Classics Coffee Hour will be holding our second Classics x NESA talk next Thursday, February 22nd 3-4 in UH 448. This time, we will be hosting our very own Ben John, who will be presenting his paper "Archaic Greek Ascents to Ethereal Immortality."
"In the paper, I argue that the proem of Parmenides' philosophical poem depicts an ascent into the sky, rather than a descent into the underworld, as many scholars have suggested. The ascent of the soul (psuchē) into the sky is well attested in later Greek evidence, most famously Plato's Phaedrus. Parmenides does not mention a psuchē, but the opening line of the poem mentions his thumos, an early word for the "soul" that is cognate with English "fumes" and the Latin word for smoke (fumus). I argue that the poem represents his smoky thumos returning to the aithēr, the fiery region of the sky. This interpretation is supported by comparison with the psychology of death in Homer and parallel Indian soul-chariot ascents to immortality found in the Upaniṣads and the Mahābhārata."
