deification of the soul: sources

Æmpædoklís

Æmpædoklís (Empedocles; Gr. Ἐμπεδοκλῆς. 490-430 BCE)

For a brief biography of Æmpædoklís, please visit this page: ÆMPÆDOKLÍS - ΕΜΠΕΔΟΚΛΗΣ.

Fragment 102(112) (concerning deification)

"My friends who live in the great town of the tawny Acragas, on the city's citadel, who care for good deeds (havens of kindness for strangers, men ignorant of misfortune), greetings! I tell you I travel up and down as an immortal God, mortal no longer, honored by all as it seems, crowned with ribbons and fresh garlands. Whenever I enter prospering towns I am revered by both men and women. They follow me in countless numbers, to ask where their advantage lies, some seeking prophecies, others, long pierced by harsh pains, ask to hear the word of healing for all kinds of illnesses." (Empedocles: The Extant Fragments, translated by M.R. Wright, 1981 Yale, found in the 2001 Bristol Classical Press edition on p. 264)

Professor Wright (the translator of the above fragment) goes on to express the opinion of Sextus (adv. math. I.302) that Æmpædoklís' claim to deity is "not (ed. meant), according to the obvious assumption, as a boast but as arising from the conviction that Empedocles had kept free from evil, and so, by means of the god within, apprehended the god without; this interpretation is supported by Plotinus, 4.7.10.38." (Ibid. Wright, p. 264)

Fragment 105 (113) (deification and reincarnation)

"But why do I lay stress on this, as if it were some great achievement of mine, if I am superior to many-times-dying mortal men?" (Ibid. Wright, p. 268)

Fragment 107 (115) (on reincarnation)

"There is a decree of necessity, ratified long ago by Gods, eternal and sealed by broad oaths, that whenever one in error, from fear, (defiles) his own limbs, having by his error made false the oath he swore--daimons to whom life long-lasting is apportioned--he wanders from the blessed ones for three times countless years, being born throughout the time as all kinds of mortal forms, exchanging one hard way of life for another. For the force of air pursues him into sea, and sea spits him out onto earth's surface, earth casts him into the rays of blazing sun, and sun into the eddies of air; one takes him from another, and all abhor him. I too am now one of these, an exile from the Gods and a wanderer, having put my trust in raving strife." (Ibid. Wright, p. 270)

Fragment 108 (117) (reincarnation)

"For before now I have been at some time boy and girl, bush, bird, and a mute fish in the sea." (Ibid. Wright, p. 275)

Fragment 131 (127) (on Próödos/Progress)

"Among animals they are born as lions that make their lairs in the hills and bed on the ground, and among fair-leafed trees as laurels." (Ibid. Wright, p. 290)

Fragment 132 (146) (on deification and Próödos/Progress)

"And at the end they come among men on earth as prophets, minstrels, physicians, and leaders, and from these they arise as Gods, highest in honor." (Ibid. Wright, p. 291)

Fragment 133 (147) (on deification)

"With other Immortals they share hearth and table, having no part in human sorrows, unwearied." (Ibid. Wright, p. 292)

Golden Tablets This term, Golden Tablet, refers to sheets of gold upon which are inscriptions. These inscriptions were found in the graves of devotees who were Orphic or Dionysian. Many of the texts are instructions to the deceased as to how to proceed in the time between lives. Most of the tablets date from the fourth century BCE.

Golden Tablet: V. Compagno tablet (a)

"Out of the pure I come, Pure Queen of Them Below,

Eukles and Eubouleus, and other Gods immortal,

For I also avow me that I am of your blessed race,

But Fate laid me low and the other Gods immortal

.................. star-flung thunderbolt.

I have flown out of the sorrowful weary Wheel.

I have passed with eager feet to the Circle desired.

I have entered into the bosom of Despoina, Queen of the Underworld.

I have passed with eager feet from the Circle desired.

Happy and Blessed One, thou shalt be God instead of mortal.

A kid I have fallen into milk."

