poet Hesiod related an ugly story when he told how Uranus acted, and
how Kronos had his revenge upon him. They are offensive stories, and
must not be repeated in our cities. Not yet is it proper to say, in any
case,--what is indeed untrue--that gods wage war against gods, and
intrigue and fight among themselves. Stories like the chaining of Juno
by her son Vulcan, and the flinging of Vulcan out of heaven for trying
to take his mother's part when his father was beating her, and all other
battles of the gods which are found in Homer, must be refused admission
into our state, _whether they are allegorical or not_. For a child can
not discriminate between what is allegorical and what is not; and
whatever is adopted, as a matter of belief, in childhood, has a tendency
to become fixed and indelible; and therefore we ought to esteem it as of
the greatest importance that the fables which children first hear should
be adapted, as far as possible, to promote virtue."[145]

[Footnote 143: Max Muller, "Science of Language," pp. 405, 406.]

[Footnote 144: "Lives," bk. viii. ch. xix. p. 347.]

[Footnote 145: "Republic," bk. ii. ch. xvii.]

If, then, poetic and allegorical representations of divine things are to
be permitted in the ideal republic, then the founders of the state are
to prescribe "the moulds in which the poets are to cast their fictions."

"Now what are these moulds to be in the case of _Theology?_ They may be
described as follows: It is right always to represent God as he really
is, whether the poet describe him in an epic, or a lyric, or a dramatic
poem. Now God is, beyond all else, _good in reality_, and therefore so
to be represented. But nothing that is good is hurtful. That which is
good hurts not; does no evil; is the cause of no evil. That which is
good is beneficial; is the cause of good. And, therefore, that which is
good is not the cause of _all_ which is and happens, but only of that
which is as it should be.... The good things we must ascribe to God,
whilst we must seek elsewhere, and not in him, the causes of evil
things."

We must, then, express our disapprobation of Homer, or any other poet,
who is guilty of such a foolish blunder as to tell us (Iliad, xxiv. 660)
that:

'Fast by the threshold of Jove's court are placed
Two casks--one stored with evil, one with good:'

and that he for whom the Thunderer mingles both--

'He leads a life checkered with good and ill.'

But as for th