Includes bibliographical references (pages 335-353) and index.
Contents:
Poets as philosophers and philosophers as poets : Parmenides, Plato, Lucretius, and Wordsworth / A.A. Long. Xenia, hiketeia, and the Homeric language of morals : the origins of Western ethics / Kevin Robb -- The muses' faithful servant : moral knowledge in Homer, Hesiod, and Xenophanes / William Wians -- How philosophy is rooted in tradition : stories describing the appearance of man and woman in ancient Greece / Luc Brisson -- Muthos and logos on New Year's Day : trial and error in Anaximander's seasonal sundial / Robert Hahn -- Tragic values in Homer and Sophocles / Lawrence J. Hatab -- Sketches of Oedipus in Sophocles's play about tyranny / Marina Marren -- Helen and the divine defense : Homer, Gorgias, Euripides / Ruby Blondell -- The hero and the saint : Sophocles's Antigone and Plato's Socrates / Roslyn Weiss -- Myth and argument in Glaucon's account of Gyges's ring and Adeimantus's use of poetry / Marina McCoy -- Myth inside the walls : Er and the argument of the Republic / Pierre Destrée -- Priam's despair and courage : an Aristotelian reading of fear, hope, and suffering in Homer's Iliad / Marjolein Oele -- Poets as philosophers and philosophers as poets : Parmenides, Plato, Lucretius, and Wordsworth / A.A. Long.
Summary:
In 'Logoi and Muthoi', William Wians builds on his earlier volume 'Logos and Muthos' (ISBN 9781438427362), highlighting the richness and complexity of these terms that were once set firmly in opposition to one another as reason versus myth or rationality versus irrationality. It was once common to think of intellectual history representing a straightforward progression from mythology to rationality. These volumes, however, demonstrate the value of taking the two together, opening up and analyzing a range of interactions, reactions, tensions, and ambiguities arising between literary and philosophical forms of discourse, including philosophical themes in works not ordinarily considered in the canon of Greek philosophical texts. This new volume considers such topics as the pre-philosophical origins of Anaximander's calendar, the philosophical significance of public performance and claims of poetic inspiration, and the complex role of mythic figures (including perhaps Socrates) in Plato. Taken together, the essays offer new approaches to familiar texts and open up new possibilities for understanding the roles and relationships between 'muthos' and 'logos' in ancient Greek thought.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.