Entre o Epos e o Logos: Xenófanes de Cólofon

Abstract

Taking «epos» and «logos» in their more current meanings of «epic poetry» and «reason», and taking into account the new theories placing literacy in Greece at the beginning of the 8th century BC, while postulating its use in the composition of the Homeric epics, the author tries to reappraise several fragments of Xenophanes's in the light of the contrast between an inherited formulaic diction and a rational view of the world. Discussions centers mostly on fragments dealing with the idea of Goa and with the limitations of human knowledge.