The Banishment of Homer

Hello.

Plato, again. Today, and I don’t have much time for a lengthy introduction, the question is, “Why would Plato ban Homer from his ideal republic?”

I think that this is because Homer, first, portrays the gods in ways that Plato (Socrates) finds derogatory and second, gives the wrong messages.

Ok, so I think that Plato (Socrates) doesn’t like the gods of Homer because they have very human faults, which he believes them not to have. He doesn’t like that Zeus would change shape, or cheat on Hera with mortal women. He also believes that the gods are incapable of telling falsehoods, which is not something that Homer seems to believe in as well.

The messages of Homer, even if we look at the small portion of the Iliad that we have read, are not something that you would want to base your scruples on for the rest of your life. Achilles is angry all the time, Agamemnon is selfish, Paris is a liar and a thief. These are supposed to heroes of Athens; Plato (Socrates) doesn’t want them to be portrayed like this. He also doesn’t want people looking at the heroes and thinking that because Achilles cannot control his temper, it is all right to be in bad humor all the time.

Goodbye.