Plato's Most Beautiful Myth
The Myth of Er. Read an excerpt from my new book, 'Plato: Letters to my Son'.
Plato, 424-348 BC
"There is an old myth, which I have heard and told many
times, of a soldier called Er who was slain in battle. Twelve days
later, Er came
back
to life to tell of what he had seen whilst he was dead. His soul had
been on a journey with a great company to a meadow with four openings,
two into the heavens and two into the earth. Judges sat in this meadow
and ordered the good souls into the heavens and the bad ones into the
earth. Meanwhile, clean and bright souls floated down from the other
opening into the heavens, and dusty and worn out souls rose up from the
other opening into the earth. Each soul had returned from a thousand
year journey, but whereas the clean souls spoke merrily of what they had
experienced in the heavens, the dusty souls wept at what they had
endured in the underground. Souls that had committed heinous crimes,
such as those of tyrants or murderers, were not permitted to rise up
into the meadow and were condemned to an eternity in the underground.
After seven days, the souls that had gathered in the meadow travelled
for five more days to the Spindle of Necessity, a shaft of intensely
bright light that extends into the heavens and holds together the
universe.
Once they had arrived at the foot of the Spindle of
Necessity, the souls were asked to come forth one by one and to choose
their
next
life from a scattered jigsaw of human and animal lives. Not having
known the terrors of the underworld, the first soul hastily chose the
life of a powerful dictator, only to discover that he was fated, amongst
others evils, to devour his own children. His previous life had been
virtuous out of habit rather than out of
philosophy,
and so his judgement was poor. In contrast, the souls that had known
the terrors of the underworld often chose a better, more virtuous life,
but on no other basis than bitter experience. Thus, many of the souls
exchanged a good destiny for an
evil
or an evil for a good. The soul of wily Odysseus, which was the last to
come forth, sought out the life of a private man with no cares.
This he
found
lying
about, neglected by everybody else. After this, the souls travelled
through the scorching Plain of Oblivion and encamped by the River of
Forgetfulness. Each soul was required to drink from the river’s water so
as to forget all things, but the souls that had not been saved by
wisdom
drank more than was strictly necessary. In the night, as they slept,
the souls shot up like stars to be reborn into their chosen life. As
they did so, Er opened his eyes to find himself lying on his funeral
pyre."
Plato: Letters to my Son, has just been published.
**Book launch promotion: The ebook edition is currently free from Amazon.**
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