This under-life-size head of Socrates, who lived between 469 and 399 B.C., illustrates a new endeavor in Greek portraiture: the attempt to visually represent a philosopher. Pronounced the wisest of all men by the Delphic oracle, Socrates was interested in the conduct of life and was famous for his cross-examinations using the Socratic method, most notably in dialogues recorded by his pupil Plato. An Athenian citizen who served with distinction in the army, Socrates was condemned to death ostensibly for corrupting the city's youth, but more likely for his political sympathies.

Socrates' portrait matches the literary descriptions of him and his life. In Plato's Symposion, Alcibiades, one of the participants in the philosophical discussion, likens Socrates' appearance to that of Silenos, a half-man, half-goat semi-deity; this portrait captures the fleshy, pug-nosed visage associated with the god, a resemblance that would have been immediately recognizable in antiquity. Dated to the Roman period, the piece was probably based on a statue set up in Athens in the fourth century B.C. and attributed to Lysippos, the court sculptor of Alexander the Great; Aristotle, Alexander's tutor, may have influenced the dedication of that statue.

Although inscriptions and literary sources indicate that portraits of famous men existed in Classical and Hellenistic Greece, very few remain today. Mostly made of bronze and since melted down, these portraits are now known almost exclusively through Roman-period replicas, such as this one, carved in marble. The head of Socrates probably topped a flat pillar, a typical format for garden decoration called a herm portrait. The carving of the hair and the finely polished surface date the sculpture to the Antonine period; the iron dowel in the nose is ancient, indicating that this piece was valuable enough to be repaired in antiquity.

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