![]() ![]() The seeds of my later work on reflective self-consciousness and the origins of philosophy are already found here. Given the importance of allegoresis, that is, allegorizing as a conscious interpretative mode, it is most surprising that histories of ancient philosophy rarely mention the notion in the development of early Greek philosophy. In this essay, I examine the origins and development of this unremarked -albeit remarkable-“story.” I want to show to what degree the pre-Platoic project of philosophy was at time overshadowed by the allegorical approach to myth. This is due to the “spell” of myth, particularly Greek/Homeric myth, or to be more precise, because of the allegorical interpretation of Homeric myth. In fact, philosophia and muthologia are at times so intimately connected that, until the Enlightenment period, it is often difficult to distinguish between them. This “rational” approach invoked the same logos that is generally associated with philosophia. They fought back with mutho-logia, that is, with a logos about myth. Much has been written on this famous transition, which many once considered as a “miracle.” However, there is little on how the proponents of myth responded. ![]() The birth of philosophy is generally identified with the rejection of mythopoiesis and the adoption of rational explanations in terms of causality (e.g., Cornford, Guthrie, Vernant, Burkert, West, Curd, Laks, Long), whence the popular expression from muthos to logos or from myth to reason.
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