Publication Details

Abstract

The paper questions the modern approach to ancient philosophy as a linear movement from mythos to logos and analyzes the circumstances of „the beginning“ of ancient philosophical thinking. It tempts to see the whole movement of the Pre-Socratic philosophy as a literary undercurrent of the Homeric schools, the Homeridae. Crucial for this type of argumentation is the allegorical interpretation of the Homeric poems. This interpretation goes back to their very origins. The emphasis is put on the resemblances between the cyclic eposes Ilias and Odyssey and early Pre-Socratic philosophies, namely those of Xenophanes, Heraclitus, Pythagoras and the Milesian School. It is argued, that in physical and ethical conceptions of these philosophers, many traces of Homeric world-view can be unveiled. Therefore, it seems viable to suppose that some allegoric interpretations of Homer ́s poems preexisted as a theoretical background behind these philosophical theories.