Abstract
Laokoon by G. E. Lessing (1729-1781) has long been considered as a masterpiece of modern aesthetics pertaining to the limits of painting and poetry. However, this controversial book, in fact discussed more about Homeric epic than about Laokoon if we take its content into consideration. So Lessing himself mentioned in its introduction not without connotation that Laokoon was only seemingly (gleichsam) his starting point. The present paper tries to highlight the differences between the quietness in Winckelmann's sense and the crying in that of Iliad which Lessing specifically emphasized, and then purports to follow Lessing's way to understand the significances of those Homeric stories in the context of the quarrel between the ancient and the modern. For Lessing, the ideal human being or wahre Menschen is not only different from the barbarians but also from our quiet and narrow-minded moderns.
First Page
28
Last Page
35
Recommended Citation
Zhang, Hui. 2012. "Homer's Epics in Lessing'sLaokoon." Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art 32, (1): pp.28-35. https://tsla.researchcommons.org/journal/vol32/iss1/10
