ψυχή

Ancient Greek

Pronunciation

(deprecated template usage)

• (5th BC Attic) IPA^(key): /pʰsy͜ykʰɛ͜ɛ́/

• (1st BC Egyptian) IPA^(key): /pʰsyːkʰéː/

• (4th AD Koine) IPA^(key): /ɸsyxí/

• (10th AD Byzantine) IPA^(key): /psyçí/

• (15th AD Constantinopolitan) IPA^(key): /psiçí/

Etymology

From ψύχω ("I blow")

Noun

1. (Can we [[#ψυχή|verify]]^{([{{fullurl:|action=edit&section=new&preload=Template:rfv-sense/preload$1&preloadparams%5B%5D=%3Cstrong+class%3D%22error%22%3E%3Cspan+class%3D%22scribunto-error%22+id%3D%22mw-scribunto-error-a3f279cd%22%3ELua+error+in+Module%3Alanguages%2Ftemplates+at+%5B%5BModule%3Alanguages%2Ftemplates%23L-18%7Cline+18%5D%5D%3A+Parameter+1+is+required.%3C%2Fspan%3E%3C%2Fstrong%3E&preloadtitle=%5B%5B%CF%88%CF%85%CF%87%CE%AE%23rfv-sense-notice-{{{1}}}-%7c%CF%88%CF%85%CF%87%CE%AE%5D%5D}} +])} this sense?) breath
2. life (the state of being alive)
   • Revelation 8:9 (text according to Stephanus (1550) and Scrivener (1894))

     καὶ ἀπέθανεν τὸ τρίτον τῶν κτισμάτων τῶν ἐν τῇ θαλάσσῃ τὰ ἔχοντα ψυχὰς καὶ τὸ τρίτον τῶν πλοίων διεφθαρη

     Young’s Literal Translation (1862):

     and die did the third of the creatures that [are] in the sea, those having life, and the third of the ships were destroyed.

3. Template:poetic life-breath, life-blood (‘the state of being alive’ made corporeal)
   • Homer, Ἰλιάς (Iliad), book 14, lines 516–19:

     Ἀτρεΐδης δ᾽ ἄρ᾽ ἔπειθ᾽ Ὑπερήνορα ποιμένα λαῶν / οὖτα κατὰ λαπάρην, διὰ δ᾽ ἔντερα χαλκὸς ἄφυσσε

     δῃώσας: ψυχὴ δὲ κατ᾽ οὐταμένην ὠτειλὴν / ἔσσυτ᾽ ἐπειγομένη, τὸν δὲ σκότος ὄσσε κάλυψε.

     Robert Fagles’ translation (1990):

     Menelaus took the hardened captain Hyperenor, / gouged his flank and the bronze ripped him open,

     spurting his entrails out — and his life[-blood], gushing forth / through the raw, yawning wound, went pulsing fast

     and the dark came siwrling down across his eyes.

   • Homer, Ἰλιάς (Iliad), book 16, line 505:

     τοῖο δ᾽ ἅμα ψυχήν τε καὶ ἔγχεος ἐξέρυσ᾽ αἰχμήν.

     Robert Fagles’ translation (1990):

     so he dragged out both the man's life breath and the weapon's point together.

4. soul (the immortal part of a person)
   • Homer, Ἰλιάς (Iliad), book 1, lines 1–5:

     μῆνιν ἄειδε θεὰ Πηληϊάδεω Ἀχιλῆος / οὐλομένην, ἣ μυρί᾽ Ἀχαιοῖς ἄλγε᾽ ἔθηκε,

     πολλὰς δ᾽ ἰφθίμους ψυχὰς Ἄϊδι προΐαψεν / ἡρώων, αὐτοὺς δὲ ἑλώρια τεῦχε κύνεσσιν

     οἰωνοῖσί τε πᾶσι, Διὸς δ᾽ ἐτελείετο βουλή,

     Robert Fagles’ translation (1990):

     Rage — Goddess, sing the rage of Peleus' son Achilles, / [...] doomed, that cost the Achaeans countless losses,

     hurling down to the House of Death so many sturdy [...] / great fighters’ souls, but made their bodies carrion,

     feasts for the dogs and birds, / and the will of Zeus was moving toward its end.

