Abstract

Modern research on mythology suggests that ancient Greek philosophy attempts to save, rather than destroy, mythical thinking by the methods of a new rationality. Although we realize today that this has been done by Plato and some of the pre-Socratic philosophers the philosophy of Aristotle is widely held to be free from mythical influences. This article tries to demonstrate that the above opinion should be revised and we can see this through the Aristotelian idea of »hypolepsis«. This particular idea has generated several unsolved questions and we can only answer them, if the concept of »hypolepsis« is interpreted in the light of mythical views.