The Ancient Greek Society: Poetry And Philosophy

Name:
Instructor:
Course:
Date:
Poetry and Philosophy
The views on whether poetry is the better representation of literature and critical thinking in the society is one that is discussed by Plato in length. Ironically, he felt that poetry is not a true representation of the ability to reason logically. In the quarrel between poetry and philosophy, Plato is seen to despise the former stating that it not a creative way of looking at the world and even a representation of the society (Tucan, Dumitru). He is even seen to ridicule the works of such great poets as Homer citing lengthy stories that did not have a realistic touch. For Plato, the children should not be exposed to content that does not offer them the right context of the real world. With stories about giants and creatures that the children will never interact with, Plato feels that, poetry at the time did not represent the culture of the people and more so the aspirations of the generations to come. For Plato, philosophy was a better platform to assist the children to better review and think through their experiences in the world with a better and clearer image of the same. For Plato, critical thinking was the best was to represent the beauty of the society and more importantly the cultural information passed down for generations. This is an element that was considered imitation in Plato’s argument (The Republic Book X). While Plato may have had a very negative approach towards poetry, it is important to note that this was the best representation of information coded in education and a mirror of the cultural practices which would then be passed down in performances for the preservation of tradition (Tucan, Dumitru).
While considering poetry in the ancient Greek society, it is important to first establish how the poems were performed and why they were such a force in the tradition. Ideally, the poems such as the one written by Homer, would be performed in most of the public arenas during major events. This meant that, they carried coded information that the audience would relate with. It is for this reason, that poets became quite popular at the time. This is relative to the fact that their poems as performed, were a platform for education (Tucan, Dumitru). They carried messages relative to the culture of the society. The information brought to the audience would then be transferred to the future generations and spread throughout the society for ages. As such, it is not possible to downplay the impact that poetry had on the tradition and the maintenance of the practices to preserve the authenticity of the Greeks.
To better understand this concept, it is important to look at the element performances. Poems were an embodiment of the arena theatrics that were common at the time. They were molded into the culture that the Greeks practiced and mo...