Myrrh and gall were ways of speaking of poisons that were thought to expedite death or deaden the pain. If this is the case, then someone showing compassion to Jesus on the cross was offering him this drink. Because we know that most of Jesus' male disciples either had fled or were standing off at a distance and that women were standing near the cross, it is likely that this offer of wine was made by one or more women. Yet notice that Jesus, upon tasting the wine mixed with gall, refused to drink it. In this case, Jesus stands in contrast to Socrates, who lived four hundred years before the time of Jesus. Socrates, when he was wrongfully sentenced to die, died a relatively speedy and painless death by drinking the cup of hemlock. It left him unable to feel pain, and ultimately he fell asleep and died.