In the final days of Socrates’s life, as he waited for his execution in an Athenian prison, his closest friend, Crito, visited him, waking him from a glorious dream. In that dream, a woman in white had appeared to him, assuring him that on the third day following, he would reside in the land of Pythia, the heavenly homeland of his ancestors.

Athens had turned against Socrates because he had favored the word and teachings of God over those of the city. He had preached that one should never do evil, even when evil has been done; that man must, in every circumstance and in every moment, do good. As such, there can be no such thing as an evil done in the name of a good. Such an act, no matter how well-intentioned, would always corrupt the good. Though Socrates did not use the words “turn the other cheek,” he might very well have. That the early Christians found in Socrates a representation of Christ should not come as a surprise.