You are quite right, he replied.
The tale of Theseus and Peirithous. And let us equally refuse to believe, or allow to be repeated, the tale of Theseus son of Poseidon, or of Peirithous [D]son of Zeus, going forth as they did to perpetrate a horrid rape; or of any other hero or son of a god daring to do such impious and dreadful things as they falsely ascribe to them in our day: and let us further compel the poets to declare either that these acts were not done by them, or that they were not the sons of gods;—both in the same breath they shall not be permitted to affirm. We will not have them trying to persuade our youth that the gods are the authors of evil, and that heroes are no better than men—sentiments [E]which, as we were saying, are neither pious nor true, for we have already proved that evil cannot come from the gods.
Assuredly not.
The bad effect of these mythological tales upon the young. And further they are likely to have a bad effect on those who hear them; for everybody will begin to excuse his own vices when he is convinced that similar wickednesses are always being perpetrated by—
‘The kindred of the gods, the relatives of Zeus, whose ancestral altar, the altar of Zeus, is aloft in air on the peak of Ida,’
and who have
‘the blood of deities yet flowing in their veins[35].’
And therefore let us put an end to such tales, lest they [392]engender laxity of morals among the young. 76
[35] From the Niobe of Aeschylus.
By all means, he replied.