Phaedrus — Plato

p. 229Starting up again in a frenzy and in full sail upon the shores of the barren sea, nor again taking the dusky ashes in both his hands and pouring them over his head, or bewaihng and sorrowing in the various modes which Homer has delineated.

Nor should he describe Priam,'* the kinsman of the gods, — *' Rolling in the dirt, calling each man loudly by his name.'* [Still less should the gods themselves be introduced wailing over sorrows and woes.] .

For if, my sweet Adeimantus, our youth seriously believe in such unworthy representations of the gods, instead of laughing at them as they ought, hardly will any of them deem that he himself, being but a man, can be dishonored by similar actions ; neither will he rebuke any inclination that may arise in his mind to say and do the like.

And instead of having ] ] any shame or self-control, he will be always whining and lamenting on slight occasions. [Our guardians ought not to indulge in excessive laughter which almost ahyays. produces a violent reaction. We should therefore not suffer Homer to say in describing a feast of the gods, •' Inextinguishable laughter rose among the blessed gods.

Truth must be highly valued by the youth, for lying among "^ the citizens is a practice destructive of the State. _^^ The youth must be temj^erate. The chief elements of tem- / /d perance are, in general, obedience to commanders, and selfcontrol in sensual pleasures. Therefore Socrates approves such words in Homer as " The Greeks marched breathing prowess, In silent awe of their leaders.

But he condemns the line *' Oh heavy with wine, who hast the eyes of a dog and the heart of a stag. Nor should the poets* praises of eating and drinking and of J lower forms of pleasure be repeated to the young. Instead, * Priam, king of Troy, was said to be descended from Zeus.

p. 230they should hear of the endurance of famous men, for example: ** He smote his breast and thus reproached his soul, Endure, my soul, thou hast endured worse. I^The youth must not receive bribes or be lovers of money. So the poets must not be allowed to sing of "Gifts persuading gods, persuading reverend kings.

In short, all examples of ignoble action, of insolence, of cruelty, of crime, or of impiety on the part of the gods or the children of the gods, we must equally refuse to believe or allow to be repeated.

Socrates says of the poets : ] We will not have them teaching our youth that the gods are the authors of evil, and that heroes are no better than men ; for, as we were saying, these sentiments are neither pious nor true, being at variance with our demonstration that evil cannot come from God.

Also they are likely to have a bad ef- ( feet on those who hear them ; for everybody will begin to excuse his own vices when he is convinced that similar wickednesses are always being perpetrated by the kindred of the Igods,— "The relatives of Zeus, whose paternal altar is in the heavens and on the mount of Ida," * and who have — *• The blood of deity yet flowing in their veins.

And therefore let us put an end to such tales, lest they engender laxity of morals among the young. / l[The poets must not be allowed to lie about men any more than about gods and demigods, or the shades below.] j Because, if I am not mistaken, we shall have to say that j poets and story-tellers make the gravest misstatements about / men when they say that many wicked men are happy, and / good men miserable ; and we shall forbid them to utter these I things, and command them to sing and say the opposite. * A mountain in Asia Minor, sacred to Zeus.

p. 231 / ' L[Thus far Socrates has discussed the subject matter of poetry. He now turns to style. All poetry and mythology he claims ' _tq be a narration of events past, present, or to c^ome. Narration may take one of three terms, simple narration, imitation, ' or a union of the two. We have simple narration where the poet speaks always in his own person and never leads us to suppose that he is any one else.

We have imitation where the poet speaks in the person of another, as in tragedy and comedy. The poet here imitates the persons whose characters he assumes. We may have a combination of simple narration and imitation, as in the epic.

Socrates now asks this question, *' Are the poets in narrating their stories to be allowed to imitate in whole or in part, or should all imitation be prohibited?'* The answer to this question depends upon the answer to a second question, ** Ought our guardians to be imitators?*' Socrates thinks the latter question has already been answered. The rule has been laid down that one man can only do one thing well and not many.

This is equally true of imitation ; no man can imitate many things as well as he would imitate a single one. Still less can one person ** play the serious part of life, and at the same time be an imitator and imitate ^ many other parts as well.

Socrates continues : ]\ If then we would retain the notion with which we began, that our guardians are to be released from every other art, and • to be the special artificers of freedom, and to minister to this and no other end, they ought not 'to practice or imitate anything else ; and, if they imitate at all, they should imitate the ^ j '^_ - characters which are suitable to their profession — the t^m- - i'\ pSfate, holy, free, courageous, and the like ; but they should xT