( Kaibel, CIGIS 641, Prolegomena to the Study of Greek Religion by J. E. Harrison in 1903, found in the 1991 Princeton Univ. Press edition on p. 585)

Lucanian Golden Tablet - 3 Thurii 1 (excerpt) 1-4

"But as soon as the soul has left the light of the sun,

Go to the right [....] being very careful of all things.

'Greetings, you who have suffered the painful thing; you have never endured this before.

You have become a God instead of a mortal. A kid you fell into the milk.' "

(Ritual Texts for the Afterlife by Fritz Graf and Sarah Iles Johnston, Routledge Taylor & Francis Group, 2007, p. 9)

Golden Tablet: 29 Unknown place in Thessaly

"I (masculine) am parched with thirst and am dying; but grant me to drink

from the ever-flowing spring. On the right is a white cypress.

'Who are you? Where are you from?' I am a son of Earth and starry Sky.

But my race is heavenly."

(Ritual Texts for the Afterlife by Fritz Graf and Sarah Iles Johnston, Routledge Taylor & Francis Group, 2007, p. 41)

Iródotos the Historian

(Herodotus; Gr. Ἡρόδοτος. 484–425 BCE) is called the "Father of History" on account of his book on the subject (primarily) of the Persian Wars. It is one of the very first histories and Iródotos made an attempt at accuracy, although he is also called the "father of lies" by those who think he stretched the truth. The English word, history, is derived from the title of Iródotos' book: Ἱστορίαι (inquiries).

On reincarnation:

"The Egyptians maintain that Demeter and Dionysus preside in the realms below. They were also the first to broach the opinion, that the soul of man is immortal, and that, when the body dies, it enters into the form of an animal which is born at the moment, thence passing on from one animal into another, until it has circled through the forms of all the creatures which tenant the earth, the water, and the air, after which it enters again into a human frame, and is born anew. The whole period of the transmigration is (they say) three thousand years. There are Greek writers, some of an earlier, some of a later date, who borrowed this doctrine from the Egyptians, and put it forward as their own. I could mention their names, but I abstain from doing so."

(Herodotus: The Histories Book II, 123, trans. George Rawlinson in 1910, found in the 1997 Everyman's Library/Alfred A. Knopf edition on p. 188)

PíndarosPíndaros (Pindar; Gr. Πίνδαρος. 522–443 BCE) was one of the canonical nine lyric poets of ancient Greece.

Dirges Fragment 133:

"The spirits of just men made perfect

But, as for those from whom Persephone shall exact the penalty of their pristine woe, in the ninth year she once more restoreth their souls to the upper sun-light; and from these come into being august monarchs, and men who are swift in strength and supreme in wisdom; and, for all future time, men call them sainted heroes." (Pindar Dirges 133 (98), trans. Sir J. E. Sandys in 1915; found here in the 1968 Loeb/Heineman/Harvard edition [56] of The Odes of Pindar on p. 593)

PlátohnPlátohn (Plato; Gr. Πλάτων. 428-347 BCE), the student of Sohkrátis (Socrates; Gr. Σωκράτης. 470-399 BCE) the philosopher, is one our main sources for the ancient belief in the immortality of the soul and reincarnation.

Politeia (The Republic; Gr. Πολιτεία) on reincarnation:

THE MYTH OF ER: A man name Er has died in battle along with many others, but Er's body does not decay. Many days after his death, he revives and recounts in detail the activities of the afterlife.

