#phrenes

The cardia is obviously the heart. It beats and can be stabbed and the phrenes goes around it, as lungs go around the heart. The etor may just be another name for the heart, because it can be stabbed, and only acts exactly like the cardia as an agent. The thymus is a fluid which exists INSIDE the phrenes, as breath does inside the lungs. The cardia, thymus and etor behave alike to the extent of interchangeable as agents of thoughts and feelings within the breasts, and correspond exactly to the modern use of the English word “heart” (in addition to being an organ for pumping blood). There are a few times when the thymus acts like breath. It sometimes blows two ways, and twice when characters faint, they breathe out their life (psyche), but then breathe in and gather thymus into phrenes, bringing consciousness back into mind, as if bringing breath into lungs. The thymus might better be called “spirit,” if the original Latin meaning of “breath” could be conveyed, as in “respire.” But “spirit” in modern English is immaterial and immortal; so it is not suitable for use in Homeric epic.”