μὲν εἰς μακάρων νήσους, ἡ δ ̓ εἰς Τάρταρον (Gorg. 524 Α). The topography of this passage corresponds with that of Rep. 614 c ff., where, however, it is added that the Xepov of the judgment-seat is also the spot in which the souls, returned from their thousand years' sojourn in Tartarus and Heaven (ie. the Islands of the Blessed), meet, and rest, before going on to the place where they choose their new lives before drinking of the water of Lethe. In the Gorgias the two ways mentioned are (1) that to Tartarus, and (2) that to the Islands of the Blessed; and the λepov of judgment is the parting of the ways"-év T Tρiódw,-no reference being made to a third way leading to the throne of Necessity, and thence to the Plain of Lethe. In the parallel passage in Rep. 614 c ff. the ways are not mentioned as three; but they are three (1) the way to Tartarus, (2) the way to Heaven, and (3) the way to the Plain of Lethe all three diverging from the λειμών.

at

The "Three Ways," as indicated in the Myth of Er,—one to Tartarus, one to Heaven, and the third to Lethe (a river of the surface of the Earth), constantly occur in the literature which reflects Orphic influence. They even appear in the folk-lore represented by the story of Thomas the Rhymer :

Light down, light down now, true Thomas,
And lean your head upon my knee:

Abide, and rest a little space,

And I will show you ferlies three.

Oh see ye not yon narrow road,

So thick beset wi' thorns and briars?
That is the path of righteousness,
Though after it but few inquires.

And see not ye that braid braid road,

That lies across the lily leven?

That is the path of wickedness,

Though some call it the road to Heaven.

And see not ye that bonny road,

That winds about the fernie brae?

That is the road to fair Elf-land,

Where thou and I this night maun gae.

1 See Dieterich, Nekyia, 89, 90, and especially Rohde, Psy. ii. 221, note.

The three parts of the Divina Commedia correspond, in the main, to the "Three Ways." The theological doctrine of Purgatory, to which Dante gives such noble imaginative expression, is alien to the Hebrew spirit, and came to the Church mainly from the Platonic doctrine of κáðaρois— especially as the doctrine found expression in Eschatological Myths reflecting Orphic teaching.1

We come now to the Myth of Er (Rep. 614 ▲ ff.), the greatest of Plato's Eschatological Myths, whether the fulness of its matter or the splendour of its form be considered.

1 See Thompson's note on Gorg. 525 B.

THE MYTH OF ER IN THE REPUBLIC

CONTEXT

THE subject of the Republic is Justice-that character in the individual which manifests itself in the steady performance of Duty-Duty being what a man does for the maintenance of a certain Type of Social Life, the good of which he has been educated to identify with his own good.

What, then, is this Type of Social Life, in living for which a man does his Duty and finds his true Happiness?

The Republic is mainly concerned with the description of it, and of the Education which fits men for it; and as the Dialogue proceeds, the reader, who enters into the feelings of the dramatis personae, becomes, with them, more and more convinced that true Happiness, in this world, is to be found only in the steady performance of Duty in and for a State ordered according to the spirit, if not according to the letter, of the Constitution described by Socrates. In this world, certainly, the man who does his Duty, as Socrates defines it, has his great reward. He is 29 times happier than the man who, despising the law of Duty, has fallen under the tyranny of Pleasure.

But a greater reward awaits the Righteous man, and greater torments are prepared for the Unrighteous man, in the world to come. For the Soul is immortal; and an ontological proof of its immortality is given.

Then, as though this proof were insufficient, the Republic ends with the Myth of Er (told by Socrates), which proves, indeed, nothing for the Understanding, but visualises, for the Imagination, the hope of the Heart.

