Allegoresis in the Fifth Century BC

Abstract

The article deals with the development of allegoresis in the fifth century BC. While the exegetical works of Metrodorus of Lampsacus and Diogenes of Apollonia are its main focus, the paper argues that the aim of these allegorists was not to exonerate Homer from the charges of immorality but rather to propagate the philosophical explanation of the world laid down by Anaxagoras. Thus, the parallel development of philosophy and allegory in the fifth century is taken to suggest that it was the flowering of the former that actuated the latter.