Selfhood and the Soul

Richard Seaford is Emeritus Professor of Ancient Greek at the University of Exeter. He is the author of approximately 70 papers on myriad topics, such as philosophy at its inception, the New Testament, Homer, and Greek lyric poetry, tragedy, satyric drama, and religion (in particular the cult of Dionysos), and his books include Reciprocity and Ritual (1994), Money and the Early Greek Mind (2004), Cosmology and the Polis (2012), and commentaries on the two Dionysiac plays of Euripides, Bacchae and Cyclops. In 2009 he served as Honorary President of the Classical Association in the UK and he is currently full-time Principal Investigator on a historical comparison of early Greek with early Indian thought, funded by the AHRC.John Wilkins is Emeritus Professor of Greek Culture at the University of Exeter. He a specialist in the history of food and medicine in Greco-Roman culture, with a particular interest in developing links between ancient and modern medicine in the area of lifestyle and therapy, and has published widely on Greek food, medicine, and also literature: his books include Euripides: Heraclidae (1993), The Boastful Chef (2000), Food in the Ancient World (2005), and Galien: Sur les facultés des aliments (2013). He also serves on the editorial board of Food and History and on the scientific committee of the Institut Européen d' Histoire et des Cultures de l'Alimentation. Matthew Wright is Associate Professor of Classics at the University of Exeter. He has broad-ranging interests in ancient and modern literature and specializes in Greek and Roman drama, literary criticism, fragmentary and lost works, and the idea of 'quotation culture' in the ancient world. An active member of the Classical Association and a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, he has also published widely on Greek literature and drama in particular: his books include Euripides' Escape-Tragedies (2005), Euripides: Orestes (2008), The Comedian as Critic (2012), and The Lost Plays of Greek Tragedy (2016).

Overall, Selfhood and the Soul represents a high-quality, rich collection, comprised of thoughtful explorations of identity, the self, and the good life, and it will be useful to philologists, philosophers, and historians of medicine alike. ... Selfhood and the Soul is an excellent volume, and will inspire in its readers a fascination with the same sorts of questions Christopher Gill spent his long career exploring.

• Richard Seaford, John Wilkins, and Matthew Wright: Introduction 1: Richard Seaford: The Psukhê from Homer to Plato: A Historical Sketch 2: Katja Maria Vogt: Imagining Good Future States: Hope and Truth in Plato's Philebus 3: Richard Sorabji: Freedom and Will: Graeco-Roman Origins 4: R. J. Hankinson: Survival and the Self: Materialism and Metempsychosis Ancient Attitudes, Modern Perspectives 5: David Sedley: Epicurean versus Cyrenaic Happiness 6: Malcolm Schofield: Cicero on Imperialism and the Soul 7: Gretchen Reydams-Schils: Maximus of Tyre on God and Providence 8: Nicholas Banner: The Indeterminate Self and its Cultivation in Plotinus 9: P. N. Singer: The Essence of Rage: Galen on Emotional Disturbances and their Physical Correlates 10: Paul Scade: Music and the Soul in Stoicism 11: Matthew Wright: A Lover's Discourse: Erôs in Greek Tragedy 12: Emma Gee: The Self and the Underworld 13: Shadi Bartsch: Philosophy, Physicians, and Persianic Satire Notes on Contributors Bibliography of Christopher Gill's Publications Index