I would say that the ancient Greeks have more psychoanalytical texts and are perceived as more psychoanalytical than other ancient civilizations because they have more texts that survive about these subjects. Something we can thank Aristotle, Hippocrates, Homer, and Hesiod for amongst many other Greek authors since they wrote about very human themes that were present in ancient Greek mythology as well as their own writing. Homer’s epics are a set of volumes that are very psychoanalytical and explore ideas like Achilles not willing to fight even though he is the best fighter, why Agamemnon needs to over perform Achilles in his mind, the need for Menelaus to prove himself to everyone, Nestor showing how to deal with old age, the power of deceit over humans in Odysseus’ return journey, and Odysseus’ everlasting want to go home even though he could have anything with Circle and Calypso. These are some of psychoanalytical themes that came up more in Greek texts although they could have easily came up just as often in the texts of other ancient civilizations. But even though the Greeks had more of these surviving psychoanalytical texts, there were definitely some in the other ancient cultures.

I would say that Egypt’s middle kingdom texts like the Tale of Sinuhe, The Shipwrecked Sailor, and the various texts about the Egyptian gods are similar to the ancient Greek texts but do not go into as much depth. One of the psychoanalytical themes from Egyptian texts is something close to the Oedipus complex. In Egyptian mythology, Set kills his brother Osiris so he can marry his sister, Isis and rule Egypt because he is jealous of Osiris. Then, Isis’ extreme love for Osiris caused Isis to risk her own life to revive Osiris who is cut into pieces all over Egypt, which is similar to Odysseus loving Penelope after all of his crazy adventures. Then, The Tale of Sinuhe has elements of cultural exceptionalism that Sinuhe displays when he wants to be buried in Egypt, even though he leads a small kingdom in ancient Syria after he was exiled. The Shipwrecked Sailor then deals with how commoners will be perceived by their leaders and how they should act themselves when they have power. So the Egyptians where definitely thinking about the human psyche and using the personification of the gods to display them. The other ancient group of civilizations that did this was the ancient Mesopotamians who had a pantheon with gods and a set of stories about them that made them seem very human.

The Enuma Elish is the Mesopotamia creation myth that has the gods and goddesses of Mesopotamia creating the world but after they do that, they struggle for power over the other gods. First, Anu competes for power than others until Marduk eventually convinces the other deities that he will be a righteous leader after he defeats Tiamat. So in this myth, there is that psychoanalytical idea of why other powerful figures will give their power of freedom to one other figure along with the human idea of jealously. Then, there is The Epic of Gilgamesh, which is just full of psychoanalytical data and examples that explains the human mind. The epic explains the idea of what a human’s legacy should with Gilgamesh constantly asking what type of king he should be all throughout the story. Next, the epic shows how humans deal with rejection when Ishtar is rejected by Gilgamesh when she wants to marry him. Then, the book deals with the idea of hubris, a very Greek theme, and its negative consequences when Gilgamesh loses his best friend, Enkidu, and when his city is nearly destroyed by the Bull of Heaven. Additionally, scenes with Gilgamesh and Enkidu show how homosexuality and ideas of intense friendship influence and affect the human psyche. Theses are themes that are present in the epic once Gilgamesh meets Enkidu until Gilgamesh is crying while Enkidu dies in his arms. Then the epic tackles the ideas of what it means to be civilized, a theme that always comes up when the Greeks talk about their barbarian neighbors. It is seen that in the epic that it is the seduction by Shamhat, or sex, and the consumption of bread and beer that make Enkidu civilized. Then there is that idea of immortality that Gilgamesh wanted to have on earth and that Achilles wanted in the minds of people, at least until he got to Hades. Gilgamesh after defeating the Bull of Heaven goes on a guest to find a flower that can give him immortality on earth. And once he finds it, the moment he relaxes in a hot spring, a serpent eats it so he can’t eat it himself. Initially, this made Gilgamesh very disappointed but he learned the lesson of Achilles through this unfortunate event. He learned that through good treatment of his people as king and as a righteous military leader that protects his kingdom of Uruk, he will gain immortality in people’s minds even after he dies. This was the same mindset Achilles had when he was trying to sack Troy before he was killed by Paris via an arrow to the heel.

In sum, I would say that the Greeks were only more psychoanalytical because they lived in a better time to be writing about things like human emotions and interactions and had more surviving texts from their time. I only say this because the ancient epics and texts even before Homer’s time make it clear that the ancients were thinking about how the human psyche changed and trying to explain its fluctuations. One good example of this is Ben Foster’s From Distant Days: Myths, Tales, and Poetry of Ancient Mesopotamia, which is a compilation of texts of the Mesopotamians just trying to explain the human body and the world around them in various ways. But for further reading into how the human psyche is reflected in ancient texts and mythology would start with Samuel Noah Kramer’s Mythologies of the Ancient World. It is a pretty good overview of the mythology of ancient civilizations and the human elements that may be in their stories. Plus it is a newer book so it will have an updated interpretation of ancient world mythology.