Ancient Wisdom Atlas

Motif

False all-wise enchanter

false_all_wise_enchanter

A motif of the Sacred Knowledge and Wisdom family, within the sub-family Falsehood and False Teaching. Every row below is a tagged passage; each rests on a quote in its source text.

1 occurrences

1 traditions


greek

  • The Republic The Republic / THE REPUBLIC / INTRODUCTION AND ANALYSIS.; lines 5483-5539 confidence: medium

    The painter represents only an image or piece of things, can depict arts he does not know, can deceive children or simple people, and is compared to a wizard or enchanter falsely thought all-wise.

    A hypothetical wizard or enchanter is used as an analogy for mistaking imitative skill for universal knowledge.

    read in the book