ESISTENZIALISMO E TEOMORFISMO IN OMERO

Abstract

This article deals with the spiritual life of Homeric heroes, above all with the relation between men and gods in Greek epic age, coming from the dichotomy of βίον and ζωή. The starting point of my paper is an essay of Karl Dienelt, Austrian pedagogist and humanist, Existentialismus bei Homer. Festschr. zur 250-Jahr-Feier des Bundesgymnasiums in Wien (1701-1951) (Wien 1951), which I translated in Italian and published with the title L’esistenzialismo di Omero (La Scuola di Pitagora, Napoli 2019), adding a short afterword: Humanitas Homerica. I embrace Dienelt’s idea of applying the Existenzialism of Viktor Frankl to Homer’s humanity, against the classic theory of B. Snell. I found very interesting this perspective: mortality grants worth to mankind, while the unlimited life of the homeric Gods takes their importance away and decreases the divine nature, as, for istance, Goethe said: «The idea and trend of the ancient Greeks is not humanizig the deity but deifying the man; it's not a matter of Anthropomorphism but of Theomorphism»