Bow and the Lyre - by Seth Benardete (Paperback)

About the Book

In this interpretation of the Odyssey, Seth Benardete suggests that Homer may have been the first to philosophize in a Platonic sense. He argues that the Odyssey concerns precisely the relation between philosophy and poetry and, more broadly, the rational and the irrational in human beings.

Book Synopsis

In this interpretation of the Odyssey, Seth Benardete suggests that Homer may have been the first to philosophize in a Platonic sense. He argues that the Odyssey concerns precisely the relation between philosophy and poetry and, more broadly, the rational and the irrational in human beings.

Review Quotes

The Bow and the Lyre is a treasure of startling observations, but it is also much more. His book is a remarkable account of the Odyssey . . . There is really nothing else like it in print.

The Bow and the Lyre is a work of matchless erudition and insight.

Bernardete's procedure frees him to take seriously the problems of the surface on their own terms.

Guided by the fundamental problems opened up through his studies of the Platonic dialogues, Seth Benardete unravels the intertwined threads of Homer's Odyssey and finds at its core the choice Odysseus makes to be human-to return home rather than accept Calypso's offer of immortality. This choice reflects the understanding Odysseus has of his fate, on which the Olympian gods have in turn imposed a design of their own, assigning Odysseus a part in their plan of withdrawal. Once home, Odysseus strings his bow and makes it sing, Homer tells us, as easily as a bard his lyre; but whether the apparent fusion of rationality with spiritedness in the soul of Odysseus allows him to share Homer's perspective is the Platonic question that animates Benardete's penetrating and illuminating reading of the Odyssey.

About the Author

Seth Benardete was professor of classics at New York University. He was the author of The Being of the Beautiful, The Rhetoric of Morality and Philosophy, Socrates' Second Sailing, and The Tragedy and Comedy of Life.