Plato on Poetry
Ion; Republic 376e–398b9; Republic 595–608b10

This is a 1996 commentary on selected texts of Plato concerned with poetry: the Ion and relevant sections of the Republic.

Plato (Author), Penelope Murray (Edited by)

9780521349819, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 7 March 1996

264 pages
18.6 x 12.4 x 1.7 cm, 0.29 kg

'a valuable resource … a model of clarity, concision, careful research, and judicious presentation of difficult and controversial issues. It will be a useful took for both students and more advanced scholars for years to come.' The Classical Review

Prior to publication of this 1996 book, much had been written on Plato as a critic of literature, but no commentaries had appeared in English on the Ion, or the opening books of the Republic in which Plato launches his famous attack on poetry, since the early years of this century. This volume brings together these texts and the relevant section of Republic 10. It aims to provide the reader with a commentary which takes account of modern scholarship on the subject, and which explores the ambivalence of Plato's pronouncements on poetry through an analysis of his own skill as a writer. A general introduction sets Plato's views in the wider context of attitudes to poetry in Greek society before his time, and indicates the main ways in which his writings on poetry have influenced the history of aesthetic thought in European culture.

Introduction: 1. Mimesis
2. Poetry and inspiration
3. Plato as poet
4. The battle between poetry and philosophy
5. Plato and Homer
6. The Platonic legacy
7. The text
Ion
Republic 376e–398b9
Republic 595–608b10
Commentary
Appendix: Poetic inspiration in Plato
Bibliography
Index.

Subject Areas: Literary studies: classical, early & medieval [DSBB]