Edith Hall

And he's the first thinker.

One of your great writers in London, Edith Hall, says he's the first conscious person in Western literature.

Wow.

Why? That's an enormous statement.

Can you see yourself in the Eugene O'Neill play? Can you recognize yourself in the Lillian Hellman play about the battle between the sexes? Can you see yourself in the movie? It's one way we learn to recognize ourselves.

And Dame Edith Hall, a great classicist out of London, says of this moment that I just alluded to, when Odysseus hears his story from someone else, from a bard, a singer with a lyre, at that moment, He knows who he is.

And she says this is the first example in Western history, at least the history of literature that we know of, in which someone becomes fully human conscious.

Now, what does she mean? We only know ourselves in relation to other people's stories.