Further developing the argument, he asserts that such misrepresentations of truth sow harmful seeds in the souls of the youth:
And further they are harmful to those who hear them...such tales must cease, for they sow a strong proclivity for badness in our young. (Bloom, 70)
Identifying specific poetic works as harmful, Socrates elucidates the relationship between art and human behavior. Interestingly, his argument appears to be a compelling case for artistic censorship.
Socrates' most scathing criticism of poetry is that it is imitative. Defining the concept of imitation, the philosopher agues that all corporeal realities are based on incorporeal "ideas". These illusive "ideas" or "forms" are fashioned by the gods. As the true "nature begetters", the gods only make one original form of each material thing. Man's attempt to copy the original form only results in feeble imitations. Among such poor imitations is poetry, which is "three times removed from the truth" (Bloom, 281). Such imitations, or "phathoms of virtue" have great potential of nurturing dark and evil desires:
And as for sex, and spiritness, too, and for all the desires, pains and pleasures in the soul that we say follow all our action, poetic imitation produces similar results in us. For it fosters and waters them when they ought to be dried up, and sets them up as rulers in us when they ought to be ruled so that we may become better and happier instead of worse and more wretched. (Bloom, 290)
Socrates' inherent distrust of poetry is elucidated in the above passage. Suspicious of celebrated poets of Greece, the philosopher utterly condemns poetic imitation. Interestingly, he asserts that only selected works of Homer, such as hymns of celebration to the Gods will be allowed in the model Republic.
In the Hellenistic world, the dialogue concerning the effects of imitative poetry was continued by Plato's student, Aristotle, in his work entitled Poetics. Embracing a more positive view of imitation in Greek tragedy, than Socrates, Aristotle argues that pity and fear, principal elements of dramatic tragedy, purify human emotions. This purification occurs during a process he identifies as katharsis, a releasing of inner emotions. (Heath, xxi) Thus, Malcom Heath asserts in his forward to Aristotle: Poetics:
In those subject to enthusiasm kathartic music brings about 'as if it were
healing and katharsis'; and all those prone to pity and fear, or any other
emotion enjoy katharsis and pleasurable relief.' References to 'healing'
and 'relief' imply that katharsis does in some sense put right something
that is wrong with us. (Heath,xxxix)
According to Aristotle, poetic verse in tragedy facilitates the healthy releasing of extreme emotions. Presumably, this is because such releases occur within the structured and controlled context of dramatic entertainment. Aristotle's ideas mark a dramatic departure from Socratic and Platonic suspicions of imitation.
During the transition to the first century AD, the concept of the influence of poetry on human thought and behavior was further developed by the Roman poet Horace in his celebrated work The Art of Poetry. Embracing an optimistic view of the virtue an influence of poetry, Horace used poetry to educate and delight the citizens of ancient Roman empire:
A poet should instruct, or please or both;
Let all your precepts be succinct and clear,
That ready wits may comprehend them soon,
And faithful memories retain then long;
For superfluities are soon forgot...
But he that joins instruction with delight,
Profit with pleasure, carries all the Votes;
(Art of Poetry 371-383)
In the above passage, Horace articulates his intriguing vision to specifically employ poetry in a didactic manner. However, the most provocative element of his vision is that he identifies the necessity of poetry to be delightful while it simultaneously instructs. Like the merging of two independent tributaries, Horace ingeniously conflates the ideas of education and entertainment, establishing a new vision for teaching. Unlike Socrates' emphasis on the effects of poetry to corrupt and destroy, Horace focuses on the potential of poetry to positively influence human thought and behavior.