THE REPUBLIC OF PLATO - Studyplace

50 CHAPTER V [no 364
transgresses and does amiss.' 1 They produce a whole farrago of
books in which Musaeus and Orpheus, described as descendants of
the Muses and the Moon, prescribe their ritual; and they persuade
entire communities, as well as individuals, that, both in this life
and after death, wrongdoing may be absolved and purged away
by means of sacrifices and agreeable performances which they are
pleased to call rites of initiation. These deliver us from punishment
in the other world, where awful things are in store for all who
neglect to sacrifice.
Now, my dear Socrates, when all this stuff is talked about the
estimation in which virtue and vice are held by heaven and by
mankind, what effect can we suppose it has upon the mind of a
young man quick-witted enough to gather honey from all these
flowers of popular wisdom and to draw his own conclusions as to
the sort of person he should be and the way he should go in order
to lead the best possible life In all likelihood he would ask himself,
in Pindar's words: 'Will the way of right or the by-paths of
deceit lead me to the higher fortress,' where I may entrench myself
for the rest of my life For, according to what they tell me, I
have nothing to gain but trouble and manifest loss from being
honest, unless I also get a name for being so; whereas, if I am dishonest
and provide myself with a reputation for honesty, they
promise me a marvellous career. Very well, then; since 'outward
seeming,' as wise men inform me, 'overpowers the truth' and decides
the question of happiness, I had better go in for appearances
wholeheartedly. I must ensconce myself behind an imposing fa~ade
designed to look like virtue, and trail the fox behind me, 'the cunning
shifty fox' 2-Archilochus knew the world as well as any man.
You may say it is not so easy to be wicked without ever being
found out. Perhaps not; but great things are never easy. Anyhow,
if we are to reach happiness, everything we have been told points
to this as the road to be followed. We will form secret societies to
save us from exposure; besides, there are men who teach the art
of winning over popular assemblies and courts of law; so that, one
way or another, by persuasion or violence, we shall get the better
1 llwd ix. 497.
2 An allusion to a fable by Archilochus.