have images which above all others will
win him the favour of the Gods.

CLEINIAS: Excellent.

ATHENIAN: Every man of any understanding fears and respects the prayers
of parents, knowing well that many times and to many persons they have
been accomplished. Now these things being thus ordered by nature, good
men think it a blessing from heaven if their parents live to old age and
reach the utmost limit of human life, or if taken away before their time
they are deeply regretted by them; but to bad men parents are always
a cause of terror. Wherefore let every man honour with every sort of
lawful honour his own parents, agreeably to what has now been said. But
if this prelude be an unmeaning sound in the ears of any one, let the
law follow, which may be rightly imposed in these terms: If any one in
this city be not sufficiently careful of his parents, and do not regard
and gratify in every respect their wishes more than those of his sons
and of his other offspring or of himself--let him who experiences this
sort of treatment either come himself, or send some one to inform the
three eldest guardians of the law, and three of the women who have the
care of marriages; and let them look to the matter and punish youthful
evil-doers with stripes and bonds if they are under thirty years of age,
that is to say, if they be men, or if they be women, let them undergo
the same punishment up to forty years of age. But if, when they are
still more advanced in years, they continue the same neglect of their
parents, and do any hurt to any of them, let them be brought before
a court in which every single one of the eldest citizens shall be the
judges, and if the offender be convicted, let the court determine what
he ought to pay or suffer, and any penalty may be imposed on him which
a man can pay or suffer. If the person who has been wronged be unable
to inform the magistrates, let any freeman who hears of his case inform,
and if he do not, he shall be deemed base, and shall be liable to have a
suit for damage brought against him by any one who likes. And if a slave
inform, he shall receive freedom; and if he be the slave of the injurer
or injured party, he shall be set free by the magistrates, or if he
belong to any other citizen, the public shall pay a price on his behalf
to the owner; and let the magistrates take heed that no one wrongs him
out of revenge, because he has given information.

Cases in which one man injures another by poi