Sophroniscus
Σωφρονίσκος
(Σωφρονίσκος), of Athens, the father of the celebrated Socrates, is described by the ancient Greek writers as λιθουργός, λιθοξόος, λιθογλύφος, ἑρμογλύφος, terms which undoubtedly signify a sculptor in marble, and not, as Hemsterhusius and others have supposed, merely a mason. (D. L. 2.18; Lucian, Somn. 12, vol. i. p. 18; comp. Hemsterh. ad loc.; Schol. ad Aristoph. Cl. 773; V. Max. 3.4, ext. 1; Thiersch, Epochen, p. 125.) He must have flourished about B. C. 470, and have belonged to the old Attic school, which preceded that of Pheidias, and to a family of Athenian artists, for Socrates is frequently represented, both by Xenophon and Plato, as tracing his descent from Daedalus. (Comp. SOCRATES, p. 847b, p. 856a; DAEDALUS, p. 928b.) No works of Sophroniscus are mentioned.
From William Smith (ed.), Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology. Text provided under a CC BY-SA license by Perseus Digital Library, http://www.perseus.tufts.edu, with funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities and Tufts University. Data accessed from https://github.com/PerseusDL/canonical-pdlrefwk/ on 17 October 2026.