Tamara Eidelman: How the Greeks Discovered That Humans Have Feelings

About the Lecture

What did Greek poetry give us? Poetic meters, imagery, themes — certainly. But there is something else: ancient Greek poets were among the first to express their personal feelings through poetry. Weren’t poets always doing that?

Not at all.

Whose side is Homer on in the Iliad — the Trojans’ or the Greeks’? What did Hesiod feel when he described the ancient gods? We do not know. For one simple reason: in epic poetry, the author’s own emotions remain hidden.

Only gradually, over time, did poets begin to write about what outraged them or made them laugh, about those they loved or hated. This is how love poetry emerged, along with witty epigrams and sharp satirical attacks on opponents. In the theatre, the chorus that once chanted sacred songs gave way first to a single actor, then two, then three… and before long, theatre had become something very much like the form we know today.

This was a remarkable cultural breakthrough. The Greeks taught us how to express our emotions, and it was largely thanks to them that the world would later receive Dante and Shakespeare, Pushkin and Dostoevsky.