"When Er and the spirits arrived, their duty was to go at once to Lachesis (ed. one of Moirai [Gr. Μοῖραι], the Fates); but first of all there came a prophet who arranged them in order; then he took from the knees of Lachesis lots and samples of lives, and having mounted a high pulpit, spoke as follows: 'Hear the word of Lachesis, the daughter of Necessity. Mortal souls, behold a new cycle of life and mortality. Your genius will not be allotted to you, but you will choose your genius; and let him who draws the first lot have the first choice, and the life which he chooses shall be his destiny. Virtue is free, and as a man honours or dishonours her he will have more of less of her; the responsibility is with the chooser--God is justified.' When the Interpreter had thus spoken he scattered lots indifferently among them all, and each of them took up the lot which fell near him, all but Er himself (he was not allowed), and each as he took his lot perceived the number which he had obtained. Then the Interpreter placed on the ground before them the samples of lives; and there were many more lives than the souls present, and they were of all sorts. There were lives of every animal and of man in every condition. And there were tyrannies among them, some lasting out the tyrant's life, others which broke off in the middle and came to an end in poverty and exile and beggary; and there were lives of famous men, some who were famous for their form and beauty as well as for their strength and success in games, or, again, for their birth and the qualities of their ancestors; and some who were the reverse of famous for the opposite qualities. And of women likewise; there was not, however, any definite character in them, because the soul, when choosing a new life, must of necessity become different. But there was every other quality, and they all mingled with one another, and also with elements of wealth and poverty, and disease and health; and there were mean states also. And here, my dear Glaucon, is the supreme peril of our human state; and therefore the utmost care should be taken. Let each one of us leave every other kind of knowledge and seek and follow one thing only, if peradventure he may be able to learn and find some one who will make him able to learn and discern between good and evil, and so to choose always and everywhere the better life as he has opportunity. He should consider the bearing of all these things which have been mentioned severally and collectively upon virtue; he should know what the effect of beauty is when combined with poverty or wealth in a particular soul, and what are the good and evil consequences of noble and humble birth, of private and public station, of strength and weakness, of cleverness and dullness, and of all the natural and acquired gifts of the soul, and the operation of them when conjoined; he will then look at the nature of the soul, and from the consideration of all these qualities he will be able to determine which is the better and which is the worse; and so he will choose, giving the name of evil to the life which will make his soul more unjust, and good to the life which will make his soul more just; all else he will disregard.......

"All the souls had now chosen their lives, and they went in the order of their choice to Lachesis, who sent with them the genius whom they had severally chosen, to be the guardian of their lives and the fulfiller of the choice: this genius led the souls first to Clotho (ed. one of the Fates), and drew them within the revolution of the spindle impelled by her hand, thus ratifying the destiny of each; and then, when they were fastened to this, carried them to Atropos (ed. one of the Fates), and when they had all passed, they marched on in a scorching heat to the plain of Forgetfulness, which was a barren waste destitute of trees and verdure; and then towards evening they encamped by the river of Unmindfulness, whose water no vessel can hold; of this they were all obliged to drink a certain quantity, and those who were not saved by wisdom drank more than was necessary; and each one as he drank forgot all things. Now after they had gone to rest, about the middle of the night there was a thunderstorm and earthquake, and then in an instant they were driven upwards in all manner of ways to their birth, like stars shooting." (Plato The Republic, X.617d-621b, translated by Benjamin Jowett in 1892, found here in the 1937 Random House edition of The Dialogues of Plato, Vol. I, on pp. 875-878)

Mǽnohn (Meno; Gr. Μένων) on reincarnation:

Sohkrátis (Socrates; Gr. Σωκράτης): "Some of them were priests and priestesses, who had studied how they might be able to give a reason of their profession: there have been poets also, who spoke of these things by inspiration, like Pindar, and many others who were inspired. And they say--mark, now, and see whether their words are true--they say that the soul of man is immortal, and at one time has an end, which is termed dying and at another time is born again, but is never destroyed. And the moral is, that a man ought to live always in perfect holiness. 'For in the ninth year Persephone sends the souls of those from whom she has received the penalty of ancient crime back again from beneath into the light of the sun above, and these are they who become noble kings and mighty men and great in wisdom and are called saintly heroes in after ages.' The soul, then, as being immortal, and having been born again many times, and having seen all things that exist, whether in this world or in the world below, has knowledge of them all; and it is no wonder that she should be able to call to remembrance all that she ever knew about virtue,..." (Plato's Meno, 81a-b, translated by Benjamin Jowett in 1892, found here in the 1937 Random House edition of The Dialogues of Plato, Vol. I, on p. 360)

