In one of the most fascinating moments of the intersection of philosophy and poetry in ancient Greek literature, Plato has his Socrates correct himself in the Phaedrus after having delivered a speech exhorting young men to give themselves to non-erasteis rather than to erasteis. In so doing, he wades into the debate about whether or not Helen actually went to Troy, a debate with serious implications for Panhellenic epic:

So, my friend, I need to be purified. There is an ancient purification for those who have erred in the telling of myth (muthologia), one that Homer did not perceive, but Stesichorus did. For when he was robbed of his eyes because of his slander of Helen, he was not ignorant like Homer, but because he was close to the Muses (mousikos) he knew the cause, and composed immediately,

And when he had created the whole of the so-called Palinode he recovered his sight immediately.

ἐμοὶ μὲν οὖν, ὦ ϕίλε, καθήρασθαι ἀνάγκη· ἔστιν δὲ τοῖς ἁμαρτάνουσι περὶ μυθολογίαν καθαρμὸς ἀρχαῖος, ὃν Ὅμηρος μὲν οὐκ ᾔσθετο, Στησίχορος δέ. τῶν γὰρ ὀμμάτων στερηθεὶς διὰ τὴν Ἑλένης κακηγορίαν οὐκ ἠγνόησεν ὥσπερ Ὅμηρος, ἀλλ᾽ ἅτε μουσικὸς ὢν ἔγνω τὴν αἰτίαν, καὶ ποιεῖ εὐθὺς –