Metrodorus of Lampsacus and the Problem of Allegory: An Extreme Case?

Abstract

This essay discusses the fragmentary writings of Metrodorus of Lampsacus, a fifth-century allegorical interpreter of Homer. Points of intersection between Metrodorus's allegorical identifications and the Homeric text are established and critiqued. It is argued Metrodorus's general allegorical framework is anterior to the particular interpretation of specific lines. A tension is found between "allegorical" and "literal" readings of the Iliad, which are at once incompatible and inextricably intertwined. Thus, the allegorizing critic's allegory cannot stand without erasing the literal narrative upon which it is based, yet without that literal meaning, there is no framework within which the allegory can be understood.

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