Thoughts on Piety and Libations

[Socrates] took it perfectly calmly, Echecrates, without a tremor, or any change of colour or countenance; but looking up at the man, and fixing him with his customary stare, he said: 'What do you say to pouring someone a libation from this drink? Is it allowed or not?'
'We only prepare as much as we judge the proper dose, Socrates,' he said.
'I understand,' he said; 'but at least one may pray to the gods, and so one should, that the removal from this world to the next will be a happy one; that is my own prayer: so may it be.' With these words he pressed the cup to his lips, and drank it off with good humour and without the least distaste. (Phaedo, 117b:2 - 117c:4)

Over the course of centuries, some have interpreted Socrates as an atheist (like the Athenians who put him to death), tied him to monotheism, or linked him to pro-change movements, but in the dialogues of Plato he emerges as one of the most interesting polytheistic philosophers of his day. The end of the Phaedo presents a powerful argument for Socrates' piety because he wants to perform a sponde (a form of libation).

Hands-On Hellenism lists two kinds of libations, the sponde and the choe; the former goes to the Deathless Gods and the latter is offered to the dead and the Chthonic deities. In a sponde, you only pour some of the drink; a choe requires that all of the liquid be poured out.

Libations are much more than the simple mechanics of how you do them, as shown above when Socrates wants to offer some of his own poison to the Gods. They are backed by piety. The Oxford English Dictionary defines piety as "reverence and obedience to God (or to the gods); devotion to religious duties and observances; godliness, devoutness." Libations are pious because they are backed by ancient tradition, which remains as straight as one of the Far-Shooter's arrows no matter how much the specifics of practice vary from person to person or from group to group.

I relate piety to reverence and thoughtfulness—the kind of thoughtfulness a toddler may have for a parent when she desperately wants to help to prove herself virtuous or able-bodied. To me, Socrates was pious because he maintained his beliefs and devotion to his religious observances even though he acknowledged an unknown daemon or divinity and died for that “impiety.” On the surface, his desire to libate poison to someone may seem somewhat uncomfortable considering the nature of the Deathless Gods, but it is really no different from a modern worshiper's libations of Odwalla or offerings of Indian food.