Circean enchantments and the transformations of allegory

This chapter examines the boldly counter-intuitive readings produced by ancient allegorists and their place in the Greek mythic tradition. A more productive strategy, adopted by Philip the Philosopher and others, capitalized instead on the presence of the underlying meanings to recover wisdom within seemingly frivolous narratives. This powerful mode of reading, allegoresis, was an instrument of transformation. Allegorists argued boldly for the inherent virtue and utility of poetry, particularly that of Homer. Philip's image of a single substance effecting both contemplative insight and dangerous temptation is prefigured in an allegory of the Circe episode in Heraclitus' Homeric Problems. Evidence for ancient allegorical practice consists of a diverse series of extant texts and fragments. The “tradition” spans early interpretations of Homer attributed to the sixth-century critic Theagenes of Rhegium, the religious speculations of the Derveni Papyrus, Stoic philosophies of language, Imperial textbooks.