Abstract

The paper discusses Plato's example of the 'painter of craftsmen' at Republic 598b–601b, arguing that its function is to provide the analogy for the special case of the poet, and in particular the tragic or Homeric poet. The point of the analogy is that people mistake the poet for someone who is knowledgeable about what he fictionally represents. Given this explanation, Plato's treatment of poetry may be neither as inconsistent nor as absurd as it is sometimes said to be.