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greek-soulfeatured in 40 works

Soul as Breath or Atoms

Pneuma — 'breath' as the stuff of the soul: for the Stoics a warm, living fire-breath; for the atomists, soul made of the finest particles.

Pneuma ('breath, spirit') is the materialist idea of the soul as a physical substance. The Stoics (3rd c. BCE) made pneuma a fiery, tensile breath that pervades and animates both the body and the whole cosmos, its tension (tonos) explaining cohesion, life, and mind. Medical writers — the Hippocratics, and later Galen — tied pneuma to vital function, while the Epicureans instead held the soul to be ultra-fine atoms. From this root, the word for soul-as-breath went on to carry enormous weight in Hellenistic medicine and in religious thought.

How it traveled

  1. Problemata
    Chalcis · -322
    explains
  2. De spiritu
    Chalcis · -322
    explains
  3. De Rerum Natura
    Rome · -55
    explains
  4. Quaestiones Convivales
    Chaeronea · 120
    explains
  5. De Defectu Oraculorum
    Chaeronea · 120
    explains
  6. Ad Se Ipsum
    Vindobona (Vienna) · 170
    explains
  7. Pyrrhoniae Hypotyposes
    Alexandria · 210
    explains
  8. Vitae philosophorum
    — · 240
    explains
  9. Zohar
    Guadalajara · 1280
  10. Avodat HaKodesh (Ibn Gabbai)
    Cairo · 1523
  11. Pardes Rimmonim
    Tzfat · 1548
  12. Ketem Paz on Zohar
    Tzfat · 1561
  13. Reshit Chokhmah
    Tzfat · 1575
  14. Ohr HaChammah on Zohar
    Tzfat · 1620
  15. Mikdash Melekh on Zohar
    Tzfat · 1750
  16. Likutei Moharan
    Breslov (Ukraine) · 1802
  17. Maor VaShemesh
    Krakow (Cracow) · 1817
  18. Likutei Halakhot
    Breslov (Ukraine) · 1840
  19. BePardes HaChasidut VeHakabbalah
    Warsaw · 1910
  20. Sulam on Zohar
    Jerusalem · 1945
  21. Fragmenta Logica et Physica
    Athens
    explains
  22. Catena In Epistulam Ad Romanos (Typus Monacensis) (E Cod. Monac. gr. 412)
    —
    explains
  23. Placita Philosophorum
    —
    explains
  24. Refutatio Omnium Haeresium (= Philosophumena)
    —
    explains
  25. Praeparatio Evangelica
    —
    explains
  26. Fragmenta
    —
    explains
  27. Commentarii In Evangelium Joannis
    —
    explains
  28. De placitis Hippocratis et Platonis
    Rome
    explains
  29. Ancoratus
    —
    explains
  30. De Anima
    —
    explains
  31. The Shepherd of Hermas
    —
    explains
  32. De spiritu
    —
    explains
  33. Stromata
    —
    explains
  34. Legum Allegoriarum Libri I-III
    —
    explains
  35. Oratio ad Graecos
    —
    explains
  36. De Somniis (lib. i-ii)
    —
    explains
  37. Pneumatica
    Alexandria
    explains
  38. Fragmenta In Evangelium Joannis (In Catenis)
    —
    explains
  39. Contra Celsum
    —
    explains
  40. De febribus [Sp.]
    —
    explains

Key passages(20)

Physiognomonica · Adamantius Judaeus

Very high

De mixtione · Alexander of Aphrodisias

Very high

Iatrica · Anonymus Londinensis

Very high

De spiritu · Pseudo-Aristotle

Very high

De spiritu · Pseudo-Aristotle

Very high

De spiritu · Pseudo-Aristotle

Very high

De spiritu · Pseudo-Aristotle

Very high

Meteorologica · Aristotle

Very high

Meteorologica · Aristotle

Very high

Problemata · Pseudo-Aristotle

Very high

Catena In Acta (Catena Andreae) (e cod. Oxon. coll. nov. 58) · Catenae (Novum Testamentum)

Very high

Catena In Epistulam Ad Romanos (Typus Monacensis) (E Cod. Monac. gr. 412) · Catenae (Novum Testamentum)

Very high

Fragmenta Logica et Physica · Chrysippus

Very high

Fragmenta Logica et Physica · Chrysippus

Very high

Fragmenta Logica et Physica · Chrysippus

Very high

Fragmenta Logica et Physica · Chrysippus

Very high

Fragmenta Logica et Physica · Chrysippus

Very high

Fragmenta Logica et Physica · Chrysippus

Very high

Fragmenta Logica et Physica · Chrysippus

Very high

Fragmenta Logica et Physica · Chrysippus

Very high