Article
Digital Version
Télécharger | Copier/coller | Impression (5)
Domaradzki, Mikolaj

Theagenes of Rhegium and the Rise of Allegorical Interpretation

2011 - Bibliopolis

P. 205-227

  • The present paper investigates the pivotal role that Theagenes of Rhegium came to play in the development of ancient allegoresis. The main thesis of the article has it that the thinker's resorting to allegorical interpretation was, at least to some extent, prompted by the emergence and flourishing of the Ionian philosophy. Consequently, it is argued here that Theagenes' hermeneutical activity aimed not only to exonerate Homer from the charges of impiety but also to make use of his authority so as to promote the novel doctrines of the Milesian philosophers. While Theagenes himself did not present a rational account of the world that could be compared to the work of Thales and his successors, Theagenes' allegoresis seems to have been an important transitional stage in the complex process of the philosophical transformation of mythos into logos.
  • Thus, although Theagenes' practice of reading scientific ideas into Homer may at times seem strained, arbitrary, far-fetched and even preposterous, the naïveté of the first exegetical efforts should not cloud their cultural import, for it is owing to such daring attempts as those of Theagenes that Hellenic thought eventually paved the way for modern hermeneutics.

Fait partie de

Elenchos : rivista di studi sul pensiero antico : XXXII, 2, 2011