3

I do not think that

Lethe, is outside the sensible Cosmos.1 this inference is certain, or even probable. It is a model of the Cosmos, I think—and an old-fashioned model, with rings instead of spheres 2-not the outside of the actual Cosmos, that the Pilgrim Souls of the Republic see. In the vision of this model, or orrery, we have what is really a vision within the larger vision of the whole Myth of Er. The Pilgrim Souls are still somewhere in the sensible Cosmos-indeed, they are on the surface of the Earth somewhere. In this place, on the surface of the Earth, Necessity and the three Fates, and the rest of the pageant, appear to them, ev eidénov eïde, as the Saints appear to Dante in the lower Spheres where they really are not. Standing in this place, on the surface of the Earth-it may be on the antipodal surface of the Earth-the Pilgrim Souls see on the knees of Necessity the model of the Cosmos, with the lips of its rings making a continuous surface. It is true that in the Phaedrus Souls about to be born actually visit the νῶτον οὐρανοῦ, and see thence the ὑπερουράνιος TÓTOS, but in the Phaedrus these Souls have wings and can fly to the flammantia moenia mundi, whereas, in the Myth of Er the Souls plod on foot. This seems to me to make a great difference. In interpreting the details of a Platonic Myth we do well always to take account of the poet-philosopher's power of exact visualisation, in respect of which he can be compared only with Dante. I think, therefore, that in the Myth of

1 See R. L. Nettleship's Philosophical Lectures and Remains, ii. 361, n. 3. 2 Rep. 616 D: see Burnet, Early Greek Philosophy, p. 202, and $78 generally. Zpordulo, Prof. Burnet points out, are not spheres, but rings, what Parmenides (adopting a Pythagorean idea) calls σréparai. According to the opóvduλo-scheme, the Earth and the Heavens are not spherical, but annular. As the astronomy accepted by Plato undoubtedly made the Earth spherical, in a spherical Cosmos (see Zeller's Plato, Eng. Transl. p. 379), we must conclude that the system of rings or povduλot, in Rep. 616, is that of a model only-either an old-fashioned Pythagorean one, or an up-to-date one, in which, however, only the half of each sphere was represented, so that the internal "works" might be seen. astronomical models were in use we know from Timaeus, 40 D, where the speaker says that without the aid of a model of the Heavens it would be useless to attempt to describe certain motions; and cf. Fabricii Bibl. Gr. Liber iv. pp. 457 ff., on astronomical models in antiquity.

That

With regard to the breadth of the rims of the opóvduλo, see Mr. Adam's note on 616 E, and Appendix vi. Although the view supported by the pоrépa καὶ ἀρχαιοτέρα γραφή mentioned by Proclus that the breadth of the rims of the pordulo is proportionate, but not equal, to the diameters of the planets-is plausible, it seems better to take it that the supposed distances of the orbits from each other are signified by the breadth of the rims.

3 Par. iv. 34 f. Cf. Odys. xi. 600, τὸν δὲ μετ' εἰσενόησα βίην Ηρακληείην | εἴδωλον, αὐτὸς δὲ μετ ̓ ἀθανάτοισι θεοίσι.

Er the Souls about to be born again do not actually visit the νῶτον οὐρανοῦ.

Be this as it may, the region of the vτov ovpavoû, as described in the Phaedrus, is either the actual abode, or in close touch with the stars (Tim. 42 B), which are the actual abodes, of the purified ones who have drunk of Mnemosyne, and "always remember "-" philosophers," who have been translated from the "True Surface of the Earth," as we read in the Phaedo (114 c): οἱ φιλοσοφίᾳ ἱκανῶς καθηράμενοι ἄνευ τε σωμάτων ζῶσι τὸ παράπαν εἰς τὸν ἔπειτα χρόνον καὶ εἰς οἰκήσεις ἔτι τούτων καλλίους ἀφικνοῦνται ἃς οὔτε ῥᾴδιον δηλῶσαι οὔτε ὁ χρόνος ἱκανὸς ἐν τῷ παρόντι. The abode of these purified ones, in or within sight of the super-sensible region, corresponds to the Empyrean or motionless Heaven of Dante, the tenth and outermost Heaven, in which the blessed really dwell, although they appear, év eidánov eidet, in all the nine. moving Spheres to the poet as he ascends.1

I wish to conclude this section of my observations on the Myth of Er with a few words about the view maintained by Mr. Adam in his note on Rep. 617 B, 11:

