Last Judgements - Plato, Poetry, and Myth

-Plato (c 427-347 BC) was quite critical of his contemporary poets, even going so far as to say that certain verses would be censored or banned if they existed in his conceptualized utopian republic.
   -Also said that unless the poets can prove how they're beneficial to society, they'll be kicked out!
   -Plato did, however, reference poets and their works a lot in his writings.
   -Amusingly, his own critiques of poetry and poets could just as easily be applied to philosophers and philosophical literature!
   -Also, even though he was critical of the epic mythical works of Homer and Hesiod, he too composed his own epic myths too (haha)!
      -"Phaedo", "Gorgias", and "The Republic" all contain myths of Plato's own creation.
   -So, what was Plato trying to accomplish exactly if he was being such a hypocrite?
      -Was he trying to negate or criticize other myths as a way of promoting his own?
-He was also really critical of the poets in their style of writing, accusing them of imitation.
   -This "imitation" did not reflect his belief that their descriptions were accurate.  For example, Homer has the gods say or do things that he (Plato) believed was inappropriate for divine beings to behave.  Homer also has someone like Achilles insult the gods, and Plato believed that this instilled in the reader false perceptions about them (the gods). 
      -This is why Plato has Socrates argue in favor of censorship in his ideal utopian city as a way to keep the youth from becoming corrupted.  Gods and heroes should be role models!
         -This has led modern-day critics to argue that "The Republic" leans in favor of totalitarianism!
         -Plato also wrote in favor of censoring music as well, as music was an important component of the theater.  This included the banning of certain musical modes, rhythms, and even instruments, as he believed they inspired unbridled passion, fury, etc.  He also frowned on the theater inducing inappropriate or immoral feelings in the audience.
   -In a similar way of "imitation", Plato was critical of the sophists because they taught persuasion, not knowledge.  Like the sophists, the poets promoted pleasure, but not knowledge.
      -An imitator can reproduce the image or likeness of something without actually having knowledge of its true nature.
         -For example, a painter can paint a picture of a table, but doesn't actually know how to build one.
         -So, couldn't Plato be accused of being an "imitator" himself?  After all, all of his works are dialogues between imitated real-life characters, situations, conversations, etc.
            -Plus, he also has some characters behaving badly, immorally, etc.
            -One argument would  be that Plato is "fighting fire with fire"- his audience is obviously intellectuals, other philosophers, etc.
         -So what about Plato creating his own myths?  Was this hypocritical?
            -Plato's myths are detailed primarily in "Phaedo" and "Gorgias".  Talks a lot about the afterlife, "Hell", etc.
            -Also discussed in "The Republic" is "the Myth of Er".
               -In this story, Er is a dude who is killed in a war, but before he's buried he miraculously wakes up and starts talking about the afterlife.
                  -Er saw two sets of gates, each with an exit and an entrance.  One set of gates led to the heavens, the other led to the underworld.
                     -The virtuous go to paradise, but the assholes are condemned to the underworld for many years.  The worst of the bunch go to the underworld FOREVER!
                  -Eventually, the souls leave through the exits of both the heavens and the underworld, and journey through the cosmos.  The souls then encounter the three fates, who designate the souls' next lives on earth.  Each soul is allowed to choose which life (including animals) they wish to live on earth.  Thus, the gods are not to blame if our own lives suck! 
                     -The moral of the story is that we should study philosophy in this life so we can make a good choice when the time comes to choose the next life.
                   -Critics have raised an important point regarding the Myth of Er- Plato is basically saying that we should be good "or else", which is weird for him.
                      -It seems more in Plato's style to argue that we should be good for the sake of being good, or that it's better or more advantageous to be good from a practical point of view.
                      -An argument against this would be that Plato has already argued the practical reasons for living a good, virtuous life in his other works, so "The Myth of Er" was just an extra thing to prove why it's good to live virtuously. 
                         -In the same way, Plato attacks poets and playwrights not because of the art itself, but because they use their art to perpetuate what he deems to be falsehoods.
-In closing, Plato was a philosopher who combined and covered much- myth, justice, virtue, the cosmos, science, argument, education, etc.
   -It's been said that the entire history of philosophy is jut a series of footnotes to Plato's dialogues.
      -However, according to at least one student of Plato's, there was still room for improvement.  This student would go on to rival Plato's greatness, and is considered to be one of the greatest thinkers of antiquity, if not ALL TIME- Aristotle!