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267:, he tells how Er, the son of Armenius, miraculously returned to life on the twelfth day after death and recounted the secrets of the other world. After death, he said, he went with others to the place of Judgment and saw the souls returning from heaven, and proceeded with them to a place where they chose new lives, human and animal. He saw the soul of Orpheus changing into a swan, Thamyras becoming a nightingale, musical birds choosing to be men, and Atalanta choosing the honours of an athlete. Men were seen passing into animals and wild and tame animals changing into each other. After their choice, the souls drank of
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for the wheel of birth revolves inexorably. Thus, the soul continues its journey and alternates between a separate unrestrained existence and a fresh reincarnation around the wide circle of necessity, as the companion of many bodies of men and animals. To those unfortunate prisoners, Orpheus proclaims the message of liberation, that they stand in need of the grace of redeeming gods,
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founder, is said to have taught that soul and body are united by a compact unequally binding on either. The soul is divine but immortal and aspires to freedom, while the body holds it in fetters as a prisoner. Death dissolves that contract but only to reimprison the liberated soul after a short time,
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in particular, and calls them to turn to the gods by ascetic piety and self-purification: the purer their lives, the higher their next reincarnation will be, until the soul has completed the spiral ascent of destiny to live forever as a God from whom it comes. Such was the teaching of
Orphism, which
652:. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2018. Naddaf 2016: 113 says that this part of Plato's thinking can be represented "only by eschatological or cosmological myths. It is inaccessible to explanation." See Naddaf, Gerard. "Poetic Myths of the Afterlife: Plato's Last Song,"
245:(associated with Orphism), whereas for the Greeks, Apollo and Dionysus were brothers and not so clearly differentiated. Pythagoras offered as evidence for metempsychosis his own recollection of past lives, a superhuman form of wisdom that contributed to his reputation as a prophet.
625:"That is the conclusion, I said; and if a true conclusion, then the souls must always be the same, for if none be destroyed they will not diminish in number." Republic X, 611. The Republic of Plato By Plato, Benjamin Jowett Edition: 3 Published by Clarendon Press, 1888.
647:
Jorgensen 2018: 199 says that Plato's eschatological accounts are "much better suited to a creative discourse aimed at capturing the imagination of a particular audience than to an attempt to describe an independently existing reality." See
Jorgensen, Chad.
236:
has argued that
Pythagoras may have introduced metempsychosis to Orphism. He suggests that modern scholarship's tendency to separate Orphism from early Pythagoreanism is a retrojection, possibly of Nietzschean ideas about the opposition of the
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171:; a drop of water from the vapours in the sky transforms into a mountain stream, which flows into a great river and on into the sea, whence rises a dragon (pictured) that turns back to vapour;
328:, consists of two parts, the "Epistle" and "The Progress of the Soule". In the first line of the latter part, Donne writes that he "sing of the progresse of a deathlesse soule".
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argued that Plato's references to metempsychosis were intended to be allegorical. Modern scholars, including Chad
Jorgensen and Gerard Naddaf, have tended to agree with Ficino.
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and then shot away like stars to their birth. There are myths and theories to the same effect in other dialogues, including the
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This article is about the Greek conception of the transmigration of the soul. For the general concept, see
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Schopenhauer, A: "Parerga und
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The weight and importance of metempsychosis in the
Western tradition are from its adoption by
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Long, Herbert S. (16 February 1948) "Plato's
Doctrine of Metempsychosis and Its Source"
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Scholars have debated the extent of Plato's belief in metempsychosis since at least the
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Collins, Siobhán (2005) "Bodily
Formations and Reading Strategies in John Donne's
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Villaba, Magdalena (1976). "An
Interpretation on the Doctrine of Transmigration".
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232:, who is said to have been his pupil, is its first famous philosophic exponent.
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A Study of the doctrine of metempsychosis in Greece, from
Pythagoras to Plato
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Nietzsche and the Doctrine of Metempsychosis, in J. Urpeth & J. Lippitt,
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Schibli, S., Hermann, Pherekydes of Syros, p. 104, Oxford Univ. Press 2001
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The Columbia Encyclopedia: Transmigration of souls or Metempsychosis
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The earliest Greek thinker with whom metempsychosis is connected is
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656:. Academic Printing and Publishing: Berrima, NSW, 2016, 111–136.
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563:. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press. pp. 132–133.
118:, and has been recontextualized by modern philosophers such as
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588:. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press. p. 137.
345:(1922). In Joycean fashion, the word famously appears in
520:(Long's 1942 PhD dissertation) Princeton, New Jersey,
194:, which believed in metempsychosis, first appeared in
52:. Please help to ensure that disputed statements are
654:
Reflections on Plato's Poetics: Essays from Beijing
706:"List of occurrences of Metempsychosis in Ulysses"
780:. Vol. 18 (11th ed.). pp. 259–260.
216:and elsewhere, and produced copious literature.
324:, written in 1601. The poem, also known as the
148:. Another term sometimes used synonymously is
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1120:Concepts in ancient Greek philosophy of mind
349:'s inner monologue recalling how his wife,
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650:The Embodied Soul in Plato's Later Thought
586:Lore and science in ancient Pythagoreanism
561:Lore and science in ancient Pythagoreanism
241:(associated with Pythagoreanism) and the
72:Learn how and when to remove this message
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48:Relevant discussion may be found on the
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331:Metempsychosis is a recurring theme in
114:after death. The term is derived from
1115:Concepts in ancient Greek metaphysics
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818:Ancient Greek philosophical concepts
477:National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo
173:National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo
763:Did Plato Believe in Reincarnation?
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416:Gödel Exhibition: Gödel's Century
1140:Religious philosophical concepts
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612:Republic, Book 10, section 620
198:on the northeastern frontier.
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462:, Manchester: Clinamen, 2000
144:and is also associated with
178:Important Cultural Property
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430:The Sacred And The Profane
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695:from Luminarium Editions
584:Burkert, Walter (1972).
559:Burkert, Walter (1972).
516:Long, Herbert S. (1948)
460:Nietzsche and the Divine
116:ancient Greek philosophy
777:Encyclopædia Britannica
220:Pre-Socratic philosophy
1130:Presocratic philosophy
771:"Metempsychosis"
500:Arno Press, New York,
427:Mircea Eliade (1957).
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768:Sturt, Henry (1911).
261:myth that closes the
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41:factual accuracy is
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226:Pherecydes of Syros
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394:References
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292:Timaeus
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