greek-soulfeatured in 30 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

De flatibus
Kos · -370
explains
De carnibus
Kos · -370
explains
Problemata
Chalcis · -322
explains
De spiritu
Chalcis · -322
explains
De respiratione
Chalcis · -322
explains
De Generatione Animalium
Chalcis · -322
explains
Meteorologica
Chalcis · -322
explains
De sensu et sensibilibus
Athens · -287
explains
De Sudore
Athens · -287
explains
Epistula ad Herodotum
Athens · -270
explains
De Rerum Natura
Rome · -55
explains
de Natura Deorum
Formiae · -43
explains
Tusculanae Disputationes
Formiae · -43
explains
De Defectu Oraculorum
Chaeronea · 120
explains
Quaestiones Convivales
Chaeronea · 120
explains
Ad Se Ipsum
Vindobona (Vienna) · 170
explains
In Hippocratis De victu acutorum
Rome · 175
explains
Pyrrhoniae Hypotyposes
Alexandria · 210
explains
Vitae philosophorum
— · 240
explains
Enneades
Rome · 270
explains
Zohar
Guadalajara · 1280
Avodat HaKodesh (Ibn Gabbai)
Cairo · 1523
Pardes Rimmonim
Tzfat · 1548
Ketem Paz on Zohar
Tzfat · 1561
Reshit Chokhmah
Tzfat · 1575
Ohr HaChammah on Zohar
Tzfat · 1620
Mikdash Melekh on Zohar
Tzfat · 1750
Likutei Moharan
Breslov (Ukraine) · 1802
Maor VaShemesh
Krakow (Cracow) · 1817
Likutei Halakhot
Breslov (Ukraine) · 1840

Key passages(20)

Adamantius Judaeus, Physiognomonica 2.41↗explains

Physiognomonica · Adamantius Judaeus