Phaidohn (Phaedo; Gr. Φαίδων) on reincarnation:

"Suppose we consider the question whether the souls of men after death are or are not in the world below. There comes into my mind an ancient doctrine which affirms that they go from hence into the other world, and returning hither, are born again from the dead." (Plato's Phaedo, 70c, translated by Benjamin Jowett in 1892, found here in the 1937 Random House edition of The Dialogues of Plato, Vol. I, on p. 453)

Thæaititos (Theaetetus; Gr. Θεαίτητος) on becoming God-like:

"Evils, Theodorus, can never pass away; for there must always remain something which is antagonistic to good. Having no place among the Gods in heaven, of necessity they hover around the mortal nature, and this earthly sphere. Wherefore we ought to fly away from earth to heaven as quickly as we can; and to fly away is to become like God, as far as this is possible: and to become like him, is to become holy, just, and wise." (Plato's Theaetetus, 176a-b, translated by Benjamin Jowett, Macmillan 1892, found here in the Random House 1937 edition of The Dialogues of Plato on p. 178)

Plotínos Plotínos (Plotinus; Gr. Πλωτῖνος. 204-270 CE) was a Neoplatonic philosopher of late antiquity who had tremendous influence, not only in the ancient religion, but extending to Christianity, Islam, and Judaism.

"Since it is here that evils are, and 'they must necessarily haunt this region,' and the soul wants to escape from evils, we must escape from her. What, then, is this escape? 'Being made like God,' Plato says [ed. Thæaititos 176]. 'And we become godlike 'if we become righteous and holy with the help of wisdom,' and are altogether in virtue. If then it is virtue which makes us like, it presumably makes us like a being possessing virtue. Then what God would that be? Would it be the one that appears to be particularly characterised by the possession of virtue, that is, the soul of the universe and its ruling principle, in which there is a wonderful wisdom? It is reasonable to suppose that we should become like this principle, as we are here in its universe." (Plotinus' Ennead I.2.1, trans. A.H. Armstrong, 1966, found in the 1995 Loeb/Harvard edition LCL 440 on p. 127.)

Ploutarkhos

Ploutarkhos (Plutarch; Gr. Πλούταρχος. 45-120 CE) was a Middle-Platonist philosopher and a priest of Apollo at Delphi. He is likely most famous for his parallel biographies of famous Greek and Roman personages. Ploutarkhos also wrote many essays on a wide variety of subjects.

"This (ed. regarding an apparition of Romulus had by Julius Proculus) is like some of the Greek fables of Aristeas the Proconnesian, and Cleomedes the Astypalaean; for they say Aristeas died in a fuller's workshop, and his friends coming to look for him, found his body vanished; and that some presently after, coming from abroad, said they met him travelling towards Croton. And that Cleomedes, being an extraordinarily strong and gigantic man, but also wild and mad, committed many desperate freaks; and at last, in a school-house, striking a pillar that sustained the roof with his fist, broke it in the middle, so that the house fell and destroyed the children in it; and being pursued, he fled into a great chest, and, shutting to the lid, held it so fast, that many men, with their united strength, could not force it open; afterwards, breaking the chest to pieces, they found no man in it alive or dead; in astonishment at which, they sent to consult the oracle at Delphi; to whom the prophetess made this answer,-

'Of all the heroes, Cleomede is last.'

They say, too, the body of Alcmena, as they were carrying her to her grave, vanished, and a stone was found lying on the bier. And many such improbabilities do your fabulous writers relate, deifying creatures naturally mortal; for though altogether to disown a divine nature in human virtue were impious and base, so again, to mix heaven with earth is ridiculous. Let us believe with Pindar, that---

'All human bodies yield to Death's decree,

The soul survives to all eternity.'

