A very quick reply. Yes, I've read Julian Jaynes also, and have thought like you are thinking now. However I'm not sure how one would translate noos -- head? th

A very quick reply. Yes, I've read Julian Jaynes also, and have thought like you are thinking now. However I'm not sure how one would translate noos -- head? thoughts? feelings? Consider also that French, for example, has no word for "mind" and yet translators clearly don't shy from the word. Now this is different of course, if the point is that the Homeric Greeks didn't have the same idea of consciousness, but I think that idea can come through without ridding oneself of words like "mind." Maybe you'd prefer a word like "perception," but that introduces another burst of unhelpful associations, not least of which is its scientific and precise-sounding tone? Finally, when I read Homer, it seems clear that many characters do have, shall we say, internal deliberations, and that Homer is clear about this. So I tend to feel that Jaynes' interpretations might be best seen as tentative and unfinished.