Complete Works
Page 235
must pay his penalty by spending two years in prison.
(b) If it is a resident alien who is in breach of these regulations,
he must go to prison for three years, except that the court may specify [d] a longer period by way of penalty.
F. The passer-by who comes across any of these cases of assault and does not give assistance as required by law
must be fined: a member of the first property-class one hundred drachmas, a member of the second fifty drachmas, a member of the third thirty drachmas, and a member of the fourth twenty drachmas. The court in such cases is to consist of the Generals, Company-Commanders, Tribe-Leaders and Cavalry-Commanders.
Some laws, it seems, are made for the benefit of honest men, to teach them the rules of association that have to be observed if they are to live [e] in friendship; others are made for those who refuse to be instructed and whose naturally tough natures have not been softened enough to stop them turning to absolute vice. It will be they who have prompted the points I am just going to make, and it is for their benefit that the lawgiver will be compelled to produce his laws, although he would wish never to find any occasion to use them. Consider a man who will dare to lay hands on his father or mother or their forebears by way of violent assault. He will fear neither the wrath of the gods above nor the punishments said to [881] await him in the grave; he will hold the ancient and universal tradition in contempt, on the strength of his ‘knowledge’ in a field where he is in fact a total ignoramus. He will therefore turn criminal, and will stand in need of some extreme deterrent. Death, however, is not an extreme and final penalty; the sufferings said to be in store for these people in the world to come are much more extreme than that. But although the threat of these sufferings is no idle one, it has no deterrent effect at all on souls like these. If it did, we should never have to deal with assaults on mothers, and [b] wicked and presumptuous attacks on other forebears. I conclude, therefore, that the punishments men suffer for these crimes here on earth while they are alive should as far as possible equal the penalties beyond the grave.
Our next enactment, then, should run as follows:
G. If a man who is not in the grip of insanity dares to strike his father or mother, or their father or mother, the first point is that the passerby must render assistance as provided in former cases.
(a)(i) If the resident alien renders assistance,
he shall be invited to a front seat at the games;
(ii) if he does not render assistance,
he must go into permanent exile from the land.
(b)(i) If the non-resident alien renders assistance, [c]
he shall be commended.
(ii) If he does not render assistance,
he must be reprimanded.
(c)(i) If a slave renders assistance,
he shall be set free.
(ii) If he does not render assistance,
he must receive a hundred strokes of the lash.
If the crime was committed in the market-place, the whipping should be administered by the Market-Wardens; if in the city but not in the market, by the City Warden in residence; if somewhere in the countryside, by the chief Country-Wardens.
(d) Everyone of citizen birth who passes by, whether man, woman or child, must shout ‘you wicked monster’ at the attacker, and repel him. [d] If the passer-by makes no attempt to repel him,
he must be liable under the law to a curse from Zeus, guardian of the family and protector of parents.
H. If a man is convicted of an assault on his parents,
he must be permanently rusticated from the city to some other part of the country, and be banned from all sacred places.
I. (a) If he returns to the city,
he must be punished by death,
(b) If he does not keep away from sacred places,
the Country-Wardens must punish him by a whipping, and by any other method at their discretion.
J. (a) If any free man eats or drinks in company with such a person, or associates with him in some other similar fashion, even by deliberately [e] failing to cut him on meeting,
he must not enter any temple, or market-place, or any part of the city, before he has been purified, bearing in mind that he has come into contact with a misfortune that brings a curse upon a man.
K. If he disobeys the law and in defiance of it pollutes temples and city,
any official who discovers the fact and does not take the man to court will find that this is one of the most serious charges against him at his scrutiny.14
L. If a slave strikes a free man, foreigner or citizen, the passer-by who [882] does not render assistance
must pay the penalty prescribed for his property-class.
M. The passers-by in conjunction with the person attacked must bind the slave and hand him over to his victim; the victim must take him, [b] put him in chains, and give him as many strokes of the whip as he likes, provided he does not diminish the value of the slave to his master; he should then hand him over to the latter’s legal ownership. This legal ownership must be subject to the following provision. Any slave who has struck a free man, other than on the orders of the officials, must be [c] tied up; his master must receive him from the assaulted person and not release him before the slave persuades his victim that he deserves to live free of constraint.
The same regulations should apply in all cases (a) of women against each other, (b) of women against men, and (c) of men against women.
1. See 719e–720e.
2. For Tyrtaeus, see 629a and note. Lycurgus was the traditional founder of the Spartan constitution. Solon legislated for Athens in 594 and wrote poems justifying his measures.
3. Reading biaiou in b8.
4. Reading … kai doxēs, tou alēthous peri to ariston ephesis, triton… in b7.
5. Assuming that the ‘third’ category here is equivalent to that of ‘ignorance’ as a cause of wrongdoing (863c–d), the reference here is to the ‘simple’ and ‘double’ forms of ignorance there noted, of which the latter was divided into that ‘with power’ and that ‘without power’. That would yield ‘three types’, as the Athenian goes on to say here.
