When people today think of Greek philosophy, most think of Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle. Yet when ancient Athenians educated their children, they'd teach them Homer's Illiad and Odyssey. These were the national poems of the culture, and were not only used for education, but also for divination and protection (a spell in the PGM entails writing a certain verse on a tiny scroll and concealing it in an amulet).
These philosophers, however, may not have agreed with that. Plato's Republic describes his version of an ideal city in which children are raised to be ideal citizens and philosopher-kings. In this "ideal city," however, he bans poetry because, in his view, poets have the power to distort reality with their words.
Would Plato have banned the Illiad and Odyssey, two epics so important to the Athenian culture? Hard to say, but one thing that's clear is that Homer and Plato had some pretty different ideas about what the Gods were like. Plato also goes further and articulates what he believes to be a "quarrel between poetry and philosophy," which is a much wider disagreement than whether the Gods have feelings or not. His argument cuts to the heart of how people determine truth. In a nutshell, he believes that only philosophy in all its rigor can deliver Truth with a capital T, and poetry such as Homer writes are dangerous fantasies that are too often mistaken for truth.
Oh, dear. That's a heavy charge, and one worth considering. If Plato were to come to a modern Pagan circle and listen to our modern, poetic invocations and stories of the Gods, would he scoff? Would he accuse modern Pagans of believing too much in fantasy?
In Homer's defense, though, Sannion made a blog post a few weeks ago in which he provided samples of helpful teaching quotes from these great epics.
What do you think? Have you read the Illiad, the Odyssey, or another Pagan epic? Can poetry such as this be trusted to contain truth?