Page:History of Greece Vol I.djvu/475

 OPINION OF PLATO. 443 sous son of Poseidon and Peirithous son of Zeus, or any other hero or son of a god, could ever have brought themselves to commit abductions or other enormities such as are now falsely ascribed to them. We must compel the poets to say, either that such persons were not the sons of gods, or that they were not the perpetrators of such misdeeds." 1 Most of the mythes which the youth hear and repeat (accord- ing to Plato) are false, but some of them are true : the great and prominent mythes which appear in Homer and Hesiod are no less fictions than the rest. But fiction constitutes one of the indis- pensable instruments of mental training as well as truth ; only the legislator must take care that the fiction- so employed shall bo beneficent and not mischievous. 9 As the mischievous fictions (he says) take their rise from wrong preconceptions respecting tne character of the gods and heroes, so the way to correct them is to enforce, by authorized compositions, the adoption of a more correct standard.3 1 Plato, llepub. iii. 5. p. 391. The perfect ignorance of all men respecting ihe gods, rendered the task of fiction easy (Plato, Kritias, p. 107). 2 Plato, Kepub. ii. 16. p. 377. Aoyuv Se dnrbv ddog, rb fj.lv dA^tfef, ipev- Sof d' erepov ; Nat. UaiSevTeov cJ' kv u^oTepoif, irpoTepov f TO 67iov elTrelv ^evdof, evt 6s /cat uhridij ......... Upurov ijp.lv Ima- raTrjTEOV Toif nv&OTTOiole, nal ov HEV uv Ka?.bv (ivdov iroifjauffiv, tyKpireov, w <5' uv pf), diroKpiTt-ov ...... uv 6e vvv /leyovtrt, rovf Trohhoiif iK(3Xr]TKOV ...... ove 'Haiodof teal "O//7?pof f/pv Weyer7?v, KOI ol uMoi iroir)rai. OVTOI yap nov fivdov' role uv&puiroif ifievdelf oWTt&tvTt( iheyov re nal 7*eyovci. lloiovf drj, TI 6' of, not TI aiiTuv fie^onevof "kiyeiq ; "Oirep, %v d' iyti, XP>1 l irp&Tov nal //aAtCTra /lepfea&cu, dAAwf re KOI kdv Tig firj /caAwf ^ev6r]TaL. Tt TOVTO ; "Gray Tt$ e'lKafy awf ru Myv nepl t?ewv re nal ypuav, oloi daiv, wCTTrep ypa^evf firidev totKOTa ypaQuv olf uv ofioia /Jov^rat ypfyai. The same train of thought, and the precepts founded upon it, are followed np through chaps. 17, 18, and 19 ; compare De Legg. xii. p. 941. Instead of recognizing the popular or dramatic theology as something distinct from the civil (as Varro did), Plato suppresses the former as a sep- arate department and merges it in the latter. 3 Plato, Repub. ii. c. 21. p. 382. Td ev rolf Aoyot? $v6of noTe KO.I TI w CLfiov, uffTe fir) afrov elvai piaovf ; T A/>' ov Trpof re roi)f irofa/iiovf Kal ruv Kalovfitvuv (j>i7iuv, OTOV dtu fiaviav % Tiva uvoiav KOKOV TI imxetpum -n-paT- TEIV, TOTE aTrorpoTT//? foe/ca (if fdpfictKOv xprjoipov yiyverai ; Ka* ev al( Ejofiev raff ,j.vS oloyiais, 6 iH rd p) eldevai birr, l%ei *epl TUV TraAatwv, u^ofio lov v ref r<p a 2 n- ^ f (5 o f, Sri uuXiara, OVTU xpr/atuov iroiovuev '. vvv