The Truth about Ancient History, Plato, and Poetry
“Socrates says in the Republic that he and Plato’s brothers might have to inform poetry about
the ancient quarrel between it and philosophy. Glenn Most (“What Ancient Quarrel between
Philosophy and Poetry?”) argues that Plato most likely invented this quarrel. Anyway, we do
not see any evidence of it before him. Xenophanes, a philosopher famous for critiquing
Homeric and Hesiodic theology, himself wrote poetry, and seems to have been contesting the
truth of the epic world-views, not its mode of presentation. Heraclitus criticized everybody
who deemed himself wise, Pythagoras and Hecataeus as much as Hesiod and Archilochus.
Archaic poetry appears not to mark out philosophers for criticism. (In fact, ‘philosophy’
words are not extant in poetry until Aristophanes’ Ecclesiasuzae of 391, and even there not
derisively). Comedians writing during Plato’s life depicted characters ridiculing intellectuals,
but this hardly counts as an ‘ancient quarrel,’ and certainly not one between ‘poetry’ and
‘philosophy’.” See http://ndpr.nd.edu/news/plato-and-the-poets/
The ancient war around the strictest thought
(Philosophy and logic) and between
The poets was created by the “ought”
In Plato’s brain. His rules, a bit too keen
As Nazi thinking often is, occurred
To him and him alone. He pretended
This war stretched backward. In this way, he slurred
The poets. Plato’s war has not ended.
It still goes forward in some thoughtless minds
Like his. His backward thinking was intense.
Creating facts which were not facts with blinds
He put up, Plato wasn’t worth two cents
About pure poetry. His mental act
Ignored the truth of history and fact.