Review of: Irene de Jong. \u3cem\u3eA Narratological Commentary on the Odyssey\u3c/em\u3e, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001 (original) (raw)

Homer on poetry: two passages in the Odyssey

Eranos, 1987

This article examines two passages in Homer (Odyssey 1.353-5 and 8.523-31), and argues that they do not show that poetry has a didactic purpose or effect. The task of the bard is to give an accurate and transparent account of heroic deeds, and not to select or adjust the facts in order to point a moral.

Review of "Virgil's Iliad: An Essay on Epic Narrative"

The Classical World, 1986

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Ion: Plato's defense of poetry

International Studies in Philosophy, 1997

To think that Ion is a light-hearted piece with no philosophical weight, or Plato the enemy of poetry is to hold to one of the most mistaken ideas in the history of ideas. In the interest of both historical accuracy and philosophic truth the use of the word 'Plato' as such a marker must be stopped. That is, we would here be friends to both Plato and the truth, to poetry and philosophy. And while we think that poetry is as defensible as philosophy, and that Plato thought so as well and throughout his life, I will here examine only that first small dialogue, Ion, reading it as a poem should be read, for what it does not say, but engenders, as much as for what it does say, or in other words noting what it does as much as what it says. If this reading succeeds it will a) explain several historical anomalies and factual inconsistencies of the dialogue, and it will show b) that the dilemma (techne/mania) of the dialogue is false, c) that the dilemma is intimately related to a view of language as names for a world which is everything that is the case, d) that the flaw which the dialogue exhibits in the rhapsode, Ion, is at least as much a moral flaw as an intellectual one, e) that those moral and intellectual flaws are not transferable simpliciter to the poem or poet of the rhapsode's performance, or even necessarily to a rhapsode and f) that these same moral and intellectual flaws can be found in philosophers. THIS IS THE TYPESCRIPT; FOR SCHOLARLY NOTATION PLEASE USE THE JOURNAL