Plutarch on poetry

Abstract

The topic is a very challenging and attractive one for scholarship of all ages, namely how readers, in this case young readers, should respond to and understand poetry, and most importantly, how to use poetry in their lives. Taking as a starting point Plutarch’s own comments on the passages he quotes from poetry, his readers are urged to be critical and value the poetic views or doctrines on a pragmatic rather than merely artistic level, so that reading poetry will finally become of moral benefit and a preparatory stage to a deeper understanding of philosophy.