republic (books 1 - 5)   

whose fame is

"As the fame of some blameless king who, like a god,
Maintains justice; to whom the black earth brings forth
Wheat and barley, whose trees are bowed with fruit,
And his sheep never fail to bear, and the sea gives him fish."

Still grander are the gifts of heaven which Musaeus and his
son vouchsafe to the just; they take them down into the world
below, where they have the saints lying on couches at a feast,
everlastingly drunk, crowned with garlands; their idea seems
to be that an immortality of drunkenness is the highest meed
of virtue. Some extend their rewards yet further; the pos-
terity, as they say, of the faithful and just shall survive to the
third and fourth generation. This is the style in which they
praise justice. But about the wicked there is another strain;
they bury them in a slough in Hades, and make them carry
water in a sieve; also while they are yet living they bring them
to infamy, and inflict upon them the punishments which Glau-
con described as the portion of the just who are reputed to be
unjust; nothing else does their invention supply. Such is their
manner of praising the one and censuring the other.

Once more, Socrates, I will ask you to consider another way
of speaking about justice and injustice, which is not confined
to the poets, but is found in prose writers. The universal voice
of mankind is always declaring that justice and virtue are
honorable, but grievous and toilsome; and that the pleasures
of vice and injustice are easy of attainment, and are only cen-
sured by law and opinion. They say also that honesty is for
the most part less profitable than dishonesty; and they are quite
ready to call wicked men happy, and to honor them both in pub-
lic and private when they are rich or in any other way influen-
tial, while they despise and overlook those who may be weak
and poor, even though acknowledging them to be better than
the others. But most extraordinary of all is their mode of
speaking about virtue and the gods: they say that the gods ap-
portion calamity and misery to many good men, and good and
happiness to the wicked. And mendicant prophets go to rich
men's doors and persuade them that they have a power com-
mitted to them by the gods of making an atonement for a man's
own or his ancestor's sins by sacrifices or charms, with rejoic-
ings and feasts; and they promise to harm an enemy, whether
just or unjust, at a small cost; with magic arts and incantations
binding heaven, as they say, to execute their will. And the
poets are the authorities to whom they appeal, now smoothing
the path of vice with the words of Hesiod:

"Vice may be had in abundance without trouble; the way is smooth
and her dwelling-place is near. But before virtue the gods have set toil,"

and a tedious and uphill road: then citing Homer as a witness
that the gods may be influenced by men; for he also says:

"The gods, too, may be turned from their purpose; and men pray to
them and avert their wrath by sacrifices and soothing entreaties, and by
libations and the odor of fat, when they have sinned and trangressed."

And they produce a host of books written by Musaeus and Or-
pheus, who were children of the Moon and the muses--that is
what they say--according to which they perform their ritual,
and persuade not only individuals, but whole cities, that expia-
tions and atonements for sin may be made by sacrifices and
amusements which fill a vacant hour, and are equally at the