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PARTISAN REVIEW
a strain of madness. So that it is incorrect to say that Aristotle and
the ancients dealt with poetry as a function of practical reason.
Modern research discloses that the "making" of poetry in
Greece was throughout an episode of its popular religions, which
means that as a profession it followed the course of the social
forms of inspiration. After describing the seizures of the priest·
esses of Apollo and other oracles, Oesterreich in his chapter on
voluntary demoniacal possession* continues: "It should be noted
that the Greeks themselves gave a wider extension to the term
'possession'. They understood by it all the phenomena of inspira·
tion, particularly of the poetic kind. In the beginning it must
surely have been understood in the literal sense when the poet
invoked the Muse at the opening of his work:
"Andra moi ennepe
mousa-menin aeide, thea" "Musa, mihi causas memora"
...
it
is the Muse and not the poet who must sing ... the poet was con·
vinced that he did not create, but that another, the Muse, did so in
his place. . . . Such a conception . . . can only be explained by
admitting that the voluntary activity of the creative artist was
unconnected with his work and that his most perfect productions
were obtained as a gift."
Apparently, the Greek poets knew no conflict between the art,
or "body," of poetry and its transports, or "soul." And, in Mari·
tain's terms, their practice involved the following paradox: they
could submit completely to the commands of their metier by mak·
ing themselves mad, that is, by
depriving themselves
of "working
reason." The profession was in Greece one of "madness" and as
"excessively enthusiastic" as modern poetry is in Maritain's view.
This involves no psychological inconsistency, even when we recall
the regularity and complexity of Greek versification. The most
primitive levels of the mind are, of course, rich in abstract and
rhythmical suggestions; on the surface of derangement exceedingly
careful measuring, testing, and recasting may take place; and
infinite patience is common in these conditions.
By the standard of "working reason," then, Greek poetry, too,
was an aberration and too closely linked with "poetic knowledge."
"In their [the early
Gr~ek
writers'] total ignorance of causes,"
says Symonds, paraphrasing Vico, "they wondered at everything;
and their poetry was all divine...." So, too, was Hebrew poetry
*Possession,
by T. K. Oesterreich. Richard R. Smith, Inc. 1930.
