Comparing the two doctrines, we see that Plato, though he did not reject altogether, as Epikurus did, the agency of the Gods in the universe,--restricted it here nevertheless so as to suit the ethical exigencies of his own mind. He thus discarded so large a portion of it, as to place himself, or rather his spokesman Sokrates, in marked hostility with the received religious faith. If Melêtus and Anytus lived to read the Platonic Republic (we may add, also the dialogue called Euthyphron), they would probably have felt increased persuasion that their indictment against Sokrates was well-grounded:[81] since he stood proclaimed by the most eminent of his companions as an innovator in matters of religion, and as disbelieving a very large portion of what was commonly received by pious Athenians. With many persons, it was considered a species of sacrilege to disbelieve any narrative which had once been impressed upon them respecting the Gods or the divine agency: the later Pythagoreans laid it down as a canon, that this was never to be done.[82] [Footnote 81: Xenoph. Memorab. i. 1. [Greek: A)dikei= Sôkra/tês, ou(\s me\n ê( po/lis nomi/zei theou\s ou) nomi/zôn, e(/tera de\ kaina\ daimo/nia ei)sphe/rôn; a)dikei= de\ kai\ tou\s ne/ous diaphthei/rôn.] This was the form of the indictment against Sokrates. The Republic of Plato certainly shows ground for the first part of it. Sokrates did not introduce new names and persons of Gods, but he preached new views about their characters and agency, and (what probably would cause the greatest offence) he emphatically blames the received views. The Republic of Plato here embodies what we read in the Platonist Maximus Tyrius (ix. 8) as the counter-indictment of Sokrates against the Athenian people--[Greek: ê( de\ Sôkra/tous kata\ A)thênai/ôn graphê/; A)dikei= o( A)thênai/ôn dê=mos, ou(\s me\n Sôkra/tês nomi/zei theou\s ou) nomi/zôn, e(/tera de\ kaina\ daimo/nia e)peisphe/rôn . . . A)dikei= de\ o( dê=mos kai\ tou\s ne/ous diaphthei/rôn.]] [Footnote 82: Jamblichus, Vit. Pythag. c. 138-148. Adhortatio ad Philosophiam, p. 324, ed. Kiessling. See chap. xxxvii. of my "History of Greece," p. 345, last edit.] [Side-note: Plato conceives the Gods according to the exigencies of his own mind--complete discord with those of the popular mind.]