Abstract

In Plutarch’s De Facie in Orbe Lunae myth plays throughout a greater more significant role than that which it has, albeit considerable, during the final part of the narration in chapters 26-30. That is to say, chapter 1 shows that myth even enters the logical and scientific reasoning of the first part of the dialogue and then turns out to be in chapter 21 an indispensable and decisive tool with a view to demonstrating the moon’s earthy nature. Thus, both in Syllas’ mythical narration in chapters 26-30 and in chapter 21, which quotes the Platonic myth in the Phaedo, myth always has the same function: to suggest something that logic and scientific rationality are unable to say