In pursuance of this theory an ideal character, in history or fiction, was required to personify and make real to the multitude the disembodied ideals of Ethics.[678] Achilles had been tumbled from his pedestal by philosophy. Who was to replace him? Plato tries to put an idealised Sokrates in this position, but he could not square the historical personality with the ideal man postulated in the _Republic_. Xenophon, also thinking that a pattern man is “an excellent invention for the study of morality,” proposes Agesilaos.[679] Prodikos tried to make Herakles the model of the young. Aristotle formulated the μεγαλόψυχος [megalopsychos], but never personified him. Stoicism sought for its Wise Man or Perfect Saint, but never found him; Epicureanism was satisfied with its founder. But the search for the personification of the ethical ideal becomes the central feature of Hellenic philosophy and religion from the time of Plato onwards. [655] Herod. vii. 159-161. [656] Plato, _Ion_, 24 C. [657] _Rep._ 606 E. So in Isokrates, _To Nikokles_, 530 B. [658] Aristoph. _Frogs_, 1034-1036. [659] Plato, _Rep._ 391 B. [660] Sokrates in Xenophon, _Mem._ i. 3, 7. The moralisation is quite un-Homeric. [661] Herod, ii. 43-46. This tendency culminated in Euhemeros, at the end of the fourth century, who claimed to have found inscriptions in Crete giving the careers of mortal kings named Ouranos, Kronos, and Zeus. He argued that the gods were distinguished men, deified by admiring posterity. His theory passed to Rome in Ennius’ translation and supported the imperial cult. [662] Plato, _Phaidr._ 229 C. [663] Plato, _Ion_, 530. Cp. Xen. _Banquet_, iii. 6, where Anaximandros is mentioned. [664] Cp. Aristoph. _Clouds_, 905, 1080, representing “Sophist” arguments. [665] Plato, _Rep._ 377 D. [666] Isok. _Bous._ 228 D. [667] Cp. the statement of Herodotos (ii. 53) that Homer and Hesiod created the details of Hellenic mythology, even the names and functions of the deities. [668] Plato, _Rep._ 377 B. [669] _Ibid._ 378. [670] Plato, _Rep._ 380. [671] Plato, _Rep._ 388 D. [672] _Ibid._ 391 B. Plato maligns Achilles. He only promised the hair to Spercheios on condition that he returned home alive, which he knew he would not do if he slew Hektor. [673] Compare Tennyson, _In Memoriam_, xxxvi.: For Wisdom dealt with mortal powers, Where truth in closest words shall fail, When truth embodied in a tale Shall enter in at lowly doors. [674] Plato, _Rep._ 389 C. [675] In the _Phaidros_. [676] In the _Republic_, and elsewhere. [677] _Rep._ 414-417, etc. For the use which Plato made of myths as popular expositions of his views, cp. _Laws_, 663, 664, 713, 714, 716. [678] Isokrates recognised this too, _Antid._ 105 C.