λέγεται δʼ ὑπὸ μὲν τοῦ μελικοῦ Πινδάρου ταυτὶ περὶ τῶν εὐσεβῶν ἐν ᾍδου, τοῖσι λάμπει μὲν μένος ἀελίου τὰν ἐνθάδε νύκτα / κάτω, / φοινικορόδοις ἐν λειμώνεσσι προάστιον αὐτῶν / καὶ λιβάνῳ σκιαρὸν καὶ χρυσοκάρποισι βεβριθός. / καὶ τοὶ μὲν ἵπποις γυμνασίοις τε τοὶ δὲ πεσσοῖς, / τοὶ δὲ φορμίγγεσι τέρπονται, παρὰ δέ σφισιν / εὐανθὴς ἅπας τέθαλεν ὄλβος, / ὀδμὰ δʼ ἐρατὸν κατὰ χῶρον κίδναται / αἰεὶ θύα μιγνύντων πυρὶ τηλεφανεῖ παντοῖα / θεῶν ἐπὶ βωμοῖς. / καὶ μικρὸν προελθὼν ἐν ἄλλῳ θρήνῳ περὶ ψυχῆς λέγων φησὶν ὀλβίᾳ δʼ ἅπαντες αἴσᾳ λυσίπονον τελευτάν. / καὶ σῶμα μὲν πάντων ἕπεται θανάτῳ περισθενεῖ, / ζωὸν δʼ ἔτι λείπεται αἰῶνος εἴδωλον· τὸ γάρ / ἐστι μόνον / ἐκ θεῶν. εὕδει δὲ πρασσόντων μελέων, ἀτὰρ / εὑδόντεσσιν ἐν πολλοῖς ὀνείροις / δείκνυσι τερπνῶν ἐφέρποισαν χαλεπῶν τε κρίσιν. /
Of the state of the pious after death, Pindar discourseth after this manner:— There the sun shines with an unsullied light, / When all the world below is thick with night. / There all the richly scented plants do grow, / And there the crimson-colored roses blow; / Each flower blooming on its tender stalk, / And all these meadows are their evening walk. / There trees peculiarly delight the sense, / With their exhaled perfumes of frankincense. / The boughs their noble burdens cannot hold, / The weight must sink them when the fruit is gold. / Some do the horse unto the manege bring, / Others unto tlle tuneful lute do sing; / There’s plenty to excess of every thing. / The region always doth serene appear, / The sun and pious flames do make it clear, / Where fragrant gums do from the altars rise, / When to the Gods they offer sacrifice. / And proceeding farther, in another lamentation he spake thus concerning the soul:— Just we that distribution may call, / Which to each man impartially doth fall. / It doth decide the dull contentious strife, / And easeth the calamities of life. / Death doth its efforts on the body spend; / But the aspiring soul doth upwards tend. / Nothing can damp that bright and subtile flame, / Immortal as the Gods from whence it came. / But this sometimes a drowsy nap will take, / When all the other members are awake. / Fancy in various dreams doth to it show, / What punishments unto each crime is due; / What pleasures are reserved for pious deeds, / And with what scourges the incestuous bleeds. /
ὁ δὲ θεῖος Πλάτων πολλὰ μὲν ἐν τῷ Περὶ ψυχῆς περὶ τῆς ἀθανασίας αὐτῆς εἴρηκεν, οὐκ ὀλίγα δʼ ἐν τῇ Πολιτείᾳ καὶ τῷ Μένωνι καὶ τῷ Γοργίᾳ καὶ σποράδην ἐν τοῖς ἄλλοις διαλόγοις. ἀλλὰ τὰ μὲν ἐν τῷ Περὶ ψυχῆς διαλόγῳ ῥηθέντα κατʼ ἰδίαν ὑπομνηματισάμενός σοι παρέξομαι, ὡς ἐβουλήθης· ἔσται δὲ πρὸς τὸ παρὸν καίρια καὶ χρήσιμα τὰ λεχθέντα πρὸς Καλλικλέα τὸν Ἀθηναῖον, ἑταῖρον δὲ καὶ μαθητὴν Γοργίου τοῦ ῥήτορος φησὶ γὰρ ὁ παρὰ τῷ Πλάτωνι Σωκράτης, ἄκουε δή, φασί, μάλα καλοῦ λόγου, ὃν σὺ μὲν ἡγήσει, ὡς ἐγὼ οἶμαι, μῦθον, ἐγὼ δὲ λόγον· ὡς ἀληθῆ γὰρ ὄντα σοι λέξω ἃ μέλλω λέγειν. ὥσπερ γὰρ Ὅμηρος λέγει, διενείμαντο τὴν ἀρχὴν ὁ Ζεὺς καὶ ὁ Ποσειδῶν καὶ ὁ Πλούτων, ἐπειδὴ παρὰ τοῦ πατρὸς; παρέλαβον ἦν οὖν νόμος ὅδε περὶ ἀνθρώπων καὶ ἐπὶ Κρόνου, καὶ ἀεὶ καὶ νῦν ἔτʼ ἔστιν ἐν θεοῖς, τῶν ἀνθρώπων τὸν μὲν δικαίως διελθόντα τὸν βίον καὶ ὁσίως, ἐπειδὰν τελευτήσῃ, εἰς