PLATO ON MUSIC (From The Republic, Odyssey, i.
352)
''...any musical innovation is full of danger to the
whole State, and ought to be prohibited …. when modes of music change, the
fundamental laws of the State always change with them...''
“Then to sum up: This is the point to which, above all, the
attention of our rulers should be directed – that music and gymnastic be
preserved in their original form, and no innovation made. They must do their
utmost to maintain them intact. And when anyone says that mankind must regard
the newest song which the singers have, they will be afraid that he may be
praising, not new songs, but a new kind of song; and this ought not to be praised,
or conceived to be the meaning of the poet; for any musical innovation is full
of danger to the whole State, and ought to be prohibited …. when modes of music
change, the fundamental laws of the State always change with them…Then I said
our guardians must lay the foundations of their fortress in music?”
“Yes, he said, the lawlessness of which you speak too easily
steals in…in the form of amusement; and at first sight it appears harmless …
and there is no harm; were it not that little by little this spirit of license,
finding a home, imperceptibly penetrates into manners and customs; whence,
issuing with greater force, it invades contracts between man and man, and from
contracts goes on to laws and constitutions, in utter recklessness, ending at
last, Socrates, by an overthrow of all rights, private as well as public.”
“Then, as I was saying, our youth should be trained from the
first in a stricter system, for if amusements become lawless, and the youths
themselves become lawless, they can never grow up into well-conducted and
virtuous citizens.”
