Tragedy in Plato's " The Republic"

The ancient Greeks were trained based on poems of Homer or tragedy writers، and Plato، almost in all his works، especially in “The Republic”، which is the most complete and best-known one، is the enemy of poetry and tragedy and the training methods based upon them. In three books of it، i. e. second، third، and tenth، more than any of his other writings، he suppresses poetry and tragedy، and with reasons، puts the poets and writers of tragedy outside his ideal city-state. Plato argues that the primary reason for this is the falseness of stories، or saying not the whole truth. He then deals with the imitation and by introducing the Universal Forms (Ideas) and the allegory of the cave، describes the imitators as those imitating the picture، which itself is an imitation of the truth. They، then، are three phases far from the truth. At this area of the visual arts، there are imitators، both painters and poets، who are the tragic writers. Plato، dividing the human soul into the noble part and the ignoble one، accuses poets because they excite the latter part of the human soul. Plato، who is looking for a new training method based on the philosophy for his utopia، does not mention it in The Republic، but at The Laws، which is the work of his old ages and his maturity، describes clearly his writings as a good example of philosophical training for the ideal city.