Personality in Greek Epic, Tragedy, and Philosophy

This is a study of conceptions of selfhood and personality in Homer, Greek tragedy and philosophy. The focus is on norms of personality in Greek psychology and ethics. The key thesis is that, to understand Greek thinking of this type, we need to counteract the subjective and individualistic aspects of our own thinking about the self. The book defines an "objective-participant" conception of personality, symbolized by the idea of the person as an interlocutor in a series of types of psychological and ethical dialogue. The book both contributes to the history of ideas of personality and the self and also offers sustained analysis and interpretations of a number of important topics in Greek philosophy and literature. These topics include: Homeric decision-making; the problematic hero in Homer's "Iliad" and Greek tragedy; monologues of self-division in Greek poetry; the tripartite division of the soul and ethical education in Plato's "Republic"; Aristotle's ideas about "being yourself" and meeting the claims of others; and Greek philosophical thinking about what it means to be fully "human", or "divine". This book is intended for scholars and students of Greek literature, ancient histo