Ath. Were we not saying that on such occasions the souls of thedrinkers become like iron heated in the fire, and grow softer andyounger, and are easily moulded by him who knows how to educate andfashion them, just as when they were young, and that this fashioner ofthem is the same who prescribed for them in the days of their youth,viz., the good legislator; and that he ought to enact laws of thebanquet, which, when a man is confident, bold, and impudent, andunwilling to wait his turn and have his share of silence and speech,and drinking and music, will change his character into theopposite-such laws as will infuse into him a just and noble fear,which will take up arms at the approach of insolence, being thatdivine fear which we have called reverence and shame?
Cle. True.
Ath. And the guardians of these laws and fellow-workers with themare the calm and sober generals of the drinkers; and without theirhelp there is greater difficulty in fighting against drink than infighting against enemies when the commander of an army is nothimself calm; and he who is unwilling to obey them and thecommanders of Dionysiac feasts who are more than sixty years of age,shall suffer a disgrace as great as he who disobeys militaryleaders, or even greater.
Cle. Right.
Ath. If, then, drinking and amusement were regulated in this way,would not the companions of our revels be improved? they would partbetter friends than they were, and not, as now enemies. Their wholeintercourse would be regulated by law and observant of it, and thesober would be the leaders of the drunken.
Cle. I think so too, if drinking were regulated as you propose.
Ath. Let us not then simply censure the gift of Dionysus as badand unfit to be received into the State. For wine has manyexcellences, and one pre-eminent one, about which there is adifficulty in speaking to the many, from a fear of their misconceivingand misunderstanding what is said.
Cle. To what do you refer?
Ath. There is a tradition or story, which has somehow crept aboutthe world, that Dionysus was robbed of his wits by his stepmotherHere, and that out of revenge he inspires Bacchic furies and dancingmadnesses in others; for which reason he gave men wine. Suchtraditions concerning the Gods I leave to those who think that theymay be safely uttered; I only know that no animal at birth is matureor perfect in intelligence; and in the intermediate period, in whichhe has not yet acquired his own proper sense, he rages and roarswithout rhyme or reason; and when he has once got on his legs he jumpsabout without rhyme or reason; and this, as you will remember, hasbeen already said by us to be the origin of music and gymnastic.
Cle. To be sure, I remember.
Ath. And did we not say that the sense of harmony and rhythmsprang from this beginning among men, and that Apollo and the Musesand Dionysus were the Gods whom we had to thank for them?
Cle. Certainly.
Ath. The other story implied that wine was given man out of revenge,and in order to make him mad; but our present doctrine, on thecontrary, is, that wine was given him as a balm, and in order toimplant modesty in the soul, and health and strength in the body.
Cle. That, Stranger, is precisely what was said.
Ath. Then half the subject may now be considered to have beendiscussed; shall we proceed to the consideration of the other half?
Cle. What is the other half, and how do you divide the subject?