Very likely, he replied; but I do not as yet know what you would term the greater. [Sidenote: Homer and Hesiod are tellers of bad lies, that is to say, they give false representations of the gods,] Those, I said, which are narrated by Homer and Hesiod, and the rest of the poets, who have ever been the great story-tellers of mankind. But which stories do you mean, he said; and what fault do you find with them? A fault which is most serious, I said; the fault of telling a lie, and, what is more, a bad lie. But when is this fault committed? *377E* Whenever an erroneous representation is made of the nature of gods and heroes,--as when a painter paints a portrait not having the shadow of a likeness to the original. Yes, he said, that sort of thing is certainly very blameable; but what are the stories which you mean? First of all, I said, there was that greatest of all lies in high places, which the poet told about Uranus, and which was a bad lie too,--I mean what Hesiod says that Uranus did, *378A* and how Cronus retaliated on him[8]. The doings of Cronus, and the sufferings which in turn his son inflicted upon him, even if they were true, ought certainly not to be lightly told to young and thoughtless persons; if possible, they had better be buried in silence. But if there is an absolute necessity for their mention, a chosen few might hear them in a mystery, and they should sacrifice not a common [Eleusinian] pig, but some huge and unprocurable victim; and then the number of the hearers will be very few indeed. [Footnote 8: Hesiod, Theogony, 154, 459.] Why, yes, said he, those stories are extremely objectionable. [Sidenote: which have a bad effect on the minds of youth.] *378B* Yes, Adeimantus, they are stories not to be repeated in our State; the young man should not be told that in committing the worst of crimes he is far from doing anything outrageous; and that even if he chastises his father when he does wrong, in whatever manner, he will only be following the example of the first and greatest among the gods. {61} I entirely agree with you, he said; in my opinion those stories are quite unfit to be repeated. [Sidenote: The stories about the quarrels of the gods and their evil behaviour to one another are untrue.] [Sidenote: And allegorical interpretations of them are not understood by the young.]