Theagenes of Rhegium
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Theagenes of Rhegium[1] (Θεαγένης ὁ Ῥηγῖνος) was a Greek literary critic of the sixth century BC. He is noted for having defended the mythology of Homer, from more rationalist attacks. In so doing he became an early proponent of the allegorical method of reading texts.[2][3]
None of his work is known to survive. Its effects were felt later.[4]
[edit] Notes
- ^ Rhegium is present-day Reggio Calabria, in southern Italy.
- ^ Allegorical interpretation may have begun with Theagenes of Rhegium in the sixth century as a response to the criticisms of the representation of the gods in the Homeric poems by Xenophanes and others[...]. The Cambridge History of Literary Criticism I, p.85.
- ^ It has also been argued that Pherecydes of Syros anticipated Theagenes: See this PDF.
- ^ Thomas Cole, The Origins of Rhetoric in Ancient Greece (1991), p.60: Nothing comparable survives from writers earlier than Protagoras and Parmenides. The earliest clear samples of allegorical narrative used rhetorically are thus later, by at least a generation, than allegorical interpretation itself (Theagenes) or rationalized and "corrected" mythological narrative (Stesichorus).
