This interpretation of Aristotle's "Poetics" seeks to demonstrate that it is a coherent statement of a challenging theory of poetic art and that it hints towards a theory of mimetic art in general. Assessing this theory against the background of earlier Greek views on poetry and art, particularly Plato's, Stephen Halliwell sets Aristotle's ideas in the wider context of his philosophical system. The core of the book is an appraisal of Aristotle's view of tragic drama, in which Halliwell contends that at the heart of the "Poetics" lies a philosophical urge to instill a secularized understanding of Greek tragedy.

Aristotle's Poetics

Introduction Hellenistic political philosophy has had a bad press. In lectures published in 1983 the distinguished and influential ancient historian Moses Finley gave it as his view that Plato and Aristotle ‘were the first genuine political theorists of antiquity, and the last’. For only they attempted ‘a complete and coherent account’ of the ideal society ‘grounded in systematic metaphysics, epistemology, psychology and ethics’. Some thirty years earlier, in what remains an eminently serviceable general account of Greek political thought, T. A. Sinclair wrote as follows: Looking back over the political thought of the third century BC one cannot help being struck with its barrenness. This is of course due in part to the decline in the polis and in part to the loss of contemporary writings on the subject. But it is also due to the refusal or inability to relate political thinking to the material conditions in which men lived. Epicurus and Chrysippus did their best to help men to face life cheerfully, but the men whom they helped were the few, who had sufficient education to understand their message and sufficient leisure for lessons in philosophy. Finley and Sinclair are only echoing a long entrenched judgement which finds a classic formulation in the third volume of Zeller's great history of Greek philosophy, first published in 1852. For Zeller the Hellenistic period found the Greeks coping with a deterioration in their external circumstances, and particularly with loss of political self-determination as the monarchies of Alexander's successors eclipsed the city-state, by withdrawing into the inner world of self-consciousness.

Social and political thought

The great challenge for any interpreter of Plato's views on poetry is to appreciate why he is so uncompromisingly hostile towards it. That he should seek to subordinate poetic to philosophic measures of expression and understanding is not in itself surprising. Philosophy has long had a need to keep poetry in its place - as Plato, alluding to the ‘ancient quarrel’ between the two, was among the first to tell us ( Rep . 10.607b). But what is striking in Plato's attitude is that even when he comes to acknowledge a usefulness in poetry - its role in educating the young, in civil celebration, in persuasion of many sorts - he is not content (as is, say, Aristotle) to grant its virtues, unstintingly, while nevertheless delimiting their scope; rather, he regards poetry at all times and in all its uses with suspicion, as a substance inherently volatile. He recognises that human society is not possible without some form of poetry, but discerns in this fact a mark, so to speak, of our fallen state. Many philosophers have measured their distance from the poets; but Plato would put them beyond hierarchy altogether; would banish them - at least, would banish those he confesses to represent poetry at its greatest - from his ideal society. Poetry as performance: the example of Ion We shall not appreciate the reasons for Plato's hostility towards poetry unless we bear in mind how poetry would typically reach the public in Plato's day. In a modern culture our most frequent direct contact with the literature deemed important in our society (and in the West this would of course include the very poets on whom Plato targets his attack) comes either through private and (at least potentially) reflective reading, or in the context of the classroom; and is supplemented in the case of drama by visits to the theatre, to see actual performance.

Plato and poetry

Introduction Part I: 1. Plot 2. Time 3. Narrative and speech 4. Focalisation 5. Effects on the reader 6. Gaps and omissions 7. Poetic licence 8. Authentication 9. Style 10. Allusions, hints, hidden meanings 11. Characters 12. Mythography Part II: 13. The gods in Homer 14. Homeric similes 15. Epithets 16. Type scenes 17. Homeric speeches 18. Reverse order 19. Staging, performance and dramaturgy Epilogue Glossary of Greek terms.

The Ancient Critic at Work: Terms and Concepts of Literary Criticism in Greek Scholia

1. Introduction: tracing Plato 2. Homer and Plato 3. Metamorphoses of the Apology 4. Dionysius of Halicarnassus and the style of the Phaedrus 5. Plato as classic: Plutarch's Amatorius 6. Playing with Plato.

Dirk M. Schenkeveld

Papers

Oi Kpitikoi in Philodemus

Aristarchus and OmhpoΣ ΦIΛOtexnoΣ