The Supremacy of Homer

Throughout the Poetics, the work of Homer is held up as the example of ideal poetry which all other poets should strive to imitate. Homer was something of a national and cultural hero for the Greeks, and he was largely viewed as producing the greatest works of any Greek. It is only natural, then, that Aristotle would give so much weight to Homer's style of writing that it nearly suffices to give an example of how Homer did something in one of his poems to prove its artistic legitimacy. While most of the artistic guidelines in the Poetics are totally consistent with the Homeric poems, it is interesting to see how Aristotle attempts to reconcile apparent contradictions between his own theory of poetry with the poetry of Homer. With other poets, Aristotle readily condemns them when they deviate from the formula he lays down. However...