Antiquity Studies

Wise Man and Poet in Ancient Greece: Features and Overlaps

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Abstract

In ancient Greece, the notion of wisdom was expressed by the word σοφία, which implied different nuances of meaning and was used to identify the activities of very different categories of people: among them, even the poet was often recognised (or at least defined) as σοφός, as a ‘wise’ man, or a ‘sage’. This paper aims to analyse the reasons for this identification, especially from the perspective of the audience: what were the features of a poet – who introduced himself as a poet – that could lead his audience to assume that he was a σοφός? The answer probably has more to do with the forms of expression of a traditional ancient Greek poet than with the content of his poetry.


Open access | Peer reviewed

Submitted: Feb. 15, 2024 | Accepted: Feb. 15, 2024 | Published July 9, 2024 | Language: en

Keywords Ancient Greece • Tradition • Sophia • Poetry • Audience • Performance

Copyright © 2024 Massimiliano Ornaghi. This is an open-access work distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction is permitted, provided that the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. The license allows for commercial use. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

Permalink http://doi.org/10.30687/978-88-6969-776-0/004


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