Republic 613 E-621 D

Α μὲν τοίνυν, ἦν δ ̓ ἐγώ, ζῶντι τῷ δικαίῳ παρὰ θεῶν 614 τε καὶ ἀνθρώπων ἆθλά τε καὶ μισθοὶ καὶ δῶρα γίγνεται πρὸς ἐκείνοις τοῖς ἀγαθοῖς οἷς αὐτὴ παρείχετο ἡ δικαιοσύνη, τοιαῦτ ̓ ἂν εἴη. Καὶ μάλ ̓, ἔφη, καλά τε καὶ βέβαια. Ταῦτα τοίνυν, ἦν δ ̓ ἐγώ, οὐδέν ἐστι πλήθει οὐδὲ μεγέθει πρὸς ἐκεῖνα, ἃ τελευτήσαντα ἑκάτερον περιμένει. χρὴ δ ̓ αὐτὰ ἀκοῦσαι, ἵνα τελέως ἑκάτερος αὐτῶν ἀπειλήφῃ τὰ ὑπὸ τοῦ λόγου ὀφειλόμενα ἀκοῦσαι. Λέγοις ἄν, ἔφη, ὡς οὐ πολλὰ Β ἄλλ ̓ ἥδιον ἀκούοντι. Αλλ ̓ οὐ μέντοι σοι, ἦν δ ̓ ἐγώ, ̓Αλκίνου γε ἀπόλογον ἐρῶ, ἀλλ ̓ ἀλκίμου μὲν ἀνδρός, Ἠρὸς τοῦ ̓Αρμενίου, τὸ γένος Παμφύλου· ὅς ποτε ἐν πολέμῳ τελευ τήσας, 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 στὴν ψυχήν, πορεύεσθαι μετὰ πολλῶν, καὶ ἀφικνεῖσθαι σφᾶς εἰς τόπον τινὰ δαιμόνιον, ἐν ᾧ τῆς τε γῆς δύ ̓ εἶναι χάσματε ἐχομένω ἀλλήλοιν καὶ τοῦ οὐρανοῦ αὖ ἐν τῷ ἄνω ἄλλα καταντικρύ. δικαστὰς δὲ μεταξὺ τούτων καθῆσθαι, οὓς, ἐπειδὴ διαδικάσειαν, τοὺς μὲν δικαίους κελεύειν πορεύεσθαι τὴν εἰς δεξιάν τε καὶ ἄνω διὰ τοῦ οὐρανοῦ, σημεία περιάψαντας τῶν δεδικασμένων ἐν τῷ πρόσθεν, τοὺς δὲ ἀδίκους τὴν εἰς ἀριστεράν τε καὶ κάτω, ἔχοντας καὶ τούτους ἐν τῷ D ὄπισθεν σημεία πάντων ὧν ἔπραξαν. ἑαυτοῦ δὲ προσελ. θόντος εἰπεῖν, ὅτι δέοι αὐτὸν ἄγγελον ἀνθρώποις γενέσθαι

TRANSLATION

"Of such sort, then, are the prizes and the wages and the gifts which the just man receiveth, while he is yet alive, from Gods and Men, over and above those good things whereof I spake which Justice herself provideth."

"Yea, in truth goodly gifts," quoth he, "and exceeding sure."

"Well," I said, "they are even as nothing, for number and greatness, in comparison with those things which await each of the two, to wit, the just man and the unjust man, when he is dead. Of these thou must hear, that each of them may have full payment of that which this Discourse oweth him to be said concerning him.”

"Say on," quoth he, "there is little else I would hear more gladly."

Nay," said I, "but it is not a Tale of Alcinous I will tell thee, but the story of a mighty man, Er, the son of Armenius, of the nation of the Pamphylians.

"It came to pass that he fell in battle; and when the corpses were taken up on the tenth day already stinking, he was taken up sound; and when they had carried him home. and were about to bury him, on the twelfth day, being laid on the pyre, he came to life again; and began to tell of the things which he saw there.

"

'He said that when his Soul went out, it journeyed together with a great company, and they came unto a certain ghostly place wherein were two open Mouths of the Earth hard by each other, and also above, two Mouths of the Heaven, over against them: and Judges were seated between these, who, when they had given their judgments, bade the righteous take the road which leadeth to the right hand and up through Heaven; and they fastened tablets on them in front, signifying the judgments; but the unjust they sent by the road which leadeth to the left hand and down, and they also had tablets fastened on them behind, signifying all that they had done. But when he himself came before the Judges they said unto him that he must be for a messenger unto men concerning the things there, and they charged him straitly that