Book III

Poetry must be censored to remove fear of the underworld, excessive lamentation, and immoderate laughter among guardians.

Rulers may use falsehoods as medicine, but youth must be taught temperance by censoring tales of lust, greed, and cruelty.

After discussing content, the focus shifts to style, identifying simple, imitative, and mixed forms of narrative.

Guardians should not be imitators, but if they must imitate, they should only portray good and noble characters.

Music must be purged, leaving only the Dorian and Phrygian harmonies for war and peace, played on simple instruments.

All art must be simple and harmonious to instill good taste and a sense of beauty in the guardians' souls.

Guardians require simple gymnastics and diet, avoiding the complex medicine and law that arise from luxury and intemperance.

The physician Asclepius's method of treating only curable, productive citizens and letting the intemperate die is praised.

The ideal judge has observed evil but not practiced it; music and gymnastic must be balanced to harmonize the soul.

Music and gymnastic must be harmoniously blended to balance the soul's two principles, reason and passion, creating a true musician.

The rulers, or guardians, must be the best of the elders, selected after being tested throughout their lives against hardship and temptation.

A foundational myth will be told, claiming citizens are born of the earth with souls of gold, silver, or brass and iron.

Guardians must live ascetically without private property or money, after which some lesser points of the education will be considered.

A commentary notes Plato's ironic and interpretive use of Homer as a witness for his ethical and psychological arguments.

A commentary discusses Plato's rule that style must match subject, criticizing obscure poets both ancient and modern.

A commentary summarizes Plato's theory of art as simple, moral, and influential, while noting his silence on the great creative arts.

A commentary discusses Plato's remark that a judge, unlike a physician, should not have personal experience of evil.

A commentary explores Plato's un-Greek concept of transposing ranks based on merit, conveyed through the "monstrous fiction" of the metals.

A commentary discusses the paradox of music's great power in Plato's theory, suggesting some exaggeration and Pythagorean influence.

A commentary explores the paradox of the mind's control over the body and criticizes Plato's depreciation of diet's role.

A final commentary points out several of Plato's stylistic techniques, such as his affected ignorance and satirical tone.