μακάρων νήσους ἀπιόντα οἰκεῖν ἐν πάσῃ εὐδαιμονίᾳ ἐκτὸς κακῶν, τὸν δʼ ἀδίκως καὶ ἀθέως εἰς τὸ τῆς δίκης τε καὶ τίσεως δεσμωτήριον, ὃ δὴ Τάρταρον καλοῦσιν, ἰέναι. τούτων δʼ οἱ δικασταὶ ἐπὶ Κρόνου καὶ ἔτι νεωστὶ τοῦ Διὸς τὴν ἀρχὴν ἔχοντος ζῶντες ἦσαν ζώντων, ἐκείνῃ τῇ ἡμέρᾳ δικάζοντες μέλλοιεν τελευτᾶν. ἔπειτα αἱ δίκαι πως οὐ καλῶς ἐκρίνοντο. ὃ τʼ οὖν Πλούτων καὶ οἱ ἐπιμεληταὶ οἱ ἐκ μακάρων νήσων ἰόντες ἔλεγον πρὸς τὸν Δία ὅτι φοιτῷέν σφισιν ἄνθρωποι ἑκατέρωσε ἀνάξιοι. εἶπεν οὖν ὁ Ζεὺς ἀλλʼ ἐγώ ἔφη παύσω τοῦτο γιγνόμενον. νῦν μὲν γὰρ κακῶς αἱ δίκαι δικάζονται. ἀμπεχόμενοι γάρ ἔφη οἱ κρινόμενοι κρίνονται· ζῶντες γὰρ κρίνονται. πολλοὶ οὖν ἴσως ἦ δʼ ὃς πονηρὰς ψυχὰς ἔχοντες ἠμφιεσμένοι εἰσὶ σώματά τε καλὰ καὶ γένη καὶ πλούτους, καὶ ἐπειδὰν ἡ κρίσις ᾖ, ἔρχονται αὐτοῖς πολλοὶ μαρτυρήσοντες ὡς δικαίως βεβιώκασιν. οἱ οὖν δικασταὶ ὑπό τε τούτων ἐκπλήττονται, καὶ ἅμα καὶ αὐτοὶ ἀμπεχόμενοι δικάζουσι, πρὸ τῆς ψυχῆς τῆς ἑαυτῶν ὀφθαλμούς τε καὶ ὦτα καὶ ὅλον τὸ σῶμα προκεκαλυμμένοι. ταῦτα δὴ αὐτοῖς; πάντʼ ἐπίπροσθεν γίγνεται, καὶ τὰ αὑτῶν ἀμφιέσματα καὶ τὰ τῶν κρινομένων. πρῶτον μὲν οὖν παυστέον ἐστὶ προειδότας αὐτοὺς τὸν θάνατον· νῦν γὰρ προΐσασι. τοῦτο μὲν οὖν καὶ δὴ εἴρηται τῷ Προμηθεῖ, ὅπως ἂν παύσῃ αὐτό. ἔπειτα γυμνοὺς κριτέον ἁπάντων τούτων· τεθνεῶτας γὰρ δεῖ κρίνεσθαι. καὶ τὸν κριτὴν δεῖ γυμνὸν εἶναι, τεθνεῶτα, αὐτῇ τῇ ψυχῇ αὐτὴν τὴν ψυχὴν θεωροῦντα ἐξαίφνης ἀποθανόντος ἑκάστου, ἔρημον ἁπάντων τῶν συγγενῶν, καὶ καταλιπόντα ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς πάντα ἐκεῖνον τὸν κόσμον, ἵνα δικαία ἡ κρίσις ᾖ. ἐγὼ οὖν ταῦτʼ ἐγνωκὼς πρότερος ἢ ὑμεῖς ἐποιησάμην δικαστὰς υἱεῖς ἐμαυτοῦ, δύο μὲν ἐκ τῆς Ἀσίας, Μίνω τε καὶ Ῥαδάμανθυν, ἕνα δʼ ἐκ τῆς Εὐρώπης, Αἰακόν. οὗτοι οὖν ἐπειδὰν τελευτήσωσι, δικάσουσιν ἐν τῷ λειμῶνι, ἐν τῇ τριόδῳ ἐξ ἧς φέρετον τὼ ὁδώ, ἡ μὲν εἰς μακάρων νήσους, ἡ δʼ εἰς Τάρταρον. καὶ τοὺς μὲν ἐκ τῆς Ἀσίας Ῥαδάμανθυς κρινεῖ, τοὺς δʼ ἐκ τῆς Εὐρώπης Αἰακός Μίνῳ δὲ πρεσβεῖα δώσω ἐπιδιακρίνειν ἐὰν ἀπορῆτόν τι τὼ ἑτέρω, ἵνʼ ὡς δικαιοτάτη ἡ κρίσις ᾖ περὶ τῆς πορείας τοῖς ἀνθρώποις. ταῦτʼ ἐστίν, ὦ Καλλίκλεις, ἃ ἐγὼ ἀκηκοὼς πιστεύω ἀληθῆ εἶναι· καὶ ἐκ τούτων τῶν λόγων τοιόνδε τι λογίζομαι συμβαίνειν, ὅτι ὁ θάνατος τυγχάνει ὤν, ὡς ἐμοὶ δοκεῖ, οὐδὲν ἄλλο ἢ δυοῖν πραγμάτοιν διάλυσις, τῆς ψυχῆς καὶ τοῦ σώματος ἀπʼ ἀλλήλοιν.
Divine Plato hath spoken many things of the immortality of the soul in that book which he calls his Phaedo; not a few in his Republic, his Menon, and his Gorgias; and hath some scattered expressions in the rest of his dialogues. The things which are written by himin his Dialogue concerning the Soul I will send you by themselves, illustrated with my commentaries upon them, according to your request. I will now only quote those which are opportune and to the present purpose, and they are the words of Socrates to Callicles the Athenian, who was the companion and scholar of Gorgias the rhetorician. For so saith Socrates in Plato:
