The projection of Solon and of his poetry in the Platonic figure of the lawmaker and poet in "Laws"

Abstract

This study is concerned with addressing the figure of the lawmaker and poet Solon, in order to examine the influence that his writing may have had on the conception of the poetry shaped by Plato in Laws. It is not a matter so much of Solón’s poetry per se as what Plato might have read of it in terms of the possibility for configuring a new poetic linage. Starting with a brief examination of the figure of Solon and of some of his writing, I will then seek to demonstrate the influence that this celebrated lawmaker may have had on the Platonic figure of the poet and lawmaker.