This chapter turns from ancient philosophies of art to practical literary criticism to argue that, in such contexts, poets could enjoy a rather robust degree of autonomy in the sense of immunity to critiques of their works from moral, social, or political perspectives. The argument is based on chapter 25 of the Poetics where Aristotle declares that poets are to be judged by the laws of poetry and not by those of another art. A close reading affirms the declaration and explains how it can be accommodated to Aristotle's other stated views about poetry. A scene of literary criticism in Aristophanes’ Frogs is then compared to suggest that Aristotle's was not an isolated position in the tradition and to explain why claims for poetic autonomy are not sounded more often in Greco-Roman critical texts. Taken together and in context, the texts suggest that, in practice if not always in theory, the ancients recognized an aesthetic dimension to literature to a far greater extent than is sometimes allowed.