Ανάγκης γόνασιν.-Plato means us to imagine Necessity as seated in the centre of the Universe. The notion is probably Pythagorean; for Parmenides, who attaches himself to the Pythagoreans in this part of his system (Zeller,5 i. p. 572), speaks of a central 'Aváуkη as the cause of all movement and birth; see Diels, Dox. Gr. 335. 12 f.—τῶν δὲ συμμιγῶν (sc. στεφανῶν) τὴν μεσαιτάτην ἁπάσαις τοκέα πάσης κινήσεως καὶ γενέσεως ὑπάρχειν, ἥντινα καὶ δαίμονα κυβερνῆτιν καὶ κληδοῦχον ἐπονομάζει δίκην καὶ áváуκηv; and Zeller, l.c. p. 577, n. 3 (Zeller identifies this 'Aváyκn with the central fire of the Pythagoreans). The same school seem also to have held that 'Aváykη surrounds and holds the world together (Diels, l.c. 321), and Zeller thinks it is this external 'Aváyкn of which Plato here avails himself (l.c. p. 434, n. 3). But it is quite clear that Plato's 'Aváykn is in the middle.

I agree with Mr. Adam in rejecting Zeller's view that it is the external 'Aváyŋ of which Plato here avails himself, and in thinking that Plato's 'Aváyη is in the middle. But in

1 Par. iv. 28-39. The appearance of a certain Saint in a certain moving Sphere is a sign of his or her position in the graded hierarchy of the Empyrean, or Unmoved Heaven, in which all the Saints have their real abode. A Saint who appears to Dante in the Lunar Sphere, for example, has a lower position in the Empyrean than one who appears in the Sphere of Jupiter.

what middle? Not in the Pythagorean middle of the Universe, which is not the Earth, but the Central Fire. The throne of 'Aváyкn is certainly placed by Plato either on or within the Earth, which is in the middle of his Universe. Mr. Adam, with, I venture to think, too much regard for åкpißoλoyía, maintains that it is within, not on the surface of, the Earth. If the light is 'straight like a pillar,'" he writes (note on 616 B, 13), “and stretches through all the Heaven and the Earth,' it follows that as the Earth is in the middle of the Universe, the middle of the light' will be at the centre of the Earth. No other interpretation of κατὰ μέσον τὸ φῶς is either natural or easy. It would seem, therefore, that at the end of the fourth day after leaving the Meadow the Souls are at the central point both of the Universe and of the Earth, as is maintained by, among others, Schneider and Donaldson; and this view is also in harmony with some of the most important features of the remaining part of the narrative."

My view is that the throne of Necessity is on the surface of the Earth, at that spot where the pillar of light—the axis on which the Cosmos revolves-was seen, by the Pilgrim Souls as they approached, to touch the ground, seen, with the accompanying knowledge (so characteristic of dream-experience) that it goes through the Earth and comes out at the antipodal spot. I do not think that we ought to press the phrase xarà μéσov Tò pŵs, as Mr. Adam does. Apart from the fact that the Pythagorean or Parmenidean central 'Aváyêŋ was not in the centre of the Earth, the whole scenery of the Myth and its general fidelity to mythological tradition seem to me to be against putting Plato's throne of Necessity, as Mr. Adam does, in the centre of the Earth. The Myth begins by telling us that the Souls came, some of them out of the Earth, some of them down from "Heaven," to the Meadow. The Meadow is certainly on the surface of the Earth. Their journey thence to the throne of Necessity is evidently on the surface of the Earth, they have the sky above them; they see the pillar of light in the sky before them for a whole day, the fourth day of their march, as they approach it. There is no suggestion of their going down on that day into Tartarus in order to reach the "middle of the light" at the centre of the Earth. Those of them who came out of Tartarus are still out of it, and are

