Quando nasce l'etica in Grecia? Storia d'una polemica

This essay aims at summarising an Italian twentieth-century controversy about the origin of ethical concepts in ancient Greek poems and tragedies, focusing on the notion of human freedom. The debate was started in 1929 by Giorgio Pasquali, who thought that Homer had created the idea of free will, and then involved Rodolfo Mondolfo and Guido Calogero too. In particular, Calogero would enlarge the argument, discussing the correct historical method. The essay finally reports Felice Battaglia’s idealistic view, which affirmed that Homer had only brushed the notion of free conscience.