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It was a part of this same reasonableness of the Greeks which induced
them to bestow upon the actors of these same plays no inconsiderable
civic honors. In the above-mentioned book of the De Republica, it
is mentioned that schines, a very eloquent Athenian, who had been a
tragic actor in his youth, became a statesman, and that the Athenians
again and again sent another tragedian, Aristodemus, as their
plenipotentiary to Philip. For they judged it unbecoming to condemn
and treat as infamous persons those who were the chief actors in the
scenic entertainments which they saw to be so pleasing to the gods. No
doubt this was immoral of the Greeks, but there can be as little doubt
they acted in conformity with the character of their gods; for how
could they have presumed to protect the conduct of the citizens from
being cut to pieces by the tongues of poets and players, who were
allowed, and even enjoined by the gods, to tear their divine
reputation to tatters? And how could they hold in contempt the men who
acted in the theatres those dramas which, as they had ascertained,
gave pleasure to the gods whom they worshipped? Nay, how could they
but grant to them the highest civic honors? On what plea could they
honor the priests who offered for them acceptable sacrifices to the
gods, if they branded with infamy the actors who in behalf of the
people gave to the gods that pleasure or honour which they demanded,
and which, according to the account of the priests, they were angry at
not receiving. Labeo, whose learning makes him an authority on such
points, is of opinion that the distinction between good and evil
deities should find expression in a difference of worship; that the
evil should be propitiated by bloody sacrifices and doleful rites, but
the good with a joyful and pleasant observance, as, e.g. (as he
says himself), with plays, festivals, and banquets. All this we
shall, with God's help, hereafter discuss. At present, and
speaking to the subject on hand, whether all kinds of offerings are
made indiscriminately to all the gods, as if all were good (and it is
an unseemly thing to conceive that there are evil gods; but these gods
of the pagans are all evil, because they are not gods, but evil
spirits), or whether, as Labeo thinks, a distinction is made
between the offerings presented to the different gods the Greeks are
equally justified in honoring alike the priests by whom the sacrifices
are offered, and the players by whom the dramas are acted, that they
may not be open to the charge of doing an injury to all their gods, if
the plays are pleasing to all of them, or (which were still worse) to
their good gods, if the plays are relished only by them.
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