And he who observes this law shall be blameless; but he who is disobedient, as I was saying, shall be punished by the guardians of the laws, and by the priests and priestesses.

Suppose that we imagine this to be our law.
CLEINIAS: Very good.
ATHENIAN: Can any one who makes such laws escape ridicule?
Let us see.
I think that our only safety will be in first framing certain models for composers.

One of these models shall be as follows: If when a sacrifice is going on, and the victims are being burnt according to law--if, I say, any one who may be a son or brother, standing by another at the altar and over the victims, horribly blasphemes, will not his words inspire despondency and evil omens and forebodings in the mind of his father and of his other kinsmen?
CLEINIAS: Of course.
ATHENIAN: And this is just what takes place in almost all our cities.

A magistrate offers a public sacrifice, and there come in not one but many choruses, who take up a position a little way from the altar, and from time to time pour forth all sorts of horrible blasphemies on the sacred rites, exciting the souls of the audience with words and rhythms and melodies most sorrowful to hear; and he who at the moment when the city is offering sacrifice makes the citizens weep most, carries away the palm of victory.

Now, ought we not to forbid such strains as these?
And if ever our citizens must hear such lamentations, then on some unblest and inauspicious day let there be choruses of foreign and hired minstrels, like those hirelings who accompany the departed at funerals with barbarous Carian chants.