3.1: Fear and Grief

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See 386a-388e. Socrates expands their discussion of censorship to include the poetic characterization of heroes. By “heroes” he means those men and women, superhuman but mortal, who are so prominent in Homeric epic and Greek mythology generally, persons such as Achilles, Helen, Sarpedon, and Aeneas, who come into the world as a result of the union of gods and humans. (The distinction between “heroes” and “humans” gets made explicitly at 391d.) Again, the point is that, because gods and heroes are looked up to, it is important for them to be presented as worthy of admiration and imitation. Socrates and the others agree that the guardians “are to be free and to fear slavery more than death.” But if so, then Achilles should not be allowed to say things like that he would rather be a slave than king over the dead. Death should not be presented as a bad thing for a good person to suffer. But then poets should not present gods or heroes grieving on the occasion of a loved one’s death as if this were appropriate behavior for a virtuous person. What message does it send for Achilles to be wandering the beach in anguish, crying for his friend Patroclus even after the funeral has ended? Or for Zeus, king of the gods, to be lamenting the fate of his son Sarpedon? Socrates is open to the possibility of someone defending the propriety of grieving for the dead (388e), but in the absence of a convincing argument for this view, he urges that the passages be struck, and death not be presented to the young guardians-to-be as a terrible thing, deserving of fear or grief.

Is it bad to die? If so, how bad is it? If not, why is itfeared?
What is wrong with a guardian fearing death more than slavery?
Grief is a common enough response to the death of a loved one. But is it ever appropriate in an ideally virtuous person? Is it beneficial?
Suppose you believed that, upon death, a person’s soul goes on to a better life. If a friend of yours were to die, would it be wrong for you to grieve?