Along similar lines, the last time I was at the library, I came across an essay by Werner Jæger, "Origin of the Doctrine of the Soul's Divinity" in The Theology of the Early Greek Philosophers, which makes the similar point that the entire notion of a divine, immortal soul in it's modern form is not to be found in Homer or Hesiod. (In fact, it's earliest expression is Anaximenes, who antedates Pythagoras.) The Homeric notion of the shade, he argues, is a completely separate one and unrelated to the soul.
(I'm still working on understanding how the shade fits into Plotinus and Porphyry, but I think it's the same thing as the spirit which connects the soul to the body: the body is mortal, personal, and passive; the shade is semi-mortal, semi-personal, and semi-active (lacking volition); the soul is immortal, impersonal, and active. Consequently it's assumed, I think, that in the common form of death (when the soul is still focused downwards), the body dies but the shade lingers for some time until it finally dissolves and the soul reincarnates.)
But anyway, this also seems to suggest core doctrinal differences between the Olympian religion (as championed by Homer and Hesiod) and the philosophers.
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Date: 2023-03-15 02:50 pm (UTC)(I'm still working on understanding how the shade fits into Plotinus and Porphyry, but I think it's the same thing as the spirit which connects the soul to the body: the body is mortal, personal, and passive; the shade is semi-mortal, semi-personal, and semi-active (lacking volition); the soul is immortal, impersonal, and active. Consequently it's assumed, I think, that in the common form of death (when the soul is still focused downwards), the body dies but the shade lingers for some time until it finally dissolves and the soul reincarnates.)
But anyway, this also seems to suggest core doctrinal differences between the Olympian religion (as championed by Homer and Hesiod) and the philosophers.