L’invention de l’« enthousiasme » poétique

Abstract

For archaic and classical Greek authors, poetic creation as a process associates divine inspiration, which implies near communication with superior entities such as the Muses, and crafty technique. And yet, even among some modern philologists, a widespread doxa exclusively relates poiêsis to inspiration as ecstasy and possession and considers it a typical feature of Greek “civilisation”. Along with the irrational nature often assigned to the seer’s and prophet’s activities, the here crucial possessive – locative interpretation of the adjective ἔνθεος by Plato was reinforced by a retrospective illusion staging Plato’s Socrates not only as the inventor of “philosophy”, but also, often with irony, of “enthusiasm”, in the frequently mystical modern meaning. This study examines some strategic moments of this progressive invention and of its theoretical and historiographical effects.

Keywords

• Plato
• doxa
• enthusiasm
• inspiration
• invention
• poetic creation