“It was only ever intended as a thought experiment,” I said. Maia had told me that.

“Yes, but here it is, and you and I are living in it.” Ficino grinned.

I swallowed the last of my porridge and gathered our plates together to take to the kitchen. “I should go. I have to learn my lines.”

“Something Plato really wouldn’t have approved of,” Ficino said.

“I know. I’ve never properly understood why he hated drama so much.”

“He thought it was bad for people to feel induced emotions, false emotions.”

I sat down again. “But it’s not. It can be cathartic—and it can be a way of learning about emotions.”

“Plato didn’t want people to learn those emotions. He wanted his ideal guardians to only understand honorable emotions.” Ficino shook his head. “He had a very hopeful view of human nature, when you think about it.”

I laughed. “He did if he thought jealousy and grief and anger could be excluded because we never saw The Myrmidons. I never saw any play until two years ago, unless you count the re-enactments of the Symposium on Plato’s birthday, but I still felt all those things.”

Ficino nodded. “But that’s what he really thought, and so that’s why we excluded drama. Or rather, since almost all of the original Masters were people who loved the art of the ancient world, and much of what survived was drama, we decided to keep drama in the library but not allow it to be acted. Reading it quietly, we thought, wouldn’t have such an emotional effect.”

“Why did you change your minds?” I asked. “Not that I’m not glad you did, because I’m really excited about playing Briseis at the Dionysia.”

“We didn’t change our minds. It was debated several times, and always decided against, until two years ago.”

I was about to ask what happened two years ago, then I realized: the first cohort of Young Ones had become old enough to vote. “Are plays still banned in the other cities?”

“As far as I know they’re allowed in Sokratea and the City of Amazons, but banned in Psyche and Athenia.”

“And is there any difference in how philosophical people are?”

Ficino laughed. “How would you measure that?”

I opened my mouth to answer, but he held up his hand again.

“No, think about it. Write me a paper on it, either an essay or a dialogue, as you prefer.”