Dan Griesenauer									10 - 10 - 06

	In this article William Irwin compares the worlds, oracles, missions and realizations of Neo in the 
Matrix and Socrates in Athens.  He states at the beginning of the story that, although The Matrix can be 
symbolic of the life and teachings of Jesus, it is also closely related to the life of Socrates.
	The both live in a world that is unaware of the fact that it is enslaved.  They are both awoken from 
this fake world because they have a “splinter in [their] mind”.  This splinter is a question, and that 
question is “What is the good life?”  Although they ask simple questions of the world around them, their 
answers often turn out to be very elusive.  These questions were despised by the self-interested elite 
and often got them in trouble and put them in danger.  While they kept asking these questions, they 
never claimed that they knew the answers.  They stayed humble and claimed ignorance so they could 
find what the real truth is.  The truth that “there is no spoon”;  that the materials of the “real world” 
hide what is really important in life, and you must look beyond those things to receive true happiness.
	The mission that Neo and Socrates received to “wake up” the world that they live in is given to 
them by some sort of oracle.  Although Neo’s oracle isn’t at the center of the Earth and is instead in the 
center of the corruption, her advice changes him just as much.  They both didn’t follow exactly what 
this oracle told them, but she helps to lead them on the right path.  This denial(or humbleness) leads to 
being a greater person when Socrates states that he is not the wisest person in the world and when Neo 
finally believes that he is the one.  These paths that they take are brought about by the oracles’ advice, 
but it also requires that they do some of the work on their own.   They must “Know Thyself” so that they 
can be lead to a better understanding of themselves and the world around them.  They must also have 
“Nothing in excess” so they can stay humble and not abuse their privileges.
	Although the prisons that they are both trapped in may seem different, they are actually very 
much alike and are both equally harmful to those trapped inside.  Each world is “a prison for the mind” 
that every person is born into.  “How would a person in such a prison even recognize if he were set 
free?”  After being set free from the chains (or cords in the Matrix pods) that bind them in these 
prisons, they feel much pain and and confusion as they are exposed to “the desert of the real.”  Once 
they have seen these things, they understand that they must also save those that are still trapped.  
Many of these people aren’t ready and respond to this actions with mockery and resistance. Morpheus 
is also able to help bring these changes to the dream world of the Matrix, just as Morpheus, the Greek 
god of sleep, is able to bring changes to the dreams of humans.
	When they are in the higher level of reality after noticing the prison that they were trapped in, they 
are able to notice the poor imitations of these realities of beauty, justice, and goodness.  They are able 
to “understand not through the senses but through the intellect alone.”  They see thier old paths and 
where they end, and they want to move away from those things ad help other to move away from it to.