The “metaphorical revival” is one of the most relevant turning points in contemporary debate, both in the analytical philosophy and in the continental thought. From Friedrich Nietzsche’s motto on the metaphorical structure of truth, to the neuroscientific inquiries on language and cognition, the figurative language questions philosophy far beyond its rhetorical implications. The present paper aims at retracing aspects of the philosophical relevance of metaphor before the 20th–century turn, particularly in Giambattista Vico. The second part of the essay shows the legacy of Vico’s seminal approach in the metaphorical revival itself, in a close confrontation with Hans Blumenberg’s work.