Walt Whitman: Do I contradict myself? I contain multitudes…of eidolons.

“Do I contradict myself?

Very well then I contradict myself,

(I am large, I contain multitudes.)”

—from Song of Myself, Part 51

“…The body lurking there within thy body

…the real I myself…

An image, an eidolon.”

—from Eidolons

Whitman came to mind when I mentioned eidolons and containing multitudes (multiple personality) in the previous post on Helen of Troy.