[603c]
that part of the mind to which
mimetic poetry appeals and see whether it is the inferior or the nobly
serious part.” “So we must.” “Let
us, then, put the question thus: Mimetic poetry, we say, imitates human
beings acting under compulsion or voluntarily,1 and as a result of
their actions supposing themselves to have fared well or ill and in all this
feeling either grief or joy. Did we find anything else but this?”
“Nothing.” “Is a man, then, in all this
1 Cf. 399 A-B, Laws 655 D, 814 E ff., Aristot.Poet. 1448 A 1-2ἐπεὶ δὲ μιμοῦνται οἱ μιμούμενοι πράττοντας ἀνάγκη δὲ τούτους ἢ σπουδαίους ἢ φαύλους εἶναι, ibid. 1449 b 36-37 f.
Plato. Plato in Twelve Volumes, Vols. 5 & 6 translated by Paul Shorey. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1969.
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