ABSTRACT
The Greek civilisation from which the European tradition springs first emerged between 800 and 700 BCE, approximately. The Homeric poems, and in particular the more ancient Iliad, mark the beginning of a new world. Much of the twentieth century was dominated by the misleading idea of an almost abrupt transition from mythos to logos, from an archaic mythico-religious dimension to the bright light of reason. Moralising and anthropological reflections are combined with early attempts to understand the external world. In Greece as elsewhere, the recurrent idea is that of a mode of generation and growth, often conceived by analogy with human reproduction, whereby a creative deity or divine couple give rise to the differentiation of things out of primordial indistinctness. In the Phaedo and Republic, Plato discusses the destiny of the soul and reincarnation in relation to the theme of memory, reminiscence and oblivion, and describes the soul's journey after death.
