The Republic. Plato

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СКАЧАТЬ reject all the terrible and appalling names describe the world below—Cocytus and Styx, ghosts under the earth, and sapless shades, and any similar words of which the very mention causes a shudder to pass through the inmost soul of him who hears them. I do not say that these horrible stories may not have a use of some kind; but there is a danger that the nerves of our guardians may be rendered too excitable and effeminate by them.

      There is a real danger, he said.

      Then we must have no more of them.

      True.

      Another and a nobler strain must be composed and sung by us.

      Clearly.

      And shall we proceed to get rid of the weepings and wailings of famous men?

      They will go with the rest.

      But shall we be right in getting rid of them? Reflect: our principle is that the good man will not consider death terrible to any other good man who is his comrade.

      Yes; that is our principle.

      And therefore he will not sorrow for his departed friend as though he had suffered anything terrible?

      He will not.

      Such an one, as we further maintain, is sufficient for himself and his own happiness, and therefore is least in need of other men.

      True, he said.

      And for this reason the loss of a son or brother, or the deprivation of fortune, is to him of all men least terrible.

      Assuredly.

      And therefore he will be least likely to lament, and will bear with the greatest equanimity any misfortune of this sort which may befall him.

      Yes, he will feel such a misfortune far less than another.

      Then we shall be right in getting rid of the lamentations of famous men, and making them over to women (and not even to women who are good for anything), or to men of a baser sort, that those who are being educated by us to be the defenders of their country may scorn to do the like.

      That will be very right.

      Then we will once more entreat Homer and the other poets not to depict Achilles, who is the son of a goddess, first lying on his side, then on his back, and then on his face; then starting up and sailing in a frenzy along the shores of the barren sea; now taking the sooty ashes in both his hands and pouring them over his head, or weeping and wailing in the various modes which Homer has delineated. Nor should he describe Priam the kinsman of the gods as praying and beseeching,

      Rolling in the dirt, calling each man loudly by his name.

      Still more earnestly will we beg of him at all events not to introduce the gods lamenting and saying,

      Alas! my misery! Alas! that I bore the harvest to my sorrow.

      But if he must introduce the gods, at any rate let him not dare so completely to misrepresent the greatest of the gods, as to make him say—

      O heavens! with my eyes verily I behold a dear friend of mine chased round and round the city, and my heart is sorrowful.

      Or again:—

      Woe is me that I am fated to have Sarpedon, dearest of men to me, subdued at the hands of Patroclus the son of Menoetius.

      For if, my sweet Adeimantus, our youth seriously listen to 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 dishonoured by similar actions; neither will he rebuke any inclination which 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.

      Yes, he said, that is most true.

      Yes, I replied; but that surely is what ought not to be, as the argument has just proved to us; and by that proof we must abide until it is disproved by a better.

      It ought not to be.

      Neither ought our guardians to be given to laughter. For a fit of laughter which has been indulged to excess almost always produces a violent reaction.

      So I believe.

      Then persons of worth, even if only mortal men, must not be represented as overcome by laughter, and still less must such a representation of the gods be allowed.

      Still less of the gods, as you say, he replied.

      Then we shall not suffer such an expression to be used about the gods as that of Homer when he describes how

      Inextinguishable laughter arose among the blessed gods, when

       they saw Hephaestus bustling about the mansion.

      On your views, we must not admit them.

      On my views, if you like to father them on me; that we must not admit them is certain.

      Again, truth should be highly valued; if, as we were saying, a lie is useless to the gods, and useful only as a medicine to men, then the use of such medicines should be restricted to physicians; private individuals have no business with them.

      Clearly not, he said.

      Then if any one at all is to have the privilege of lying, the rulers of the State should be the persons; and they, in their dealings either with enemies or with their own citizens, may be allowed to lie for the public good. But nobody else should meddle with anything of the kind; and although the rulers have this privilege, for a private man to lie to them in return is to be deemed a more heinous fault than for the patient or the pupil of a gymnasium not to speak the truth about his own bodily illnesses to the physician or to the trainer, or for a sailor not to tell the captain what is happening about the ship and the rest of the crew, and how things are going with himself or his fellow sailors.

      Most true, he said.

      If, then, the ruler catches anybody beside himself lying in the State,

      Any of the craftsmen, whether he priest or physician or

       carpenter.

      he will punish him for introducing a practice which is equally subversive and destructive of ship or State.

      Most certainly, he said, if our idea of the State is ever carried out.

      In the next place our youth must be temperate?

      Certainly.

      Are not the chief elements of temperance, speaking generally, obedience to commanders and self-control in sensual pleasures?

      True.

      Then we shall approve such language as that of Diomede in Homer,

      Friend, sit still and obey my word,

      and the verses which follow,

      The СКАЧАТЬ