Il dibattito su ΠΛAΣΜΑ nella critica letteraria di IV secolo a.C.: Aristotele e Megaclide

The aim of this paper is to investigate the evolution of the concept of πλάσμα in ancient literary criticism, focusing in particular on the Peripatetic school. The fluctuation between the negative meaning of ‘false invention’ to the technical one of ‘plausible fiction’ can still be observed in the 4th. century BC and inside the Peripatetic school, where the term is employed in the field of the studia Homerica. Whereas Aristotle uses πλάσμα in its new technical meaning of fiction entirely accepted in poetry and defends the literary creation of the poet, his contemporary Megaclides understands πλάσμα in its negative meaning comparing it to pseudos and criticizing the poet as mendacious.