Homère au prisme de ses relecteurs: Le motif de la Nekuia

The purpose of this article is to make a parallel analysis of two methods of rereading—imitation and commentary—starting from the motif of the descent to the Underworld. The texts examined comprise, on the one hand, Odysseus’ nekuia, Aeneas’ descensus Averno, and the Underworld descent of Fénelon’s Télémaque, on the other fr. 70 of Heraclitus. the De Homero of ps.-Plutarch, and the commentary of the humanist Jean Dorat in his Mythologicum. The goal is not to renew the interpretation of a particular work but rather to grasp, in its extension through time, the journey of a motif that seems to us to illustrate the difficult passage from a mythical idea to a rational one.