Laws
a suit of impiety brought against him by any one who likes.
CLEINIAS: Very good.
ATHENIAN: In the consideration of this subject, let us remember what is
due to ourselves.
CLEINIAS: To what are you referring?
ATHENIAN: I mean that any young man, and much more any old one, when he
sees or hears anything strange or unaccustomed, does not at once run to
embrace the paradox, but he stands considering, like a person who is at
a place where three paths meet, and does not very well know his way--he
may be alone or he may be walking with others, and he will say to
himself and them, 'Which is the way?' and will not move forward until he
is satisfied that he is going right. And this is what we must do in the
present instance: A strange discussion on the subject of law has arisen,
which requires the utmost consideration, and we should not at our age be
too ready to speak about such great matters, or be confident that we can
say anything certain all in a moment.
CLEINIAS: Most true.
ATHENIAN: Then we will allow time for reflection, and decide when we
have given the subject sufficient consideration. But that we may not
be hindered from completing the natural arrangement of our laws, let us
proceed to the conclusion of them in due order; for very possibly, if
God will, the exposition of them, when completed, may throw light on our
present perplexity.
CLEINIAS: Excellent, Stranger; let us do as you propose.
ATHENIAN: Let us then affirm the paradox that strains of music are our
laws (nomoi), and this latter being the name which the ancients gave
to lyric songs, they probably would not have very much objected to our
proposed application of the word. Some one, either asleep or awake, must
have had a dreamy suspicion of their nature. And let our decree be as
follows: No one in singing or dancing shall offend against public and
consecrated models, and the general fashion among the youth, any more
than he would offend against any other law. And he who observes this law
shall be blameless; but he who is disobedient, as I was saying, shall
be punished by the guardians of the laws, and by the priests and
priestesses. Suppose that we imagine this to be our law.
CLEINIAS: Very good.
ATHENIAN: Can any one who makes such laws escape ridicule? Let us see.
I think that our only safety will be in first framing certain models for
composers. One of these models shall be as follows: If when a sacrifice
is going on, and the victims are being burnt according to law--if, I
say, any one who may be a son or brother, standing by another at the
altar and over the victims, horribly blasphemes, will not his words
inspire despondency and evil omens and forebodings in the mind of his
father and of his other kinsmen?
CLEINIAS: Of course.
ATHENIAN: And this is just what takes place in almost all our cities. A
magistrate offers a public sacrifice, and there come in not one but many
choruses, who take up a position a little way from the altar, and from
time to time pour forth all sorts of horrible blasphemies on the sacred
rites, exciting the souls of the audience with words and rhythms and
melodies most sorrowful to hear; and he who at the moment when the city
is offering sacrifice makes the citizens weep most, carries away the
palm of victory. Now, ought we not to forbid such strains as these? And
if ever our citizens must hear such lamentations, then on some unblest
and inauspicious day let there be choruses of foreign and hired
minstrels, like those hirelings who accompany the departed at funerals
with barbarous Carian chants. That is the sort of thing which will be
appropriate if we have such strains at all; and let the apparel of the
singers be, not circlets and ornaments of gold, but the reverse. Enough
of all this. I will simply ask once more whether we shall lay down as
one of our principles of song--
CLEINIAS: What?
ATHENIAN: That we should avoid every word of evil omen; let that kind of
song which is of good omen be heard everywhere and always in our state.
I need hardly ask again, but shall assume that you agree with me.
CLEINIAS: By all means; that law is approved by the suffrages of us all.
ATHENIAN: But what shall be our next musical law or type? Ought not
prayers to be offered up to the Gods when we sacrifice?
CLEINIAS: Certainly.
ATHENIAN: And our third law, if I am not mistaken, will be to the effect
that our poets, understanding prayers to be requests which we make to
the Gods, will take especial heed that they do not by mistake ask
for evil instead of good. To make such a prayer would surely be too
ridiculous.
CLEINIAS: Very true.
ATHENIAN: Were we not a little while ago quite convinced that no silver
or golden Plutus should dwell in our state?
CLEINIAS: To be sure.
ATHENIAN: And what has it been the object of our argument to show? Did
we not imply that the poets are not always quite capable of knowing what
is good or evil? And if one of them utters a mistaken prayer in song or
words, he will make our citizens pray for the opposite of what is good
in matters of the highest import; than which, as I was saying, there can
be few greater mistakes. Shall we then propose as one of our laws and
models relating to the Muses--
CLEINIAS: What? will you explain the law more precisely?
ATHENIAN: Shall we make a law that the poet shall compose nothing
contrary to the ideas of the lawful, or just, or beautiful, or good,
which are allowed in the state? nor shall he be permitted to communicate
his compositions to any private individuals, until he shall have shown
them to the appointed judges and the guardians of the law, and they
are satisfied with them. As to the persons whom we appoint to be our
legislators about music and as to the director of education, these have
been already indicated. Once more then, as I have asked more than once,
shall this be our third law, and type, and model--What do you say?
