This article proposes an interpretation of the polemics surrounding the publication of Góngora's first Soledad (1613) in the light of the Platonic critique of literature, arguing that behind the classicist suppression of Góngora's aesthetic ‘errors' we find a Platonic-Christian suspicion of the persuasive power of ‘false' poetic language and the ‘immoral hedonism' of non-didactic art (‘the poets' beautiful lies'). Failing to understand the ‘division of labor' between Christian Platonism (‘legislative power') and Aristotelean classicism (‘executive power') in Golden Age literary theory and criticism, we fail to understand the controversy surrounding Góngora's great poems as anything but sheer critical incomprehension.