<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Homer's Influence on Greek Religion
In the course of the Archaic epoch, the poems of Homer became normative for Greek culture. The poems' descriptions of the gods decisively shaped a Panhellenic mythology and iconography. <b>But the anthropomorphism of the Homeric gods that made them act and react like humans provoked the criticism of religious thinkers who were devising a theology in which the gods were viewed as ideal moral beings and who were transcending anthropomorphism for the sake of theology.</b> <b>Xenophanes of Colophon (c. 570âc. 480 BCE) rejected anthropomorphism as a human projection onto the divine, and he heavily criticized Homer and Hesiod for their representations of immoral gods who "steal and lie and commit adultery."</b> <b>Plato (c. 428â348 or 347 BCE) went even further. In the Republic he proposed that the ideal state would censure poetry and prohibit immoral representations of the gods.</b>
As a way of dealing with these criticisms,<b> rhapsodes and later Stoic philosophers developed the allegorical explanation of such Homeric scenes. </b><b>The assumption was that the poet was hiding physical or ethical statements behind a misleading narrative surface; </b><b>allegorization would reconstruct these original intentions of Homer. </b>Originally developed by the rhapsodic interpreters of Homer, such as Stesimbrotos of Thasos (fifth century BCE), allegorical interpretation turned into a major tool for adapting the understanding of canonical texts to a given society without changing their textual forms.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
In the course of the Archaic epoch, the poems of Homer became normative for Greek culture. The poems' descriptions of the gods decisively shaped a Panhellenic mythology and iconography. <b>But the anthropomorphism of the Homeric gods that made them act and react like humans provoked the criticism of religious thinkers who were devising a theology in which the gods were viewed as ideal moral beings and who were transcending anthropomorphism for the sake of theology.</b> <b>Xenophanes of Colophon (c. 570âc. 480 BCE) rejected anthropomorphism as a human projection onto the divine, and he heavily criticized Homer and Hesiod for their representations of immoral gods who "steal and lie and commit adultery."</b> <b>Plato (c. 428â348 or 347 BCE) went even further. In the Republic he proposed that the ideal state would censure poetry and prohibit immoral representations of the gods.</b>
As a way of dealing with these criticisms,<b> rhapsodes and later Stoic philosophers developed the allegorical explanation of such Homeric scenes. </b><b>The assumption was that the poet was hiding physical or ethical statements behind a misleading narrative surface; </b><b>allegorization would reconstruct these original intentions of Homer. </b>Originally developed by the rhapsodic interpreters of Homer, such as Stesimbrotos of Thasos (fifth century BCE), allegorical interpretation turned into a major tool for adapting the understanding of canonical texts to a given society without changing their textual forms.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->