1.1.2.2. Hesiod
Hesiod, too, is a mysterious figure, an encyclopaedic poet in an age of myth, before the arrival of such poets-philosophers as Empedocles or Parmenides. Indeed, we could grade a scale going down from myth into historical poets whose existence as personal individuals is more or less certain, and which would rank from Apollo, through Orpheus, Homer and Hesiod, to Empedocles. As is to be expected, Hesiod defends the value of poetry as teaching or instruction. However, he also speaks, like Homer, of a charming quality in poetry. We have then from the first an opposition between the useful and the merely delectable which will take one shape or another along the whole of the history of criticism: a long debate will oppose those who define poetry as instruction and those who see in it a form of enjoyment. Both theories, poetry-as-instruction and poetry-as-pleasure, can be traced this far. To say at this point that poetry is instructive and not mere enjoyment means quite a different thing from maintaining this theory today. Those who say that poetry is instructive mean that the stories told by Homer and Hesiod are real, that they are history and religion as well as poetry. Both theories are present at least from Hesiod on. Generally, those who hold that poetry is instructive admit to its being delightful as well, but the opposite is not always the case. Until the early classical period, truth theories of poetry seem to have prevailed: this is a fact in the history of religion and historiography, with implications going well beyond the theory of poetry. However, in the classical period there were some strong reactions to these views. A whole new spirit, that of philosophy, is trying to fight the traditional myths. In spite of his having composed several literary works himself, Solon affirmed that poets lie a lot. This is the key statement of the second phase of Greek thought on literature, of which Plato is the main figure.