Palamedes: The Victim and the Hero of Letters
Palamedes: The Victim and the Hero of Letters

Summary/Abstract: . The ancient interpretations of Palamedes’ life and death convey an old intuition that letters may be a dangerous gift, a destructive power which may cause damage or death to the inventor, or even create confrontation with the community. The mythical figure of Palamedes, a hero absent in the Iliad, attracted the attention of several genres and époques because of his important inventions and his tragic death. This paper is a kind of diachronic portrait of the πρῶτος εὑρετής, recognized subsequently as a victim or a hero of the letters.

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