The Cup of Hemlock

Even in ancient times, poison was used to eliminate enemies or simply unwanted people. One who met this fate was the Greek philosopher Socrates, who was sentenced to death by the cup of hemlock during the Athenian democracy for impiety and corrupting the youth through his teachings. The hemlock cup was a cup filled with the poison of spotted hemlock and was used in executions in Athens during the 5th and 4th centuries B.C. To extract the poison from hemlock, a type of plant, the fruit was husked and then crushed. This yielded the poison coniine. A thin layer of this was sprinkled onto the water. Coniin is a poison that, rising from the feet, first paralyzes the skeletal muscles and then the respiratory system, causing the condemned person to suffocate. This cup of hemlock was handed to the 70-year-old Socrates on July 27, 399 BC, after his wife Xanthippe had begged him to flee. But Socrates accepted the verdict of the Athenian court, which he had received out of purely political calculation. He drank the cup of hemlock and continued to philosophize until his last breath. With his death, one of Greece’s greatest philosophers, who had been executed by poison, passed away.