Social Psychology and the Ancient World

Luuk Huitink, PhD 2013, is Associate Professor of Ancient Greek at the University of Amsterdam. His research combines cognitive, linguistic and narratological approaches to Greek literature. He is, among other things, co-editor of Experience, Narrative and Criticism in Ancient Greece (OUP 2020).Vlad Glăveanu, PhD (2012), is Full Professor of Psychology in the School of Psychology at Dublin City University and Adjunct Professor in the Centre for the Science of Learning and Technology at Bergen University. He is an expert in creativity, culture, wonder, collaboration, and possibility studies.Ineke Sluiter, FBA, PhD 1990, is Distinguished Professor of Greek at Leiden University. Her latest publications include ‘Situated Cognition: Sophocles, Milgram, and the Disobedient Hero’ (with Bob Corthals), in: Felix Budelmann & Ineke Sluiter (eds.) Minds on Stage. Greek Tragedy and Cognition. OUP 2023.Contributors are: Karen Bassi, Douglas Cairns, Paula Castro, Eveline Crone, Max van Duijn, Evert van Emde Boas, Vlad Glăveanu, Alexandra Hardwick, Luuk Huitink, Sandra Jovchelovitch, Jacqueline Klooster, David Konstan, Xenia Makri, Thomas R. Martin, Sheila Murnaghan, Anne-Sophie Noel, Ralph M. Rosen, Gordon Sammut, Ineke Sluiter, Michiel van Veldhuizen.

• ForewordPrefaceNotes on Contributors1 Introduction: How to Do the Social Psychology of the Ancient WorldLuuk Huitink and Ineke SluiterPart 1: The Psychology of Selfhood: Character and IndividualIntroduction to Part 1: the Psychology of Selfhood Now and ThenSandra Jovchelovitch2 Taming the Extraordinary: Shifting Motives and the Psychology of Tragic ActorsSheila Murnaghan3 Individuals or Types? Ancient Criticism and Modern Psychology on Characterization in Greek TragedyEvert van Emde BoasPart 2: Social Representations: the Role of Comedy and SatireIntroduction to Part 2: Social Representation in PracticeGordon Sammut4 Innovation, Group Psychology and the Comic DêmosAlexandra Hardwick5 “Not by Others but by Our Own Feathers”: a Social-Psychological Reading of Aristophanes’ BirdsXenia Makri6 Cognitive Approaches to Ancient Satire: Rethinking the Laughter of DerisionRalph M. RosenPart 3: Narrative Meaning-MakingIntroduction to Part 3: Narrative Meaning-MakingMax J. van Duijn7 Emotional Contagion, Empathy, and Sympathy as Responses to Verbal and Visual Narratives: Some Conceptual and Methodological IssuesDouglas Cairns8 The Experience of Coincidence in Euripides’ IonJacqueline Klooster9 Finding Orestes: Oracles and Abductive ReasoningMichiel van VeldhuizenPart 4: Imagination, Creativity, and InnovationIntroduction to Part 4: Imagination, Creativity, and Innovation across the AgesVlad P. Glăveanu10 Playing Make-Believe with Objects: Counterfactual Imagination and Psychodrama in Greek TragedyAnne-Sophie Noel11 The Posthumous Future in Sophocles’ Oedipus at ColonusKaren BassiPart 5: Accommodating New ConceptsIntroduction to Part 5: Possibilities of Existence—Making and Changing Subjectivities and (Ancient) WorldsPaula Castro12 How the Ancient World Learned to SinDavid Konstan13 Anchoring Religious Innovation: the Social Psychology of Deification in Athens 307 BCEThomas R. Martin14 Cyrus’ Learning Curve Views of Adolescent Psychology in Xenophon’s CyropaediaLuuk Huitink and Eveline CroneIndex