The broad and comprehensive horizon of ancient Greek thought encompasses many diverse ideas and raises many different questions about human identity. Are human beings essentially mortal, as emphasized in the Homeric Epics, or do we have the ability to achieve immortality, as often claimed by Plato following a different tradition?

When and why do specific ideas about the differences between body and soul begin to emerge? Is the soul simple or complex? What led to the idea that the optimal life is one governed by reason, with desires and emotions being subordinate to this power? Is human reason a divine attribute?

In clear and understandable writing, which is not only addressed to the specialist audience, A. A. Long offers a synthetic overview of how ancient Greek philosophy approached the fundamental issues of mind, soul, and body, how the ancient thinkers approached what is closest to us and yet even more mysterious: the essence of the human self.