5. ghost (the spirit of a dead person)
   • Homer, Ὀδύσσεια (Odyssey), book 23, lines 362–363, and book 24, lines 1–2:

     αὐτίκα γὰρ φάτις εἶσιν ἅμ᾽ ἠελίῳ ἀνιόντι / ἀνδρῶν μνηστήρων, οὓς ἔκτανον ἐν μεγάροισιν:

     ¶

     Ἑρμῆς δὲ ψυχὰς Κυλλήνιος ἐξεκαλεῖτο / ἀνδρῶν μνηστήρων:

     Robert Fagles’ translation (1996):

     [Go] quick as the rising sun the news will spread / of the suitors that I killed inside the house.

     ¶

     Now Cyllenian Hermes called away the suitors' ghosts,

6. the mind (seat or organ of thought), (the faculty of) reason
   • Xenophon, Οἰκονομικων (Economics), chapter 6, section 16:

     ἀλλ᾽ οὐκ ἄρα εἶχεν οὕτως, ἀλλ᾽ ἐνίους ἐδόκουν καταμανθάνειν τῶν καλῶν τὰς μορφὰς πάνυ μοχθηροὺς ὄντας τὰς ψυχάς.

     William Heinemann’s translation (1979):

     But after all, it was not so: I thought I discovered that some who were beautiful to look at were thoroughly depraved in their minds.

7. the conscious self, as the seat of emotions, desires
8. Template:philosophy the universal spirit
9. (deprecated template usage) (rare, extended from the meaning ‘soul’) butterfly
   • Aristotle, Περὶ Τὰ Ζῷα Ἱστορίαι (History of Animals), book 5, section 19:

     Γίνονται δ᾽ αἱ μὲν καλούμεναι ψυχαὶ ἐκ τῶν καμπῶν, αἳ γίνονται ἐπὶ τῶν φύλλων τῶν χλωρῶν, καὶ μάλιστα ἐπὶ τῆς ῥαφάνου, ἣν καλοῦσί τινες κράμβην.

     Those arise — those which one calls butterflies (psukhai) — out of those caterpillars which arise on leaves of green, especially on the [leaves] of the cabbage-plant (raphanos), which some call cabbage (krambē).

Inflection

First declension of ψῡχή, ψῡχῆς

Case / #	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nominative	ἡ ψῡχή	τὼ ψῡχᾱ́	αἱ ψῡχαί
Genitive	τῆς ψῡχῆς	τοῖν ψῡχαῖν	τῶν ψῡχῶν
Dative	τῇ ψῡχῇ	τοῖν ψῡχαῖν	ταῖς ψῡχαῖς
Accusative	τὴν ψῡχήν	τὼ ψῡχᾱ́	τὰς ψῡχᾱ́ς
Vocative	ψῡχή	ψῡχᾱ́	ψῡχαί
Dialectal forms:
Notes:

Quotations

• Luke 21:19 (text according to Stephanus (1550), Westcott-Hort (1881) and Scrivener (1894))

  ἐν τῇ ὑπομονῇ ὑμῶν κτήσασθε τὰς ψυχὰς ὑμῶν

  in your patience possess ye your souls. (YLT, KJV)

  Stand firm, and you will win life. (NIV)

See also

• anima

References

• BDAG
• “ψυχή”, in Liddell & Scott (1940) A Greek–English Lexicon, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• G5590 in Strong, James (1979) Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance to the Bible
• 2006, Steven Paul, The Apocalypse Letter by Letter: A Literary Analysis of the Book of Revelation, page 281 (discussing Revelation 8:9): "The literal meaning of the noun “ψυχή” [psykhë, or psyche] is “breath”; hence, like “πνεῦμα” [pneuma], it can also mean “spirit, soul, mind.”"
• 2007, Leon Marvell, Transfigured light: philosophy, cybernetics and the hermetic imaginary (ISBN 978-1-933146-27-0), page 128: "the psyche (the term derives from ψυχη, the breath, and ψυχειν, to breathe)"

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Greek

Pronunciation

• (deprecated use of |lang= parameter) IPA^(key): [psiˈçi]

Noun

ψυχή • (psychí) f (plural ψυχές)

1. soul
2. human, man
3. the emotional and moral world
4. courage, courageousness
5. one who incites courage
6. butterfly

Inflection

Declension of ψυχή

	singular	plural
nominative	ψυχή •	ψυχές •
genitive	ψυχής •	ψυχών •
accusative	ψυχή •	ψυχές •
vocative	ψυχή •	ψυχές •