Socrates (film)
His enemies, led by a young man named Meletus, accuse him in court, arguing that the philosopher preaches crazy doctrines to the youth, and does not believe in the gods, but demons. Socrates makes his "apology" (i.e., legal defense), but the citizens are against him; so Socrates is sentenced to death, and held in prison, awaiting execution. His disciples are desperate, and one of them, Crito, tries to help him by encouraging him to flee. Socrates rejects this idea, saying he must obey the rulers of the city. Socrates then resolves to die, and dies as soon as he is forced to drink hemlock.
Apology (Plato)
To the jurors who voted to acquit him, Socrates gives encouragement: his supernatural "daimonion" did not interfere with his conduct of the legal defence, which he viewed as a sign that such a defence was the correct action. In that way, the "daimonion" communicated to Socrates that death might be a good thing; either death is annihilation (release from earthly worry) and not to be feared, or death is migration (higher plane of existence) in which reside the souls of personages and heroes, such as Hesiod and Homer and Odysseus. Socrates concludes his self-defence by saying to the court that he bears no ill-will, neither towards his accusers — Lycon, Anytus, and Meletus — nor the jurors. He asks that they ensure the well-being of his three sons, so that they learn to live ethically.