[391d]
and Peirithous, the son of Zeus, attempted such dreadful rapes,1 nor that any other child of a god and hero would have
brought himself to accomplish the terrible and impious deeds that they now
falsely relate of him. But we must constrain the poets either to deny that
these are their deeds or that they are the children of gods, but not to make
both statements or attempt to persuade our youth that the gods are the
begetters of evil, and that heroes are no better than men.
1 Theseus was assisted by Perithous in the rape of Helen and joined Perithous in the attempt to abduct Persephone. Theseus was the theme of epics and of lost plays by Sophocles and Euripides.
Plato. Plato in Twelve Volumes, Vols. 5 & 6 translated by Paul Shorey. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1969.
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