[365e]
neither need we concern ourselves
with eluding their observation.1 If
they do exist and pay heed, we know and hear of them only from such
discourses and from the poets who have described their pedigrees. But these
same authorities tell us that the gods are capable of being persuaded and
swerved from their course by ‘sacrifice and soothing
vows’ and dedications. We must believe them in both or neither.
And if we are to believe them, the thing to do is to commit injustice and
offer sacrifice
Plato. Plato in Twelve Volumes, Vols. 5 & 6 translated by Paul Shorey. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1969.
The Annenberg CPB/Project provided support for entering this text.
Purchase a copy of this text (not necessarily the same edition) from Amazon.com
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.
An XML version of this text is available for download, with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted changes, storing new additions in a versioning system.