Hear then, saith he, a most elegant story, which you, 1 fancy, will think to be a fable, but I take it to be a truth, for the things which I shall tell you have nothing but reality in them. Jupiter, Neptune, and Pluto, as Homer tells us, divided amongst themselves the kingdom which they received by inheritance from their father; but there was a law established concerning men in the reign of Saturn, which was then valid and still remains in force atnongst the Gods, that that mortal which had led a just and pious life should go, when he died, into the fortunate islands of the blest, and there dwell in happiness, free from all misery; but he that had lived impiously and in contempt of the Gods should be shackled with vengeance, and be thrust into that prison which they call Tartarus. In the time of Saturn, and in the first beginning of Jove’s empire, the living judged the living, and that the same day that they were to die; whereupon the decisions of the bench were not rightly managed. Therefore Pluto and his curators under him came out of these fortunate islands, and complained to Jupiter that men were sent to both places who were not worthy. I, saith Jupiter, will take care that this thing be not practised for the future; for the reason that the sentences are now unjustly passed is that the guilty come clothed to the tribunal, and whilst they are yet alive. For some of profligate dispositions are yet palliated with a beautiful outside, with riches, and titles of nobility; and so when they come to be arraigned, many will offer themselves as witnesses to swear that they have lived very pious lives. The judges are dazzled with these appearances, and they sit upon them too in their robes; so that their minds are (as it were) covered and obscured with eyes and ears, and indeed with the encumbrance of the whole body. The judges and the prisoners being clothed is thus a very great impediment. Therefore in the first place the foreknowledge of death is to be taken away; for now they see the end of their line, and Prometheus has been commanded to see that this be no longer allowed. Next they ought to be divested of all dress and ornament, and come dead to the tribunal. The judge himself is to be naked and dead too, that with his own soul he may view the naked soul of each one so soon as he is dead, when he is now forsaken of his relations, and has left behind him all his gayeties in the other world; and so justice will be impartially pronounced. Deliberating on this with myself before I received your advice, I have constituted my sons judges, Minos and Rhadamanthus from Asia, and Aeacus from Europe; these therefore, after they have departed this life, shall assume their character, and exercise it in the field, and in the road where two ways divide themselves, the one leading to the fortunate islands, and the other to the deep abyss; so Rhadamanthus shall judge the Asians, and Aeacus the Europeans. But to Minos I will grant the authority of a final appeal, that if any thing hath escaped the notice of the others, it shall be subjected to his cognizance, as to the last resort of a supreme judge; that so it may be rightly decided what journey every one ought to take. These are the things, Callicles, which I have heard and think to be true; and I draw this rational inference from them, that death in my opinion is nothing else but the separation of two things nearly united, which are soul and body.
