This chapter focuses on the contributions made by Plato, Aristotle, the Stoics, and the Epicureans to the problem of morality in art. It concentrates on poetry as the art that was at the center of debate in antiquity. Starting with Plato's demand that poetry should be both pleasant and morally useful, it discusses how Plato sought to reform poetry in the Republic and Laws to meet this demand. It also suggests that Plato developed a new conception of poetic discourse, as exemplified by his own dialogues, as a way of engaging individuals in a search for morality. Aristotle, it is argued, did not demand moral instruction; instead, he required certain moral principles as a source of pleasure. The Stoics recast the problem by demanding a moral point of view on the part of both author and recipient. In making the recipient responsible for taking a moral position, they laid the foundation of a theory of reception. The Epicureans started by excluding moral instruction and ended, with Lucretius, by viewing moral instruction as essential to the pleasure of poetry.