“Mind you, I’m not going to give you an Alkinoos’ tale,” I [Sokrates] said, “but the story of a brave man, Armenios’ son Er, by race from Pamphylia. Once upon a time he was killed in battle, and when the bodies of those who had already decayed were collected up ten days later, his was found to be sound, and when he’d been taken home for burial, on the twelfth day, as he lay on the pyre, he came to. Having done so, he described what he had seen on the other side.
“He said that his soul left him and made its way with many others and they came to a sacred spot where there were two openings in the ground next to each other, and two others opposite them in the sky above. Between them sat judges who, when they had passed sentence, ordered the just to make their way to the opening on the right leading up through the sky, and they fixed placards on the front of their bodies indicating their judgments, while the unjust were sent to the left-hand downward path and they also had indications of all they had done attached to their backs. But when he himself came forward, they said that he must become the messenger to mankind of what was happening there, and they ordered him to listen to and observe everything in that place.
“In this way, then, he said he saw the souls, when judgment had been passed, leaving by one of the openings in the sky and one in the ground, while by the other two, out of the one coming up from the ground, were souls covered in filth and dust, and down from the other one from the sky came others purified. […]
“So a sort of interpreter first made them stand in ranks, then took from Lachesis’ lap allocations and samples of lives. Then going up to a high platform he said: ‘The word of the maiden Lachesis, daughter of Necessity. Souls of a day, this is the beginning of another round of mortal kind that ends in death. No daimon will select you by lot, but you will be the one to choose a daimon. Let the one who draws the first lot be the first to choose a life to which he will adhere of necessity. But virtue has no master; by honoring or dishonoring it, each will have a greater or lesser share of it. The responsibility is the chooser’s; god is not to be blamed.’
“When he had said this he threw the lots out among them all, and each picked up the one which fell beside him, except Er himself: he was not allowed to. […]
“Now they all had to drink a measure of this water, but those who did not have enough sense to be moderate drank more than their measure, while each one, as he drank, forgot everything. When they had fallen asleep and it was midnight there was a thunderbolt and an earthquake, and then suddenly they were taken up, one this way, another that, to their birth, like shooting stars. But Er himself was prevented from drinking the water. However, where and how he returned to his body, he did not know, but suddenly he looked up and saw it was now dawn and that he was lying on the pyre.”
Author: Plato
Title of Work: Politeia (Republic)
Location in Work: 10.614b-621b
Date of Work: c. 375 BCE
Original Language: Greek (Attic)
Original Text:
Ἀλλ’ οὐ μέντοι σοι, ἦν δ’ ἐγώ, Ἀλκίνου γε ἀπόλογον ἐρῶ, ἀλλ’ ἀλκίμου μὲν ἀνδρός, Ἠρὸς τοῦ Ἀρμενίου, τὸ γένος Παμφύλου· ὅς ποτε ἐν πολέμῳ τελευτήσας, ἀναιρεθέντων δεκαταίων τῶν νεκρῶν ἤδη διεφθαρμένων, ὑγιὴς μὲν ἀνῃρέθη, κομισθεὶς δ’ οἴκαδε μέλλων θάπτεσθαι δωδεκαταῖος ἐπὶ τῇ πυρᾷ κείμενος ἀνεβίω, ἀναβιοὺς δ’ ἔλεγεν ἃ ἐκεῖ ἴδοι.
Ἔφη δέ, ἐπειδὴ οὗ ἐκβῆναι, τὴν ψυχὴν πορεύεσθαι μετὰ πολλῶν, καὶ ἀφικνεῖσθαι σφᾶς εἰς τόπον τινὰ δαιμόνιον, ἐν ᾧ τῆς τε γῆς δύ’ εἶναι χάσματα ἐχομένω ἀλλήλοιν καὶ τοῦ οὐρανοῦ αὖ ἐν τῷ ἄνω ἄλλα καταντικρύ. δικαστὰς δὲ μεταξὺ τούτων καθῆσθαι, οὕς, ἐπειδὴ διαδικάσειαν, τοὺς μὲν δικαίους κελεύειν πορεύεσθαι τὴν εἰς δεξιάν τε καὶ ἄνω διὰ τοῦ οὐρανοῦ, σημεῖα περιάψαντας τῶν δεδικασμένων ἐν τῷ πρόσθεν, τοὺς δὲ ἀδίκους τὴν εἰς ἀριστεράν τε καὶ κάτω, ἔχοντας καὶ τούτους ἐν τῷ ὄπισθεν σημεῖα πάντων ὧν ἔπραξαν. ἑαυτοῦ δὲ προσελθόντος εἰπεῖν ὅτι δέοι αὐτὸν ἄγγελον ἀνθρώποις γενέσθαι τῶν ἐκεῖ, καὶ διακελεύοιντό οἱ ἀκούειν τε καὶ θεᾶσθαι πάντα τὰ ἐν τῷ τόπῳ.
