E.R. Dodds and the Irrational: “Agamemnon’s Apology” Revisited

Abstract

It is often overlooked that The Greeks and the Irrational follow the conventional “from-muthos-to-logos” pattern, which was largely taken for granted at the time of the book’s appearance. Dodds starts with the description of the “pre-classical” mind as attested in early sources, proceeds to the “triumph of reason” as assumed for the Classical Age, and concludes with what used to be seen as the regression of rationalism in the Hellenistic and Roman periods. At the same time, The Greeks and the Irrationalis subtly subversive of the pattern from which it ostensibly proceeds, deviating from it in two significant respects. First, Dodds does not accept the dichotomy between the rational “Apollonian” and the irrational“Dionysian” principles as introduced by Nietzsche and taken further by Rohde and others, but offers a much more nuanced picture allowing for the presence of the “rational” even in the presumably “irrational” epochs, and for undercurrents of the “irrational” even in the so-called Greek Enlightenment. Second, and no less important, he empathizes with the irrational both on a scholarly and a personal level, thus avoiding the widespread equation between the irrational and the primitive. ‘Agamemnon’s Apology’, the book’s opening chapter, is emblematic of Dodds’ approach.