ταῦτά σοι συναγαγών, Ἀπολλώνιε φίλτατε, καὶ συνθεὶς μετὰ πολλῆς ἐπιμελείας ἀπειργασάμην τὸν παραμυθητικόν σοι λόγον, ἀναγκαιότατον ὄντα σοι πρός; τε τὴν τῆς παρούσης λύπης ἀπαλλαγὴν καὶ τοῦ πάντων ἀνιαροτάτου πένθους παῦλαν. περιέχει δὲ καὶ τὴν πρὸς τὸν θεοφιλέστατον υἱόν σου Ἀπολλώνιον πρέπουσαν τιμήν, ποθεινοτάτην οὖσαν τοῖς ἀφιερωθεῖσι, τὴν διὰ τῆς ἀγαθῆς μνήμης καὶ τῆς ἀδιαλείπτου πρὸς τὸν ἀεὶ χρόνον εὐφημίας. καλῶς οὖν ποιήσεις καὶ τῷ λόγῳ πεισθεὶς καὶ τῷ μακαρίτῃ σου υἱῷ χαρισάμενος καὶ μεταβαλὼν ἐκ τῆς ἀνωφελοῦς περὶ τὸ σῶμα καὶ τὴν ψυχὴν κακώσεως καὶ καταφθορᾶς ἐπὶ τὴν συνήθη σοι καὶ κατὰ φύσιν διαγωγὴν ἐλθεῖν. ὡς γὰρ οὐδὲ συμβιῶν ἡμῖν ἡδέως ἑώρα κατηφεῖς ὄντας οὔτε σὲ οὔτε τὴν μητέρα, οὕτως οὐδὲ νῦν μετὰ θεῶν ὢν καὶ τούτοις συνεστιώμενος εὐαρεστήσειεν ἂν τῇ τοιαύτῃ ὑμῶν διαγωγῇ. ἀνδρὸς οὖν ἀγαθοῦ καὶ γενναίου καὶ φιλοτέκνου φρόνημα ἀναλαβὼν σεαυτόν τε καὶ τὴν μητέρα τοῦ νεανίσκου καὶ τοὺς συγγενεῖς καὶ φίλους ἔκλυσαι τῆς τοιαύτης κακοδαιμονίας, εἰς γαληνότερον μετελθὼν βίου σχῆμα καὶ προσφιλέστερον τῷ τε υἱῷ σου καὶ πᾶσιν ἡμῖν τοῖς κηδομένοις σου κατὰ τὸ προσῆκον.
These collections, my dear Apollonius, I have joined together with all the accuracy I could, and out of them composed this consolatory letter I now send thee, which is very necessary to dispel thy melancholy humor and put a period to thy sighs. I have paid likewise that deference which became me to the ashes of thy son, who is the darling of the Gods, such an honor being most acceptable to those whom fame hath consecrated to immortality. Thou wilt therefore do handsomely to believe the reasons I have urged to thee, and gratify thy deceased son, by shaking off this unprofitable sorrow, which eats into thy mind and afflicts thy body, and again returning to that course of humor which nature hath chalked out and the former customs of thy life have made familiar to thee. For as, when thy son lived amongst us, he could not without the deepest regret see thee or his mother sad, so now that he is amongst the Gods enjoying the intimacy of their conversation, such a prospect from thence must be much more displeasing. Therefore take up the resolutions of a good and generous man and of one who loved his son, and so extricate thyself, the mother of the lad, thy kinsmen and friends at once from this great infelicity. Betake thyself to a more tranquil sort of life; which, as it will be acceptable to thy son, will also be extremely pleasing to all of us who have that concern for thee that we ought to have.
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