Abstract
Plato’s use of the term ochema as a vehicle for the soul has had lasting influence on the later tradition. A key component in connection with this concept is the quasi-liminal (pseudo-) materiality of the vehicle in its different degrees of fineness and its functions which were discussed widely in various contexts, e.g., in metaphysics, natural philosophy, epistemology, theology, in the latter especially in soteriological discourses. These debates and their continituity from Antiquity to early enlightenment (and further) are the focus of the present volume and are, in their specific shape, investigated from different perspectives, Classics, Medieval and English philology, philosophy and history of philosophy as well as light art /artistic research.