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There are accounts of spirits/ ghosts much earlier than 19th c that aren't "regular" people. In Homer's Odyssey (8th c. BC), while in the underworld Odysseus a
by hammock 2y ago
There are accounts of spirits/ ghosts much earlier than 19th c that aren't "regular" people.
In Homer's Odyssey (8th c. BC), while in the underworld Odysseus attempts to hug his mother Anticlea but is unable to do so.
Thrice I sprang towards her, and my heart bade me clasp her, and thrice she flitted from my arms like a shadow or a dream..... “‘My mother, why dost thou not stay for me, who am eager to clasp thee, that even in the house of Hades we two may cast our arms each about the other.... Is this but a phantom (ghost) that august Persephone has sent me, that I may lament and groan the more?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shade_(mythology) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shade_(mythology)
Ancient Romans used "umbrae" (shadows) to refer to ghostly spirits, which for me invokes the figures on the wall of Plato's cave
- b112 2y agoI'm always leery of translations like this, as they are often translated with the world view of the day. Interesting regardless though.
- pastage 2y agoThe latest translation was made just a few years ago. [1] I wish someone could track down all translations of it and post it somewhere, so one could try do compare different passages through time, the Italian Wikipedia has a good list of international translations. One should not that Homers dialect is arcane from the start of the Greek golden age, so translation is always going to be interesting. https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traduzioni_dell%27Odissea https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traduzioni_dell%27Odissea [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_translations_of_Homer https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_translations_of_Homer