Aristotle On Poets: a critical evaluation of Richard Janko’s edition of the fragments

This paper provides a critical examination of Richard Janko’s edition of the fragments of Aristotle On Poets (Janko 2011). Section 1 discusses passages preserved in late ancient texts which Janko assigns to On Poets. Section 2 identifies problems in the evidence preserved in the Philodemus papyri. Section 3 assesses indirect evidence for Aristotle’s theory of katharsis, and considers two contested points in Aristotle’s discussion of katharsis in Politics 8: the meaning of mousikē, and the nature of his response to the challenge posed by Plato in Republic 10.