Penelope Murray delves deeply into early Greek poetry and poetics, examining how ancient culture influenced philosophical thought, particularly Plato's views on Athenian song-culture. Her work explores ancient literary criticism and investigates how the classical inheritance has shaped the Western literary tradition. Murray focuses on themes such as the Muses and ancient conceptions of imagination and inspiration, offering valuable insights into the interconnectedness of art and thought.
Explores the history of imagination from antiquity to the Renaissance. The author looks at the writings of Aristotle and Plato, developments in the Middle Ages, with particular attention paid to parallel traditions in Islamic thought, Dante, and the Neo-platonists.