This Companion examines Simone Weil’s deep and sustained engagement with Ancient Greek literature, philosophy, religion, and political thought. While Weil is well known for her reading of Homer’s Iliad and her interpretations of Plato and Pythagorean thought, her relationship with Greek Antiquity extends throughout her work and provides an important framework for understanding her philosophical, spiritual, sociological, and political ideas.
The volume explores Antiquity as a central lens through which Weil developed and examined concepts such as force, justice, freedom, truth, affliction, labor, rootedness, and the relationship between the human and the divine. By bringing together her engagements with Homer, Plato, Pythagoreanism, Stoicism, Presocratic thought, tragedy, and other ancient sources, the Companion seeks to move beyond studies focused on individual authors or texts and instead establish Greek Antiquity as a major organizing dimension of Weil’s thought.
A further aim is to show how Weil’s reception of Antiquity can illuminate modern political and ethical crises, including violence, war, colonialism, totalitarianism, religious fundamentalism, technology and artificial intelligence, international relations, and debates over war and humanitarian intervention. In doing so, the Companion brings Classical Reception into dialogue with Continental Philosophy and Political Theology, situating Weil within broader twentieth-century debates and demonstrating the continuing relevance of her engagement with the ancient world.