The thought of the Pre-Socratics represents a continuous challenge for research and at the same time a space in the history of Philosophy that is of exceptional interest from many aspects. For this reason, scientific articles and treatises appear continuously in the field of international research, numbering in the hundreds each year.

Any reference or attempt to approach and interpret the thought of the archaic Hellenism in general, which nourished the reflections of the Pre-Socratics, presupposes a deep knowledge of society and all of its anthropological characteristics. Every aspect of the thought of those great thinkers reflects social processes and political situations in the broad sense of the term, as understood by the ancient Greek philosophers, that is, the moral dimension of society.

The philosophical expression of the Pre-Socratic philosophers constitutes a spiritual avant-garde for their time and at the same time irrefutable testimony of the efforts of archaic people in the Greek world to transcend social and religious established constraints and to break the confines of the mythical explanation of the world.

For this very reason, the study of their thought has a paradigmatic character for the history of ideas and is always an inexhaustible source of inspiration and a fascinating spiritual exercise. It is, of course, self-evident today that the study and research of the society and thought of this era, in which the Pre-Socratic philosophers lived and acted, must primarily begin with the understanding of their discourse, that is, with an in-depth examination of the fragments of their philosophical discourse and secondarily, but necessarily, from the study of the testimonies preserved to us by later ancient authors up to the late Byzantine period.

However, it is also necessary to emphasize that a sufficient knowledge of the world of Greek epic poetry is a necessary prerequisite for understanding the archaic Greek world and therefore the thought of the Pre-Socratics. Indeed, if we want to understand and interpret the evolution of thought, and specifically philosophical reflection during the archaic period, we must study the evolution of the Greek world during the epic period of Greek literature.