This chapter develops a theory of Homeric creativity that is informed by both contemporary cognitive studies and by ancient ideas about poetic craft and divine inspiration, as seen through the lenses of archaic poetry and Plato’s Ion. Sections 1-2 survey the conceptions of the poet as a craftsman vs. divinely inspired in Homer, Hesiod, Archilochus, Pindar, Democritus, and Plato. Section 3 introduces the modern study of creativity in the field of cognitive psychology, the study of jazz improvisation, and the concept of flow. Section 4 introduces the neuroscience of improvisation, including recent fMRI studies on jazz and lyric improvisation. The results of these studies (pointing to a state of hypofrontality when carrying out complex improvisational tasks) are compatible with some ancient ideas on creativity and inspiration (such as the idea that an external source - like the Muses- might be involved in these creative acts).

In Euripides’ Ion, produced around 414 BCE, the central conflict of the play receives its most explicit expression through the diametrical opposition of passionately held views. These views are expressed at length, but in song and separately, in the monodies of Ion and Creusa. In his opening monody, Ion manifests his devotion to Apollo, his concern with purity and propriety, and his position as an orphan. At the pivotal moment of the play, the Athenian queen Creusa delivers a musical accusation against the god who once violated her and, as she believes, left their infant son to die. Is Apollo benevolent and bright, or violent and uncaring? In the two monodies, Euripides brings together the legalistic exposition typical of agonistic rhesis and the emotionality of lyric song.

This chapter investigates Plato’s thoughts on poetic creativity by tracing a path from a traditional divine inspiration view to a new kind of inspiration, which transforms the poet into a philosopher. The path begins with divine inspiration in the Ion, then turns to the power of public poetry in the Gorgias. Next is the beginning of a new conception of poetic creativity in the Symposium. By considering poetry as a kind of communication between a lover and the beloved, Plato views poetry as a basis for a philosophical ascent to the Form of Beauty. In the Republic, Plato emphasizes further the power of poetry by classifying traditional poetry as a degraded kind of imitation. He highlights its power to corrupt the listener by strengthening irrational emotions. In the Phaedrus, Plato extends his notion of poetic creativity to linguistic communication in general, thereby developing further his notion of philosophical communication as a creative force generated by love. In the end, Plato pulls together both his denunciation of traditional poetry and his new conception of poetic creativity by offering a new type of public poetry in the Laws, consisting ultimately of his own body of laws.

This chapter focuses on a description of a novel UNCD film-based technology enabling a new generation of Li-ion batteries (LIB) with orders of magnitude longer stable specific capacity vs. charge/discharge cycles and safer performance than current devices, to power a new generation of miniaturized defibrillators/pacemakers to improve the quality of life of people receiving them.The UNCD film technology provides three new key components of the LIB, namely: 1) Electrically conductive Nitrogen atoms-grain boundary incorporated ultrananocrystalline diamond (N-UNCD) films encapsulating natural graphite (NG)/copper composite LIB anodes, providing order of magnitude superior cycle performance and capacity retention than for NG/Cu anodes (the N-UNCD layer suppresses reactions of NG with the electrolyte and the development of insulating solid-electrolyte-interphase (SEI) on the anode, which retards anode conductivity and induces stresses, leading to cracks in the NG particles inducing loss of contact between them); 2) UNCD-coated Si-based membranes with orders of magnitude higher resistance to chemical attack than membranes in current LIBs; and 3) UNCD coatings for the inner walls of battery cases to enable use of less expensive case materials than current ones.

Chapter Three focuses on Euripides’ Ion, wherein we find important depictions of both male and female solo dancing. I begin this chapter with a discussion of male dancing in late Archaic and Classical Greek thought, exploring how male choral leadership, especially as embodied by the god Apollo and the hero Theseus, offers a positive model for the male dancer as an authoritative but collaborative figure within his community. I then observe how Ion’s opening monody vacillates between images of male choral leadership and less lofty images of solo work song/dance, calling attention to the ambivalence of the titular character’s social status. I further demonstrate that a similar ambivalence surrounds Ion’s mother Creusa, who performs a monody of her own that draws upon the imagery of female chorality and choral leadership. Yet while Ion’s monody prefigures his transformation from Delphic servant to Athenian royalty, Creusa’s song reframes the assault that resulted in Ion’s birth as a more normative form of maidenly transition. In both cases, I suggest, Euripides uses dance to situate Ion and Creusa within their final roles while also highlighting the contradictions and conflicts that swirl around them.