HOMÉR A PREDSÓKRATOVSKÉ MYSLENIE

The paper questions the modern approach to ancient philosophy as a linear movement from mythos to logos. It analyses the circumstances of „the beginning“ of ancient philosophical thinking. It tempts to see the whole movement of the pre-Socratic philosophy as a literary undercurrent of the Homeric schools, the Homeridae. The allegorical interpretation of the Homeric poems is crucial for this type of argumentation. This interpretation goes back to their very origins. The emphasis is put on the resemblances between the cyclic eposes Ilias and Odyssey and early pre-Socratic philosophies, namely those of Xenophanes, Heraclitus, Pythagoras and the Milesian School. It is argued, that in physical and ethical conceptions of these philosophers, many traces of Homeric world-view can be unveiled. Therefore, it seems viable to suppose that some allegoric interpretations of Homer´s poems pre-existed as a theoretical background behind these philosophical theories.