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, 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