Crossword Genius

Stupefying agents as Xenophon ultimately wrote off Socratic works (9)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

narcotics

I'm a little stuck... Click here to teach me more about this clue!

'works' is the definition.
The answer and definition can be both man-made objects as well as being plural nouns.
Maybe you can see a link between them that I don't see?

'stupefying agents as xenophon ultimately wrote off socratic' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
an anagram of 'socratic' is 'arcotics' which is present in the answer.
A single letter 'n' remains which might be clued in a way I don't understand.
This explanation may well be incorrect...

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for narcotics that I've seen before include "Stupefying drugs" , "Drugs that cause sleep or drowsiness" , "Addictive drugs" .)

I've seen this clue in the Sydney Morning Herald.
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