The Republic of Plato

Poetry. [The Republic is the first of Plato’s works in which he seriously examines the value of poetry in education, and the place of the poets in the state. The question could hardly be neglected by the philosopher who proposed to construct an ideal polity or government of the best. For poetry played a great part in Hellenic life: the children learned whole poems by heart in their schools (Protag. 326 A; Laws 7. 810 C); the rhapsode delighted the crowds at the festivals (Ion 535); the theatres were free, or almost free, to all, ‘costing but a drachma at the most’ (Apol. 26 D); the intervals of a banquet were filled up by conversation about the poets (Protag. 347 C). The quarrel between philosophy and poetry was an ancient one, which had found its first expression in the attacks of Xenophanes (538 B.C.) and Heracleitus (508 B.C.) upon the popular mythology. In the earlier dialogues of Plato the poets are treated with an ironical courtesy, through which an antagonistic spirit is allowed here and there to appear: they are ‘winged and holy beings’ (Ion 534) who sing by inspiration, 367 but at the same time are the worst possible critics of their own writings and the most self-conceited of mortals (Apol. 22 D). In the Republic (II and III), Plato begins the trial of poetry by the enquiry whether the tales and legends related by the epic and tragic poets are true in themselves or likely to furnish good examples to his future citizens. They cannot be true, for they are contrary to the nature of God (see s. v. God), and they are certainly not proper lessons for youth.

There must be a censorship of poetry, and all objectionable passages expunged; suitable rules and regulations will be laid down, and to these the poets must conform. In the Xth Book the argument takes a deeper tone. The Poet is proved to be an impostor thrice removed from the truth, a wizard who steals the hearts of the unwary by his spells and enchantments. Men easily fall into the habit of imitating what they admire; and the lamentations and woes of the tragic hero and the unseemly buffoonery of the comedian are equally bad models for the citizens of a free and noble state. The poets must therefore be banished, unless, Plato adds, the lovers of poetry can persuade us of her innocence of the charges laid against her. In the Laws a similar conclusion is reached:—‘The state is an imitation of the best life, and the noblest form of tragedy. The legislator and the poet are rivals, and the latter can only be tolerated if his words are in harmony with the laws of the state’ (vii. 817)].

Poets, the, love their poems as their own creation, 1. 330 C [cp. Symp. 209]; speak in parables, ib. 332 B (cp. 3. 413 B); on justice, 2. 363, 364, 365 E; bad teachers of youth, ib. 377; 3. 391, 392, 408 C [cp. Laws 10. 866 C, 890 A]; must be restrained by certain rules, 2. 379 foll.; 3. 398 A [cp. Laws 2. 656, 660 A; 4. 719]; banished from the state, 3. 398 A; 8. 568 B; 10. 595 foll., 605 A, 607 A [cp. Laws 7. 817]; poets and tyrants, 8. 568; thrice removed from the truth, 10. 596, 597, 598 E, 602 B, 605 C; imitators only, ib. 600, 601 (cp. 3. 393, and Laws 4. 719 C); poets and painters, 10. 601, 603, 605; —‘the poets who were children and prophets of the gods’ (? Orpheus and Musaeus; cp. supra 364 E), 2. 366 A.

Proverbs: ‘birds of a feather,’ 1. 329 A; ‘shave a lion,’ ib. 341 C; ‘let brother help brother,’ 2. 362 D; ‘wolf and flock,’ 3. 415 D; ‘one great thing,’4. 423 E; ‘hard is the good,’ ib. 435 C; ‘friends have all things in common,’ 5. 449 C; ‘the useful is the noble,’ ib. 457 B; ‘the wise must go to the doors of the rich,’ 6. 489 B (cp. 2. 364 B); ‘what is more than human,’ 6. 492 E; ‘the necessity of Diomede,’ ib. 493 D; ‘the she-dog as good as her mistress,’ 8. 563 D; ‘out of the smoke into the fire,’ ib. 569 B; ‘does not come within a thousand miles’ (οὐδ’ ἴκταρ βάλλει), 9. 575 D.