The author Xenophon presents Socrates’s megalēgoria (boastful manner of speaking) at his trial as a tactic in his legal defense against the charges of corruption, impiety, and harming the Athenian state.
[6] Moreover, the narrative differences in the dialogues indicate that Xenophon avoided direct attribution of "wisdom", the term suggesting that Socrates was accurately characterized as a natural philosopher and an atheist in, for example, Aristophanes's comedy The Clouds (423 BC).
[7] As portrayed by Xenophon, Socrates does not claim to be wise "from the time when I began to understand spoken words... [I] have never left off seeking after and learning every good thing that I could.
"[8] Moreover, in Xenophon's Apology of Socrates, the philosopher's daimon (divine sign) is described as giving positive indications about what to do (12),[9] whereas the philosopher Socrates portrayed by Plato consistently and explicitly describes the daimonion as meant to "turn me away from something I am about to do", but "never encourage me to do anything".
[12] Finally, whereas Socrates' willingness to face the death penalty is in Plato's Apology explained by Socrates' unwavering commitment to his divinely appointed mission to keep philosophizing at all costs,[13] it is explained in the Xenophon/Hermogenes version by the claim that it is better for him to die now than to face the pains and limitations of advanced old age.