not going back into it. And those who came out of the region described as oupavós, “Heaven," are still out of that region. Hence, if I am right in identifying the oupavós of the Rep. with the "True Surface of the Earth" of the Phaedo Myth, Mr. Adam cannot be right when he says, 616 B, 11 (cf. 614 c, n.), that "Plato in all probability thinks of the Xepov as somewhere on the True Surface of the Earth described by him in the Myth in the Phaedo, and it is apparently along this surface that the Souls progress until they come in view of the light." The True Surface of the Earth and Tartarus, according to my view, were both equally left when the Xeμ was reached. The Souls are now journeying along the "Third Way," which leads, under the open sky, by the throne of Necessity, and then by the River of Lethe, eis yéveow. The River of Lethe does not appear in the list of the subterranean or infernal rivers given in the' Phaedo; the mythological tradition (observed even by Dante, as we have seen) places it under the open sky-probably the sky of the under-worldthe antipodal hemisphere of the Earth. And the φέρεσθαι ἄνω εἰς τὴν γένεσιν ἄττοντας ὥσπερ ἀστέρας (621 B), from which Mr. Adam (citing Aen. vi. 748 ff.) infers "that the Souls, just before their re-incarnation, are underground," seems to me, on the contrary, entirely in accordance with the view that, encamped near the River of Lethe, they are on the surface of the Earth, under the open sky, up into which they shoot in various directions like meteors,-surely an inappropriate picture if they were down in a cavern somewhere at the centre of the Earth.

1

The whole movement, in short, of the Myth of Er, from the meeting of the two companies of Souls at the Meadow onwards, is above ground, under the open sky. From afar they see a pillar of light reaching down through the sky to

1 Olympiodorus, Schol. in Phaedonem, connects the list of infernal rivers with Orphic tradition—οἱ παραδιδόμενοι τέσσαρες ποταμοὶ κατὰ τὴν ̓Ορφέως παράδοσιν τοῖς ὑπογείοις ἀναλογοῦσι δ' στοιχείοις τε καὶ κέντροις κατὰ δύο ἀντιθέσεις. μὲν γὰρ Πυριφλεγέθων τῷ πυρὶ καὶ τῇ ἀνατολῇ, ὁ δὲ Κωκυτὸς τῇ γῇ καὶ τῇ δύσει, ὁ δὲ ̓Αχέρων ἀέρι τε καὶ μεσημβρίᾳ. τούτους μὲν Ορφεὺς οὕτω διέταξεν, αὐτὸς δὲ τὸν Ὠκεανὸν τῷ ὕδατι καὶ τῇ ἄρκτῳ προσοικειοῖ. Here the River of Lethe does not appear.

Roscher (art. Lethe ") gives the following mentions of Lethe: Simonides, Epig. 184 (Bergk)-this is the first mention, but the authorship is doubtful; Aristoph. Ranae, 186; Plato, Rep. 621; Plutarch, Cons. ad Apoll. ch. 15, in quotation from a dramatic writer; Virg. Aen. vi. 705, 715; Lucian, de luctu, $§ 2-9; Mort. Dial. 13. 6, 23. 2; Ovid, Ep. ex Pont. 2, 4, 23.

the Earth; and, because Plato, the Dreamer of the Myth, recognises this pillar as the axis of the Cosmos-the cause of its necessary revolutions-lo! when the Souls are come to the foot of the pillar, it is no longer a pillar reaching down through the sky that they see, but Necessity herself sitting on Earth, on her throne, with a model of the Cosmos revolving in her lap.

There is another point on which I feel obliged to differ from Mr. Adam. "It is clear," he says (note on Rep. 616 c), "that the light not only passes through the centre of the Universe, but also, since it holds the heavens together like the undergirders of men-of-war, round the outer surface of the heavenly sphere"-i.e. the ends of the light which passes round the outer surface are brought inside the sphere, and, being joined in the middle, form the pillar. This seems to me to make too much of the man-of-war, or trireme. It is enough to take Plato to say that the pillar (which alone is mentioned) holds the Universe together in its particular way, as the VπоÇμaтa, in their particular way, hold the trireme together. And if there is a light passed round the outer surface of the Heaven, as well as one forming its axis, why do the Pilgrim Souls see only the latter? The Heavens are diaphanous. The Pilgrims ought, if Mr. Adam's view is correct, to see not only the pillar of light rising vertically from the horizon at a certain fixed point towards which they journey, but also another band of light that which surrounds the outside of the Universetravelling round with the motion of the sphere of the fixed stars from East to West.

IV

I shall now conclude what I have to say about the Myth of Er with a few words on the great philosophical question raised in it. I mean the question of How to reconcile Free Will with the Reign of Law. Both are affirmed in the Myth. The Pilgrim Souls are conducted to a spot at which they see, with their own eyes, the working of the Universal Law-they stand beside the axis on which the Cosmos revolves, and see clearly that the revolutions "cannot be otherwise." They see that the axis of the Cosmos is the spindle of 'Aváyên:—and,