Concerning the gods then,
said I, this is the sort of thing that we must allow or not allow them to hear from childhood up, if they are to honor the gods Footnote 1We may, if we choose, see here a reference to the virtue of piety, which some critics fancifully suppose was eliminated by the Euthyphro. Cf. Unity of Plato’s Thought, note 58. and their fathers and mothers, and not to hold their friendship with one another in light esteem.
That was our view and I believe it right.
What then of this? If they are to be brave, must we not extend our prescription to include also the sayings that will make them least likely to fear death? Or do you suppose that anyone could ever become brave who had that dread in his heart?
No indeed, I do not,
he replied. And again if he believes in the reality of the underworld and its terrors, Footnote 2For the idea that death is no evil Cf. Apology, in fine, Laws 727 D, 828 D, and 881 A, where, however, the fear of hell is approved as a deterrent. do you think that any man will be fearless of death and in battle will prefer death to defeat and slavery?
By no means.
Then it seems we must exercise supervision Footnote 3Cf. 377 B. also, in the matter of such tales as these, over those who undertake to supply them and request them not to dispraise in this undiscriminating fashion the life in Hades but rather praise it, since what they now tell us is neither true nor edifying to men who are destined to be warriors.
Yes, we must,
he said. Then,
said I, beginning with this verse we will expunge everything of the same kind:
Liefer were I in the fields up above to be serf to another Tiller of some poor plot which yields him a scanty subsistence, Than to be ruler and king over all the dead who have perished,
Aesch. Frag. 350 Footnote 4Spoken by Achilles when Odysseus sought to console him for his death. Lucian, Dialog. Mort . 18, develops the idea. Proclus comments on it for a page. and this: Lest unto men and immortals the homes of the dead be uncovered Horrible, noisome, dank, that the gods too hold in abhorrence,
Hom. Il. 20.64 Footnote 5δείσας μὴ precedes. and: Ah me! so it is true that e’en in the dwellings of Hades Spirit there is and wraith, but within there is no understanding,
Hom. Il. 10.495 Footnote 6The exclamation and inference (ῥά) of Achilles when the shade of Patroclus eludes his embrace in the dream. The text is endlessly quoted by writers on religious origins and dream and ghost theories of the origin of the belief in the soul. and this: Sole to have wisdom and wit, but the others are shadowy phantoms,
Hom. Il. 23.103 Footnote 7Said of the prophet Teiresias. The preceding line is, Unto him even in death was it granted by Persephoneia.
The line is quoted also in Meno 100 A. and: Forth from his limbs unwilling his spirit flitted to Hades, Wailing its doom and its lustihood lost and the May of its manhood,
Hom. Il. 16.856 Footnote 8Said of the death of Patroclus, and Hector, Hom. Il. 22.382; imitated in the last line of the Aeneid Vitaque cum gemitu fugit indignata sub umbras.
Cf. Bacchyl. v. 153-4: πύματον δὲ πνέων δάκρυσα τλάμων ἀγλαὰν ἥβαν προλείπων
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Book 3