The two Goddesses, Athênê and Artemis, were among the few altogether insensible to amorous influences and to the inspirations of Aphroditê: who is the object of contemptuous sarcasm on the part of Athênê, and of repulsive antipathy on the part of Artemis.[160] This may supply an illustration for the Republic of Plato. As far as one can guess what the effect of his institutions would have been, it is probable that the influence of Aphroditê would have been at its minimum among his Guardians of both sexes: as it was presented in the warlike dramas of Æschylus.[161] There would have been everything to deaden it, with an entire absence of all provocatives. The muscular development, but rough and unadorned bodies, of females-- Sabina qualis, aut perusta solibus Pernicis uxor Apuli--(Hor. _Epod._ ii. 41-42). the indiscriminate companionship, with perfect identity of treatment and manners, between the two sexes from the earliest infancy--the training of both together for the same public duties, the constant occupation of both throughout life in the performance of those duties, under unceasing official supervision--the strict regulation of exercise and diet, together with the monastic censorship on all poetry and literature--the self-restraint, equal and universal, enforced as the characteristic feature and pride of the regiment, and seconded by the jealous espionage of all over all, the more potent because privacy was unknown--such an assemblage of circumstances would do as much as circumstances could do to starve the sexual appetite, to prevent it from becoming the root of emotional or imaginative associations, and to place it under the full controul of the lawgiver for purposes altogether public. Such was probably Plato's intention: since he more generally regards the appetites as enemies to be combated and extirpated so far as practicable--rather than as sources of pleasure, yet liable to accompaniments of pain, requiring to be regulated so as to exclude the latter and retain the former. [Footnote 160: Homer, Hymn. ad Venerem, 10; Iliad, v. 425; Euripid. Hippolyt. 1400-1420. Athênê combined the attributes of [Greek: philopo/lemos] and [Greek: philo/sophos]. Plato, Timæus, p. 24 D; compare Kritias, p. 109 D.] [Footnote 161: See Aristophan. Ranæ, 1042. _Eurip._ [Greek: Ma\ Di/' ou)de\ ga\r ê)=n tê=s A)phrodi/tês ou)de/n soi.] _Æschyl._ [Greek: Mêde/ g' e)pei/ê. A)ll' e)pi/ soi/ toi kai\ toi=s soi=sin pollê\ pollou= 'pikathê=to.]] [Side-note: Other purposes of Plato--limitation of number of Guardians--common to Aristotle also.] The public purposes, with a view to which Plato sought to controul the sexual appetite in his Guardians, were three, as I have already stated. 1. To obtain from each of them individually, faithful performance of the public duties, and observance of the limits, prescribed by his system. 2. To ensure the best and purest breed. 3. To maintain unaltered the same total number, without excess or deficiency.