Ever since Vlastos' Theology and Philosophy in Early Greek Thought scholars have known that a
consideration of ancient philosophy without attention to its theological cosmological and
soteriological dimensions remains onesided. Yet philosophers continue to discuss thinkers such
as Parmenides and Plato without knowledge of their debt to the archaic religious traditions.
Perhaps our own religious prejudices allow us to see only a polis religion in Greek religion
while our modern philosophical openness and emphasis on reason induce us to rehabilitate
ancient philosophy by what we consider the highest standard of knowledge: proper argumentation.
Yet it is possible to see ancient philosophy as operating according to a different system of
meaning a different logic. Such a different sense of logic operates in myth and other
narratives where the argument is neither completely illogical nor rational in the positivist
sense. The articles in this volume undertake a critical engagement with this unspoken legacy of
Greek religion. The aim of the volume as a whole is to show how beyond the formalities and
fallacies of arguments something more profound is at stake in ancient philosophy: the
salvation of the philosopher-initiate.
