The Death of Socrates

The Death of Socrates (French: La Mort de Socrate) is a 1787 oil on canvas painting by the French painter Jacques-Louis David. Like many of his works from that decade, the painting focuses on a classical subject, in this case the story of the execution of Socrates, as told by Plato in his Phaedo.^[2] In this story, Socrates has been convicted of corrupting the youth of Athens and introducing strange gods, and has been sentenced to die by drinking poison hemlock. Socrates, rather than fleeing when the opportunity arises, uses his death as a final lesson for his pupils, and faces it calmly.^[3] The Phaedo, which depicts the death of Socrates, is also Plato's fourth and last dialogue to detail the philosopher's final days, which is also detailed in Euthyphro, Apology, and Crito.

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The Death of Socrates