Mystery/Metaphysics/Mythopoesis/Metaphor/Modernity

Jim Collins · 23 Aug 2001, 08:41 · from urth-v0030.mbox · original

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From: Jim Collins <jfc4319 at uncwil.edu>
Subject: RE: (urth) Mystery/Metaphysics/Mythopoesis/Metaphor/Modernity
Date: Thu, 23 Aug 2001 08:41:04
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Dan wrote:

>His attitude in the Laws, a more "realistic" approach than the
>Republic (which is, after all, "idealistic") is more moderate; and
>in one dialogue -- whose title I'm blanking on -- he has Socrates
>quite clearly conclude that poets -- actually, not poets but the
>performers of poetry -- speak for (indeed, speak under possession
>of) the gods. (This dialog is, if not _the_ source, then certainly
>_a_ source, for the modern word "inspiration" as relates to an
>artist's impulse to create.)

and Jim, unlurking, responds:

It's *Ion*.  Socrates quizzes Ion, a rhapsode (professional performer of ep=
ic=20
poetry), and develops the thesis that poets create their best work when the=
y=20
have been bereft of their reason by the gods, and that when the rhapsodes a=
re=20
really cookin' (good Socratic term), they are carried out of themselves, an=
d=20
do the same for their audiences.

Jim Collins
Wilmington, NC


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