[401b]
“Is it, then, only the poets that we must supervise and compel
to embody in their poems the semblance of the good character or else not
write poetry among us, or must we keep watch over the other craftsmen, and
forbid them to represent the evil disposition, the licentious, the
illiberal, the graceless, either in the likeness of living creatures or in
buildings or in any other product of their art, on penalty, if unable to
obey, of being forbidden to practise their art among us, that our guardians
may not be bred among symbols of evil, as it were
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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