ABSTRACT
The idea that a text might be able to speak with several or at least two voices is by no means of only modern origin. Even in Plato’s time it was no longer new: at least the aristocratic public of a Theognis (681f.) or Pindar (Olympian Odes 2.83-86) had been acquainted with it for a long time.21 But from the sixth century it had been of particular importance for the interpretation of Homer. In the course of the archaic period the epics of Homer had achieved authoritative validity not only as aesthetic models but as a comprehensive interpretation of the human and divine world. The philosopher-poet Xenophanes made it a byword that everybody had ‘from the beginning learned from Homer’.22 This Xenophanes was one of the most influential of those who objected to the anthropomorphic image of the divine world in Homer. Cattle would make images of the gods in the shape of cattle if they were able, he scoffed, and horses in the shape of horses. And as far as the behaviour of these gods was concerned, Xenophanes concluded that Homer and Hesiod had ascribed to them everything which brought outrage and disgrace among humans.23 Heraclitus, another sharp critic of the traditional theology of the poets, went so far as to say that Homer should be banned from the festivals.24
