The author analyzes the most important ancient metaphor theories from the perspective of their philosophical principles. In the first main part of his book, he addresses the fundamental ontological, linguistic-philosophical, conceptual, and judgment-logical insights of pre-Socratic thinkers and Plato that are essential for the formation of later metaphor theories. In the second part, he discusses the deepening, systematization, and partial modification of these insights by Aristotle. He further demonstrates how Aristotle instrumentalizes essential elements of this knowledge to identify certain linguistic expressions as metaphors and to elucidate their dialectical basic structure. Following the interpretation of Aristotle's metaphor theory, the third main part presents post-Aristotelian metaphor conceptions by Greek and Latin authors. The investigations illuminate the path of metaphorological concept and theory formation, thereby making a theoretical contribution to foundational research in literary studies.