Psychai

[[File:Pottery: black-figured amphora.|thumb|alt=The shade of Patroclos or Achilles passing over the ships: a winged warrior flying to right, bearded, and fully armed, with chlamys, two spears, and Boeotian shield with device of a tripod. Beneath him is the fore-part of a war-galley, with heads of rowers (?) appearing over the gunwale; on the prow is a high deck in two…|Amphora ]] Psychai are the diminutive, winged shades of the dead in Greek mythology and some fifth century BC funerary lekythoi.^[1] Although commonly translated as "soul" today, in the epics of Homer, it meant "life"^[2] and did not have any connection to consciousness or psychological functions in the living. It is only later, at the end of the fifth century BC in the works of other poets such as Pindar, that the word acquires its meaning relating to being the principal seat of intellect, emotion, and will.^[3] From there, it became possible to translate psyche as "heart" or "soul".^[4]

References

^ Martin, Bridget. "COLD COMFORT: WINGED PSYCHAI ON FIFTH‐CENTURY BC GREEK FUNERARY LEKYTHOI." Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies 59.1 (2016): 1.
^ Dietrich, Bernard C. "Death and afterlife in Minoan religion." Kernos. Revue internationale et pluridisciplinaire de religion grecque antique 10 (1997): 25.
^ Darcus Sullivan, Shirley. "Psyché in Pindar, Nemean 9.32 and 69." Revue belge de Philologie et d'Histoire 81.1 (2003): 5.
^ Darcus Sullivan, Shirley. "Psyché in Pindar, Nemean 9.32 and 69." Revue belge de Philologie et d'Histoire 81.1 (2003): 9.