against Socrates were questionable. He was accused of corrupting youth, of disbelieving in the city's gods, and of introducing new gods, or in other words, of believing in other new spiritual beings. The Athenians demanded the death penalty for him, though that hardly seems worthy of the death penalty, but may be Socrates' contemporaries did not see things this way. Though no laws explicitly forbade those charges, Athenian citizens believed that he threatened their religion and their children's morals. It was an indictment of thought. He was prosecuted for what he believes, not for what he did. At the end of the trial at the court, Socrates concludes by saying (Etman 2008a, p. 81): Socrates: As long as the honorable court, that represents the voice of the people, and the authority of the law, has said its word with my death, welcome