For that alone is derived from the Gods, thence comes, and thither returns; not with the body, but when most disengaged and separated from it, and when most entirely pure and clean and free from the flesh: for the most perfect soul, says Heraclitus, is a dry light, which flies out of the body as lightning breaks from a cloud; but that which is clogged and surfeited with body is like gross and humid incense, slow to kindle and ascend. We must not, therefore, contrary to nature, send the bodies, too, of good men to heaven; but we must really believe that, according to their divine nature and law, their virtue and their souls are translated out of men into heroes, out of heroes into demi-gods, out of demi-gods, after passing, as in the rite of initiation, through a final cleansing and sanctification, and so freeing themselves from all that pertains to mortality and sense, are thus, not by human decree, but really and according to right reason, elevated into Gods admitted thus to the greatest and most blessed perfection." (Plutarch's Life of Romulus, 28:4-8, trans. Dryden, 1683; we are using the 1992 Random House/Modern Library edition, Plutarch's Lives, where this quotation may be found in Vol.I, pp. 47-48)

Porphýrios

Porphýrios (Porphyry; Gr. Πορφύριος. 234-305 CE) was a Neoplatonic philosopher of late antiquity, the student of Plotínos (Plotinus; Gr. Πλωτῖνος) who edited the Ænnæádæs (Enneads; Gr. Ἐννεάδες). Porphýrios wrote much of his own, including a biography of his teacher.

On the Life of Plotínos:

22. "...Now Apollo (ed. the Pythian Oracle) was asked by Amelius where the soul of Plotinus had gone... Listen to the oracle that he gave to Plotinus' circle:

'...Daemon, once a man, but now attaining the more divine lot of daemons, since you have loosed the bond of human necessity, and in the vigour of your spirit have swum from the roaring billows of the bodily frame towards the shore of a peaceful headland, in your haste to set going the well-turned course of a pure soul far away from the mob of sinners. There the light of God shines forth, there are the righteous in purity, far off from unrighteous sin. And even then, as you leapt to escape from beneath the bitter wave of this blood-gorged life with its noisome swirls, in the very midst of the wave and the sudden billow, the nearby goal was frequently revealed to you by the blessed ones. Often, as the shafts of your mind were set loose to run in veering paths by their own impulses, the immortal ones set them straight and raised them up to the spheres in their deathless course, sending a frequent ray of light to enable your eyes to see through the maudlin gloom. Nor did sweet sleep ever take hold of your eyelids, but, pulling the heavy bolt of mist from your eyelids, you in your eddying course beheld things many and fair, which no-one could have seen easily among those who were after wisdom.

But now that you have put off the tabernacle, and have left the tomb of your daemonic soul, you have already entered the daemonic band that exhales winds of delight, where friendship is, where there is desire to please the eyes; you are full of pure gladness and are constantly being filled with immortal currents from the Gods, the source of the loves' enticements, of sweet breath and tranquil air. There dwell Minos and Rhadamanthus, brothers of the great Zeus's golden race, there the just Aeacus, there Plato, that divine and powerful man, there glorious Pythagoras, and all those who have set going the dance of immortal love, all those whose lot it was to share a common race with the happiest of daemons, where the heart has joy in festive gladness. O blessed one, what a great number of contests you endured, you who now follow the saintly daemons, wearing a crest of doughty lives!

Muses, let us put an end to our chant and the winding circle of the dance for Plotinus in his jubilation. This much, for my part, has my golden lyre to say of his good fortune.' " (Porphyry On the Life of Plotinus, translated by Mark Edwards, 2000, Liverpool University Press, pp. 40-44)

Próklos

Próklos (Proclus; Gr. Πρόκλος. 412-485 CE), the Neoplatonist, was one of the last great philosophers in late antiquity from the Greek tradition.

"Thus, my friend, when someone actualizes what really is the most divine activity of the soul, and entrusts himself only to the 'flower of the intellect' and brings himself to rest not only from the external motions, but also from the internal, he will become a God as far as this is possible for a soul, and will know only in the way the Gods know everything in an ineffable manner, each according to their proper one." (Proclus On Providence 32., translated by Carlos Steel, Cornel University Press 2007, p. 56)