6. See the lists at 697b ff. and 743e.
7. 855c–856a.
8. Reading toutōn in d7.
9. That is, for those who do kill with their own hand.
10. Reading mē for ēdē in c6.
11. See 866d–867c.
12. Such as deprivation of burial.
13. I.e., someone twenty years older.
14. At the end of their term officials had to submit to an examination of their conduct in office before being discharged; see 945e–947b.
Book X
[884] ATHENIAN: So much for cases of assault. Now let’s state a single comprehensive rule to cover acts of violence. It will run more or less like this. No one may seize or make off with other people’s property, nor use any of his neighbor’s possessions without getting the permission of the owner. Contempt for this principle has always been (and still is and always will be) the source of all the evils just mentioned. But there are other acts of violence, too, of which the worst are the insolence and outrageous actions of the young. These actions are most serious when they affect sacred objects; and the damage is particularly grave when it is done to sacred property that also belongs to the public, or is held in common by the [885] members of a sub-division of the state, such as a tribe or some similar association. Second, and second in order of gravity, comes wanton damage to sacred objects that are privately owned, particularly tombs; third come attacks (apart from those already dealt with) on parents. A fourth category of outrageous conduct is when someone ignores the wishes of the authorities and seizes or removes or uses something belonging to them without their permission; and any violations of the civil rights of the private citizen which demand legal redress will constitute a fifth class. We have to frame a comprehensive law that will cover each individual case. As for robbery from temples, whether clandestine or open an
d violent, we have already specified in general terms the appropriate punishment;1 but our statement [b] of the penalty for offensive remarks about the gods or outrageous actions against their interests should be prefaced by these words of exhortation:
No one who believes in gods as the law directs ever voluntarily commits an unholy act or lets any lawless word pass his lips. If he does, it is because of one of three possible misapprehensions: either, as I said, he believes (1) the gods do not exist, or (2) that they exist but take no thought for the human race, or (3) that they are influenced by sacrifices and supplications and can easily be won over.
[c] CLINIAS: So what’s the right thing for us to do or say to these people?
ATHENIAN: My friend, let’s listen to the ridicule and scorn with which I imagine they put their case.
CLINIAS: What ridicule?
ATHENIAN: They’ll probably go in for bantering, and address us like this: ‘Gentlemen of Athens, of Sparta and of Crete, you are quite right. Some of us are indeed absolute atheists, whereas others do believe in such gods as you describe. So we demand of you what you yourselves demanded of the laws, that before you resort to threats and bullying, you should try [d] to convince us by argument and cogent proofs that gods do exist, and that they are in fact above being seduced by gifts into turning a blind eye to injustice. But you see, it’s precisely in these and similar terms that we hear them spoken of by the most highly thought-of poets and orators and prophets and priests and thousands of other people too. That’s why most of us make little effort to avoid crime, but commit it first and try to put [e] things right afterwards. So from lawgivers who profess to use the velvet glove rather than the iron fist we claim the right to be tackled by persuasion first. Even if, when you state your case for the existence of gods, your elegance of expression is only marginally superior to your opponents’, persuade us that your argument is a better expression of the truth, and then perhaps we’ll believe you. Isn’t that fair enough? Well then, try to reply to our challenge.’
CLINIAS: Well sir, don’t you think that the gods’ existence is an easy truth to explain?
ATHENIAN: How? [886]
CLINIAS: Well, just look at the earth and the sun and the stars and the universe in general; look at the wonderful procession of the seasons and its articulation into years and months! Anyway, you know that all Greeks and all foreigners are unanimous in recognizing the existence of gods.
ATHENIAN: My dear sir, when I think of the contempt these scoundrels will probably feel for us, I’m overcome with embarrassment—no, I withdraw that word: let’s say they ‘alarm’ me—because you don’t appreciate the real grounds of their opposition to you. You think it’s just because they can’t resist temptation and desire that they are attracted to the godless life. [b]
CLINIAS: What other reason could there be, sir?
ATHENIAN: A reason which you two, living rather off the beaten track as you do, simply wouldn’t appreciate. It will have completely passed you by.
CLINIAS: What are you talking about now?
ATHENIAN: A form of ignorance that causes no end of trouble, but which passes for the height of wisdom.
CLINIAS: How do you mean?
ATHENIAN: In Athens a number of written works are current which are not found in your states (which are, I understand, too well run to tolerate [c] them). The subject of these writings (some of which are in verse, others in prose) is theology. The most ancient accounts, after relating how the primitive substances—the sky and so on—came into being, pass rapidly on to a description of the birth of the gods and the details of how once born they subsequently treated each other. On some subjects, the antiquity of these works makes them difficult to criticize, whatever their influence—good or bad—on their audience; but when it comes to the respect and [d] attention due to parents, I for one shall never recommend them either as a good influence or as a statement of the honest truth. Still, there’s no need to bother with this old material: we may freely allow it to be arranged and recounted in any way the gods find amusing. But the principles of our modern pundits do need to be denounced as a pernicious influence. Just look at the effects of their arguments! When you and I present our proofs for the existence of gods and adduce what you adduced—sun, moon, stars and earth—and argue they are gods and divine beings, the [e] proselytes of these clever fellows will say that these things are just earth and stones, and are incapable of caring for human affairs, however much our plausible rhetoric has managed to dress them up.
