Anger and spirit

Use in the book

The Republic excerpt first asks whether the power by which we become angry is a third element or belongs to appetite. A subsequent passage describes the spirited element as a natural ally of reason unless a bad upbringing corrupts it. Homer uses thymos differently when life leaves the bones and soul flies away like a dream. This poetic occurrence must not be converted into the later three-part psychology.

Places to read

1. I.49.30.5Anger raises the question of a third psychic element.
2. I.49.31.1Spirit is described as reason’s natural ally.
3. I.49.50.10The word describes life leaving the bones.
4. I.47.10Spiritedness connects individual and civic character.

Translation in this edition

“Spirit” here must also be distinguished from the rendering of pneuma in some Hermetic passages. The same English word can represent different Greek terms.

The spirited element

Thumoeides is the spirited element or quality. I.47.10 traces civic traits to the individuals composing a city, using spiritedness as one example; I.49.31.1 discusses its distinction from appetite and alliance with reason. Spiritedness includes assertive and passionate energy, and cannot be reduced to a passing episode of anger. The regional generalizations in the civic example remain the ancient speaker’s claims.