Voice

Abstract

‘Homer deserves praise for many reasons’, writes Aristotle in the Poetics,

but above all because he alone among poets is not ignorant of what he should do in his own person. The poet in person should say as little as possible; that is not what makes him an imitator […] after a brief preamble Homer introduces a man or woman or some other character — and none of them are characterless: they have character. (Aristotle, Poetics §60a)