HOMERIC Mevqodo~ IN PLATO’S SOCRATIC DIALOGUES- H. Liddell and R. Scott, Greek-English Lexicon, rev. H. S. Jones (Oxford:
Clarendon, 1989), 195. - “Now we must fi rst understand the truth about the human soul” (Phae-
drus 245c4). “I must dare to speak the truth, especially since the truth is my
subject” (247c5– 6). A word on Socrates’ apparent placing of the poets as sixth
from the top in the great myth (248e1– 2): the Greek, literally translated, says
that the soul that is sixth from the great v ision w ill be granted “the life of a poet
or some other mimetic artist.” However, given that Homer is a divinely inspired
poet, the passage does not at all claim that he (or Hesiod) were mimetic poets.
Further, if Socrates did mean to place all poetry sixth, this would undermine
not only his frequent appeals to it, but also his own poetical passages, including
the great myth!