Ὁρᾶν δὴ ταύτῃ μὲν καθ’ ἑκάτερον τὸ χάσμα τοῦ οὐρανοῦ τε καὶ τῆς γῆς ἀπιούσας τὰς ψυχάς, ἐπειδὴ αὐταῖς δικασθείη, κατὰ δὲ τὼ ἑτέρω ἐκ μὲν τοῦ ἀνιέναι ἐκ τῆς γῆς μεστὰς αὐχμοῦ τε καὶ κόνεως, ἐκ δὲ τοῦ ἑτέρου καταβαίνειν ἑτέρας ἐκ τοῦ οὐρανοῦ καθαράς. [...]
προφήτην οὖν τινα σφᾶς πρῶτον μὲν ἐν τάξει διαστῆσαι, ἔπειτα λαβόντα ἐκ τῶν τῆς Λαχέσεως γονάτων κλήρους τε καὶ βίων παραδείγματα, ἀναβάντα ἐπί τι βῆμα ὑψηλὸν εἰπεῖν· “Ἀνάγκης θυγατρὸς κόρης Λαχέσεως λόγος. Ψυχαὶ ἐφήμεροι, ἀρχὴ ἄλλης περιόδου θνητοῦ γένους θανατηφόρου. οὐχ ὑμᾶς δαίμων λήξεται, ἀλλ’ ὑμεῖς δαίμονα αἱρήσεσθε. πρῶτος δ’ ὁ λαχὼν πρῶτος αἱρείσθω βίον ᾧ συνέσται ἐξ ἀνάγκης. ἀρετὴ δὲ ἀδέσποτον, ἣν τιμῶν καὶ ἀτιμάζων πλέον καὶ ἔλαττον αὐτῆς ἕκαστος ἕξει. αἰτία ἑλομένου· θεὸς ἀναίτιος.”
Ταῦτα εἰπόντα ῥῖψαι ἐπὶ πάντας τοὺς κλήρους, τὸν δὲ παρ’ αὑτὸν πεσόντα ἕκαστον ἀναιρεῖσθαι πλὴν οὗ, ἓ δὲ οὐκ ἐᾶν· τῷ δὲ ἀνελομένῳ δῆλον εἶναι ὁπόστος εἰλήχεν. [...]
μέτρον μὲν οὖν τι τοῦ ὕδατος πᾶσιν ἀναγκαῖον εἶναι πιεῖν, τοὺς δὲ φρονήσει μὴ σῳζομένους πλέον πίνειν τοῦ μέτρου· τὸν δὲ ἀεὶ πιόντα πάντων ἐπιλανθάνεσθαι. ἐπειδὴ δὲ κοιμηθῆναι καὶ μέσας νύκτας γενέσθαι, βροντήν τε καὶ σεισμὸν γενέσθαι, καὶ ἐντεῦθεν ἐξαπίνης ἄλλον ἄλλῃ φέρεσθαι ἄνω εἰς τὴν γένεσιν, ᾄττοντας ὥσπερ ἀστέρας. αὐτὸς δὲ τοῦ μὲν ὕδατος κωλυθῆναι πιεῖν· ὅπῃ μέντοι καὶ ὅπως εἰς τὸ σῶμα ἀφίκοιτο, οὐκ εἰδέναι, ἀλλ’ ἐξαίφνης ἀναβλέψας ἰδεῖν ἤδη ἕωθεν αὑτὸν κείμενον ἐπὶ τῇ πυρᾷ.
Reference Edition: Slings, Platonis Rempublicam
Translation Source: Emlyn-Jones and Preddy, Republic (lightly revised)
Source of Date of Work: Emlyn-Jones and Preddy, Republic, xxviii
Commentary:
Plato’s story of Er is the oldest extant text containing a somewhat similar story to the Arimaspeia’s story of Aristeas’ soul traveling to the outer edge of the world. The two stories share the same core element of a soul departing from a man’s lifeless body, seeing elements of the cosmos not normally accessible to living people, and then returning to its body and reporting what had been seen. Both also were chosen for these roles by divine power: Aristeas by Apollo, and Er apparently by the judges of souls.
But Er’s out-of-body experience, focused on the afterlife and the transmigration of souls, was very different from Aristeas’. And whereas Aristeas according to Maximus of Tyre was faintly breathing during his soul’s travels. Plato doesn’t clarify whether Er died and was somehow brought back to life, or somehow barely clung to life for twelve days.
The limited excerpts chosen here focus on Er’s personal journey and what he learned about reincarnation, an important element of Plato’s philosophy that he shared with Pythagoreanism. Although the Arimaspeia is not known to have mentioned reincarnation, its story of a soul exiting from and returning to a body was understood to be related to Pythagorean and Platonic doctrines of the soul’s immortality and reincarnation. Belief among some Greeks in reincarnation was mentioned earlier by Herodotos (2.123), who thought the idea was imported from Egypt.
Alkinoos is the character in the Odyssey to whom Odysseus told the story of his journey to the edge of the world to meet the dead. Lachesis is one of the three Fates. A daimon is a personal accompanying minor divine being, a bit like a guardian angel but not always beneficent, and in this story responsible for ensuring that people live the lives their souls choose while transmigrating.
Although it would be excessive to reproduce here, reading the full story of Er is highly recommended. It is remarkable for containing the earliest description of a spherical universe with upward migration of positively judged souls to the heavens, in sharp contrast to the traditional flat-earth universe and universally downward migration of souls found in Plato’s earlier Phaidon (112e-115a).