The understanding of the soul in the West has been profoundly
shaped by Christianity, and its influence can be seen in certain
assumptions often made about the soul: that, for example, if it
does exist, it is separable from the body, free, immortal, and
potentially pure. The ancient Greeks, however, conceived of the
soul quite differently. In this ambitious new work, Michael Davis
analyzes works by Homer, Herodotus, Euripides, Plato, and Aristotle
to reveal how the ancient Greeks portrayed and understood what he
calls "the fully human soul."
Beginning with Homer's "Iliad," Davis lays out the tension within
the soul of Achilles between immortality and life. He then turns to
Aristotle's "De Anima" and "Nicomachean Ethics" to explore the
consequences of the problem of Achilles across the whole range of
the soul's activity. Moving to Herodotus and Euripides, Davis
considers the former's portrayal of the two extremes of
culture--one rooted in stability and tradition, the other in
freedom and motion--and explores how they mark the limits of
character. Davis then shows how "Helen" and "Iphigeneia among the
Taurians" serve to provide dramatic examples of Herodotus's extreme
cultures and their consequences for the soul. The book returns to
philosophy in the final part, plumbing several Platonic
dialogues--the "Republic," "Cleitophon," "Hipparchus," "Phaedrus,"
"Euthyphro," and "Symposium"--to understand the soul's imperfection
in relation to law, justice, tyranny, eros, the gods, and
philosophy itself. Davis concludes with Plato's presentation of the
soul of Socrates as self-aware and nontragic, even if it is
necessarily alienated and divided against itself.
"The Soul of the Greeks" thus begins with the imperfect soul as it
is manifested in Achilles' heroic, but tragic, longing and
concludes with its nontragic and fuller philosophic expression in
the soul of Socrates. But, far from being a historical survey, it
is instead a brilliant meditation on what lies at the heart of
being human.
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