CLEINIAS: Let it be so, by all means.
ATHENIAN: Then it will be proper to have hymns and praises of the Gods,
intermingled with prayers; and after the Gods prayers and praises should
be offered in like manner to demigods and heroes, suitable to their
several characters.
CLEINIAS: Certainly.
ATHENIAN: In the next place there will be no objection to a law, that
citizens who are departed and have done good and energetic deeds, either
with their souls or with their bodies, and have been obedient to the
laws, should receive eulogies; this will be very fitting.
CLEINIAS: Quite true.
ATHENIAN: But to honour with hymns and panegyrics those who are still
alive is not safe; a man should run his course, and make a fair ending,
and then we will praise him; and let praise be given equally to women
as well as men who have been distinguished in virtue. The order of
songs and dances shall be as follows: There are many ancient musical
compositions and dances which are excellent, and from these the
newly-founded city may freely select what is proper and suitable; and
they shall choose judges of not less than fifty years of age, who shall
make the selection, and any of the old poems which they deem sufficient
they shall include; any that are deficient or altogether unsuitable,
they shall either utterly throw aside, or examine and amend, taking
into their counsel poets and musicians, and making use of their poetical
genius; but explaining to them the wishes of the legislator in order
that they may regulate dancing, music, and all choral strains, according
to the mind of the judges; and not allowing them to indulge, except
in some few matters, their individual pleasures and fancies. Now the
irregular strain of music is always made ten thousand times better by
attaining to law and order, and rejecting the honeyed Muse--not however
that we mean wholly to exclude pleasure, which is the characteristic
of all music. And if a man be brought up from childhood to the age of
discretion and maturity in the use of the orderly and severe music,
when he hears the opposite he detests it, and calls it illiberal; but
if trained in the sweet and vulgar music, he deems the severer kind cold
and displeasing. So that, as I was saying before, while he who hears
them gains no more pleasure from the one than from the other, the one
has the advantage of making those who are trained in it better men,
whereas the other makes them worse.
CLEINIAS: Very true.
ATHENIAN: Again, we must distinguish and determine on some general
principle what songs are suitable to women, and what to men, and must
assign to them their proper melodies and rhythms. It is shocking for a
whole harmony to be inharmonical, or for a rhythm to be unrhythmical,
and this will happen when the melody is inappropriate to them. And
therefore the legislator must assign to these also their forms. Now both
sexes have melodies and rhythms which of necessity belong to them; and
those of women are clearly enough indicated by their natural difference.
The grand, and that which tends to courage, may be fairly called manly;
but that which inclines to moderation and temperance, may be declared
both in law and in ordinary speech to be the more womanly quality. This,
then, will be the general order of them.
Let us now speak of the manner of teaching and imparting them, and the
persons to whom, and the time when, they are severally to be imparted.
As the shipwright first lays down the lines of the keel, and thus, as
it were, draws the ship in outline, so do I seek to distinguish the
patterns of life, and lay down their keels according to the nature of
different men's souls; seeking truly to consider by what means, and in
what ways, we may go through the voyage of life best. Now human affairs
are hardly worth considering in earnest, and yet we must be in earnest
about them--a sad necessity constrains us. And having got thus far,
there will be a fitness in our completing the matter, if we can only
find some suitable method of doing so. But what do I mean? Some one may
ask this very question, and quite rightly, too.
CLEINIAS: Certainly.
ATHENIAN: I say that about serious matters a man should be serious, and
about a matter which is not serious he should not be serious; and that
God is the natural and worthy object of our most serious and blessed
endeavours, for man, as I said before, is made to be the plaything of
God, and this, truly considered, is the best of him; wherefore also
every man and woman should walk seriously, and pass life in the noblest
of pastimes, and be of another mind from what they are at present.
CLEINIAS: In what respect?
ATHENIAN: At present they think that their serious pursuits should be
for the sake of their sports, for they deem war a serious pursuit, which
must be managed well for the sake of peace; but the truth is, that
there neither is, nor has been, nor ever will be, either amusement
or instruction in any degree worth speaking of in war, which is
nevertheless deemed by us to be the most serious of our pursuits. And
therefore, as we say, every one of us should live the life of peace as
long and as well as he can. And what is the right way of living? Are
we to live in sports always? If so, in what kind of sports? We ought to
live sacrificing, and singing, and dancing, and then a man will be able
to propitiate the Gods, and to defend himself against his enemies and
conquer them in battle. The type of song or dance by which he will
propitiate them has been described, and the paths along which he is to
proceed have been cut for him. He will go forward in the spirit of the
poet:
'Telemachus, some things thou wilt thyself find in thy heart, but other
things God will suggest; for I deem that thou wast not born or brought
up without the will of the Gods.'
And this ought to be the view of our alumni; they ought to think that