Abstract
Abstract This chapter aims to refine the understanding of the cognitive role of some famous objects in Greek tragedy. It does so by engaging with Lambros Malafouris’ notion of the ‘cognitive life of things’, whereby material objects are seen as an intrinsic part of humans’ cognitive processes. The case studies in this chapter are the house in the Oresteia, the recognition tokens in Choephori, the bow in Hercules Furens and Philoctetes. However, it is argued, this attribution is a conscious form of make-believe: the characters know that they are engaging in a fiction when they momentarily envisage things as human ‘minds on stage’, so as to manage solitary and desperate situations. Greek tragedy therefore allows in-depth analysis of the fictional and affective dimensions of the ‘cognitive life of things’. The chapter ends by arguing for the relevance of work on anthropomorphism in developmental and social psychology.
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