ABSTRACT
Hellenic culture has provided Western philosophy with most of its formative concepts. Along with the biblical tradition of JudeoChristian revelation, the Greek heritage of speculation has exercised an enduring influence, at almost every level, on the development of European civilization. This influence extends, of course, to the understanding of imagination. Indeed, it is arguable that the first properly philosophical categories of imagination are to be found in the writings of Plato and Aristotle. Most of this chapter will be devoted accordingly to an analysis of what these foundational thinkers had to say about the nature and role of images, imaging and imagination. But before focusing our attention on the decisive contributions made by the Platonic and Aristotelian philosophies, we shall cast a glance at the ancient Greek myth of Prometheus: a pre-philosophical narrative of how man first acquired the power to shape his world, to create arts and images capable of transforming nature into culture.