CLINIAS: Even if it were unique, sir, that theory you’ve just described would make trouble. But as similar doctrines in fact exist in their thousands, the situation is even worse.
ATHENIAN: What now, then? What’s our reply? What must we do? It’s as though we were on trial before a bench of godless judges, defending [887] ourselves on a charge arising out of our legislation. ‘It’s monstrous,’ they say to us, ‘that you should pass laws asserting that gods exist.’ Shall we defend ourselves? Or shall we ignore them and get back to our legislation, so that the mere preface doesn’t turn out longer than the actual code? You see, if we’re going to postpone passing the appropriate legislation until we’ve proved properly to those with a taste for impiety all the points they insisted we had to cover, so that they feel uneasy and begin to find their views going sour on them, our explanation will be anything but brief.
[b] CLINIAS: Even so, sir, as we’ve often said in the comparatively short time we’ve been talking, there’s no reason at the moment to prefer a brief explanation to a full one: after all, no one’s ‘breathing down our neck’ (as they say). It would be an awful farce, if we appeared to be putting brevity first and quality second. It’s vital that somehow or other we should make out a plausible case for supposing that gods do exist, that they are good, and that they respect justice more than men do. Such a demonstration would constitute just about the best and finest preamble our penal code [c] could have. So let’s overcome our reluctance and unhurriedly exert what powers of persuasion we have in this field, devoting ourselves wholeheartedly to a full exposition of our case.
ATHENIAN: How keen and insistent you are! I take it you’re suggesting we should now offer up a prayer for the success of our exposition, which we certainly can’t delay any longer.
Well now, how can one argue for the existence of gods without getting angry? You see, one inevitably gets irritable and annoyed with these people [d] who have put us to the trouble, and continue to put us to the trouble, of composing these explanations. If only they believed the stories which they had as babes and sucklings from their nurses and mothers! These almost literally ‘charming’ stories were told partly for amusement, partly in full earnest; the children heard them related in prayer at sacrifices, and saw acted representations of them—a part of the ceremony a child always loves to see and hear; and they saw their own parents praying with the utmost seriousness for themselves and their families in the firm conviction that their prayers and supplications were addressed to gods who really did [e] exist. At the rising and setting of the sun and moon the children saw and heard Greeks and foreigners, in happiness and misery alike, all prostrate at their devotions; far from supposing gods to be a myth, the worshippers believed their existence to be so sure as to be beyond suspicion. When some people contemptuously brush aside all this evidence without a single good reason to support them (as even a half-wit can see) and oblige us to [888] deliver this address—well, how could one possibly admonish them and at the same time teach them the basic fact about gods, their existence, without using the rough edge of one’s tongue? Still, we must make the best of it: we don’t want both sides maddened at once, they by their greed for pleasure, we by our anger at their condition. So our address to men with such a depraved outlook should be calm, and run as follows. Let’s use honeyed words and abate our anger, and pretend we’re addressing just one representative individual.
‘Now then, my lad, you’re still young, and as time goes on you’ll come [b] to adopt opinions
diametrically opposed to those you hold now. Why not wait till later on to make up your mind about these important matters? The most important of all, however lightly you take it at the moment, is to get the right ideas about the gods and so live a good life:—otherwise you’ll live a bad one. In this connection, I want first to make a crucial and irrefutable point. It’s this: you’re not unique. Neither you nor your friends are the first to have held this opinion about the gods. It’s an illness from which the world is never free, though the number of sufferers varies from time to time. I’ve met a great many of them, and let me assure you that [c] none of them who have been convinced early in life that gods do not exist have ever retained that belief into old age. However, it is true that some men (but not many) do persist in laboring under the impression either that although the gods exist they are indifferent to human affairs, or alternatively that they are not indifferent but can easily be won over by prayers and sacrifices. Be guided by me: you’ll only see this business in its truest light if you wait to gather your information from all sources, [d] particularly the legislator, and then see which theory represents the truth. In the meantime, don’t venture any impiety where gods are concerned. You may take it that it will be up to your lawgiver, now and in the future, to try to enlighten you on precisely these topics.’
CLINIAS: So far, sir, that’s very well said.
ATHENIAN: Certainly, Megillus and Clinias, but what an amazing doctrine we’ve got involved in, without noticing it!
CLINIAS: What doctrine do you mean?
[e] ATHENIAN: I mean the one which many people regard as the highest truth of all.
CLINIAS: Please be more explicit.
ATHENIAN: Some people, I believe, account for all things which have come to exist, all things which are coming into existence now, and all things which will do so in the future, by attributing them either to nature, art, or chance.