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Article Dans Une Revue Methodos : savoirs et textes Année : 2016

Le rôle du noos/noein dans la pensée d’Hésiode et sa signification dans Les Travaux et les Jours

Résumé

By studying the history of noos/noein in Greek archaic thought, researchers often read Hesiod like Homer but there seem to be some Hesiodic charasteristics in description of noos. Although he belongs to the same epic tradition as Homer, Hesiod is worth to be approached in a new way, in the light of our subject asking the peculiar place of his thought in the archaic history of Greek noos/noein. If S. Darcus Sullivan has already treated Hesiodic noos, integrating it in a general approach of archaic epic, the present article goes thoroughly, considering the Works and Days which offers the majority of references to hesiodic noos/noein in their didactic purpose. Now, this well-known poetic dimension has an impact on the description and treatment of noos/noein. In order to clarify a system of values that emerge from this, I chose to stress more specifically three points characterizing noos/noein in the Works and Days : its association with the panaristos (v. 293), the perfectly good man thinking rightly thanks to a perfect use of noos ; its opposition to the nepios, the ignorant if not fool man ; and the noos belonging to Zeus. The linguistic approach that was in so far done by the researchers is, then, directed toward a rhetoric approach which interests the historian. A first step sees how Hesiod is placed, compared with Homer, between heritages and appropriations : Hesiod has the same approach of psychic behavior than Homer and takes in outline the attributes of Zeus’s noos in the Iliad. But in the same time Hesiod has to elaborate a speech both against Perses and a trial, a peculiar situation which give to the traditional epic approach of noos, already connected by S. Darcus Sullivan with dike, a dimension apart. Indeed, noos is a crucial issue, both ethical and social, including a kind of philosophical discourse. One stake consists to push Perses ignorants side as the word nepios shows, signifying the failure of Perses to use his noos in a good way. In the same time the poet, who is integrated in a didactic process, seeing better what the common sense (and above all Perses) not understands, must certainly be identified as the panaristos : he is the only one able to say that the correct use of noos is, in fact, the application of justice and a future pledge. Serving this point of view, an original poetic creativity must be emphasized, bringing in its wake the just and unjust cities (v. 225-247) or the fable of the hawk and nightingale (v. 202-212). These passages in turn are a kind of philosophical reflection focused on a hierarchy of creatures based around noos and the respect for dike, those who have (or act with justice) being men, those who do not (or act wrongly) being animals. Again the atmosphere could be trivially epic because these ideas were already Homeric. But considering that a concrete and social challenge is the key of the Works and Days, this philosophical point of view is likely to involve the kings, directly responsible in the trial between Hesiod and Perses. As shown in the complete list of Hesiodic references to noos/noein this study establishes, the poetic use of noos is clearly connected with the judges and devouring gifts kings (v. 260-261 ; 267 and 793). A less explicit association appears in v. 129 concerning the silver men in the myth of the five races. It seems a last original poetic creation this article propose to explain : the silver men, living hundred years near their mother and far of the respect for justice, doing a wrong use of their noos, considered like childs and nepioi, look like, point by point, the bad kings described elsewhere in the poem. It seems that Hesiod depicted the elite members of his time in a way showing them deprived of the good use of noos, deprived also of a standard human status. The poet, on the contrary, being able to see these things and directly associated to the Muses and Zeus himself, announces the future and the god's wrath. Against the ignorants and unjust men, the eye and the noos of Zeus, put together in the same field of light and long-range vision, will exercises the punishment whereas Hesiod, provided with an exceptional noos, affirms his poetic and status against that of kings.
Mettre le noos en relation avec les idées de « panaristos » et de « méga nèpios » permet d’étudier les spécificités du concept noétique chez Hésiode lequel est le plus souvent amalgamé, dans les recherches sur l’évolution historique du noos/noein, à Homère. La présente étude propose d’articuler davantage le noos/noein dans les objectifs poétiques propres aux Travaux et Jours d’où émerge une vision particulière de l’activité psychique de l’individu grec archaïque, depuis le sot ignorant (Persès et les mauvais rois) jusqu’au poète sachant (Hésiode lui-même). Il convient également de montrer comment Hésiode établit une nouvelle hiérarchie des créatures sur la base du noos qui devient consubstantiel à la dikè. Ensemble, ces deux paramètres sont insérés dans un discours à la fois poétique et politique où s’illustre entre autre le mythe des races. Le noos sert tout particulièrement l’autorité poétique d’Hésiode contre celle des rois et révèle une vision à part de l’intelligence.

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hal-01510720 , version 1 (19-04-2017)

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Karin Mackowiak. Le rôle du noos/noein dans la pensée d’Hésiode et sa signification dans Les Travaux et les Jours. Methodos : savoirs et textes, 2016, La notion d'Intelligence (nous-noein) dans la Grèce antique, 16, pp.2-23. ⟨10.4000/methodos.4431⟩. ⟨hal-01510720⟩

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