Nature and human action in Homer and Plato

Abstract

In a chaotic and inflllite universe 'that he cannot explain, the Homeric hero seeks meaning and self-justification in nature. The troths that nature reveals to him are the instinctive "aesthetic troths" that Nietzsche famously saw as the core of "the Dionysian spirit." Homeric man reacts instinctively to nature because he sees himself as a part of it, "on a par with other objects, [he] had no consciousness of himself as a being with causal efficacy within a world of objects."l Powerless to dominate the world he lives in, Homeric man reacts passionately and emotionally to stimuli.