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Wellsprings
greek-soulfeatured in 40 works

Soul as Breath or Atoms

Pneuma — 'breath' as the stuff of the soul: for the Stoics a warm, living fire-breath; for the atomists, soul made of the finest particles.

Pneuma ('breath, spirit') is the materialist idea of the soul as a physical substance. The Stoics (3rd c. BCE) made pneuma a fiery, tensile breath that pervades and animates both the body and the whole cosmos, its tension (tonos) explaining cohesion, life, and mind. Medical writers — the Hippocratics, and later Galen — tied pneuma to vital function, while the Epicureans instead held the soul to be ultra-fine atoms. From this root, the word for soul-as-breath went on to carry enormous weight in Hellenistic medicine and in religious thought.

How it traveled

  1. Problemata
    Chalcis · -322
    explains
  2. De spiritu
    Chalcis · -322
    explains
  3. De Rerum Natura
    Rome · -55
    explains
  4. Quaestiones Convivales
    Chaeronea · 120
    explains
  5. De Defectu Oraculorum
    Chaeronea · 120
    explains
  6. Ad Se Ipsum
    Vindobona (Vienna) · 170
    explains
  7. Pyrrhoniae Hypotyposes
    Alexandria · 210
    explains
  8. Vitae philosophorum
    · 240
    explains
  9. Zohar
    Guadalajara · 1280
  10. Avodat HaKodesh (Ibn Gabbai)
    Cairo · 1523
  11. Pardes Rimmonim
    Tzfat · 1548
  12. Ketem Paz on Zohar
    Tzfat · 1561
  13. Reshit Chokhmah
    Tzfat · 1575
  14. Ohr HaChammah on Zohar
    Tzfat · 1620
  15. Mikdash Melekh on Zohar
    Tzfat · 1750
  16. Likutei Moharan
    Breslov (Ukraine) · 1802
  17. Maor VaShemesh
    Krakow (Cracow) · 1817
  18. Likutei Halakhot
    Breslov (Ukraine) · 1840
  19. BePardes HaChasidut VeHakabbalah
    Warsaw · 1910
  20. Sulam on Zohar
    Jerusalem · 1945
  21. Fragmenta Logica et Physica
    Athens
    explains
  22. Catena In Epistulam Ad Romanos (Typus Monacensis) (E Cod. Monac. gr. 412)
    explains
  23. Placita Philosophorum
    explains
  24. Refutatio Omnium Haeresium (= Philosophumena)
    explains
  25. Praeparatio Evangelica
    explains
  26. Fragmenta
    explains
  27. Commentarii In Evangelium Joannis
    explains
  28. De placitis Hippocratis et Platonis
    Rome
    explains
  29. Ancoratus
    explains
  30. De Anima
    explains
  31. The Shepherd of Hermas
    explains
  32. De spiritu
    explains
  33. Stromata
    explains
  34. Legum Allegoriarum Libri I-III
    explains
  35. Oratio ad Graecos
    explains
  36. De Somniis (lib. i-ii)
    explains
  37. Pneumatica
    Alexandria
    explains
  38. Fragmenta In Evangelium Joannis (In Catenis)
    explains
  39. Contra Celsum
    explains
  40. De febribus [Sp.]
    explains

Key passages(20)

Physiognomonica · Adamantius Judaeus

Very high

De mixtione · Alexander of Aphrodisias

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Iatrica · Anonymus Londinensis

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De spiritu · Pseudo-Aristotle

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De spiritu · Pseudo-Aristotle

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De spiritu · Pseudo-Aristotle

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De spiritu · Pseudo-Aristotle

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Meteorologica · Aristotle

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Meteorologica · Aristotle

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Problemata · Pseudo-Aristotle

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Catena In Acta (Catena Andreae) (e cod. Oxon. coll. nov. 58) · Catenae (Novum Testamentum)

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Catena In Epistulam Ad Romanos (Typus Monacensis) (E Cod. Monac. gr. 412) · Catenae (Novum Testamentum)

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Fragmenta Logica et Physica · Chrysippus

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Fragmenta Logica et Physica · Chrysippus

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Fragmenta Logica et Physica · Chrysippus

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Fragmenta Logica et Physica · Chrysippus

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Fragmenta Logica et Physica · Chrysippus

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Fragmenta Logica et Physica · Chrysippus

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Fragmenta Logica et Physica · Chrysippus

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Fragmenta Logica et Physica · Chrysippus

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