Praeparatio Evangelica 11 part 5/5

"So it seems." "One must, then, suppose that at that time the greatest changes occur for us who dwell within it." "That too is likely." "And do we not know that the nature of living creatures endures with difficulty great and many and manifold changes occurring together?"

"How could it be otherwise?" "Then, of necessity, the greatest destructions occur at that time, both of the other living creatures, and indeed of the race of men too, only a small portion of which is left remaining. And around these there befall many other marvelous and strange sufferings, but the greatest of all is this one, which accompanies the reversal of the universe, occurring at that time when the turning contrary to the one now established takes place." Having descended from all these matters, he next adds, concerning the resurrection of the dead — moved in a manner similar to the opinions of the Hebrews — the following:

"And what, then, O Stranger, was the generation of living creatures at that time, and in what manner were they generated from one another?"

"It is clear, O Socrates, that generation from one another did not occur in the nature of things at that time; rather, the earth-born race, as it was called, was that which at that time was returning again out of the earth, and it was recorded in the memory of our first ancestors, who bordered upon the end of the former revolution in the time that followed, and who were born at the beginning of this one; for these men became for us the heralds of these accounts, which are now, by many, wrongly disbelieved."

"For from this point on, I think, one must reason further. For it follows, once old men return to the nature of a child, that in turn, from those who have died and lie in the earth, men are formed again there and come back to life, following the reversal, as generation is cycled back together into its opposite; and thus, in this manner, those who are of necessity earth-born have this name and account, as many of them as god did not carry off to some other lot." "This, indeed, follows entirely from what has gone before."

Then again, proceeding further in due order, he sets forth in this manner things resembling the doctrines of the Hebrews concerning the consummation of the world.

For when the time of all these things was completed and a change had to occur, and indeed the whole earthly race had already been used up, each soul having rendered all its births, and having let fall into the earth as many seeds as had been appointed to it, then indeed the pilot of the universe, as it were letting go of the tiller, withdrew to his own watch-post, and destiny together with an inborn desire turned the world back again.

So all the gods who together ruled the several regions under the greatest daimon, perceiving already what was taking place, in turn released the parts of the world from their care. And the world, being turned about and colliding with itself, having set out on an impulse contrary to that of beginning and end, causing within itself a great shaking, wrought yet another destruction of living creatures of every kind.

But after this, when sufficient time had passed, and the tumult and confusion, together with the earthquakes, were now ceasing, the world, gaining calm, proceeded, being set in order into its accustomed course, itself holding care and mastery over the things within it and over itself.

And a little later he says: 'Wherefore then indeed already the god who had set the world in order, seeing it in difficulty, and caring lest, being storm-tossed by confusion, it be dissolved and sink into the boundless region of unlikeness, again took his seat at its helm, and having turned back the parts that had become diseased and dissolved in its former revolution under his own guidance, sets it in order and, correcting it, renders it immortal and unaging. This much has been said concerning the end of all things.'

'These things, then,' said I, 'are nothing either in number or in magnitude compared with those which await each soul when it has died; but we must hear them, so that each of us may fully receive what is owed to be heard from the account.'

'You may speak,' he said, 'since it is not much, and I would hear it the more gladly.' 'Yet it is not to you,' said I, 'that I shall tell the tale of Alcinous, but the tale of a valiant man, Er, son of Armenius, a Pamphylian by race; who once, having died in war, when the dead were taken up on the tenth day already decayed, was himself taken up sound, and having been carried home, was about to be buried, and on the twelfth day, as he already lay upon the pyre, he revived, and having revived, told what he had seen there.'

He said that when his soul had left him, it journeyed together with many others, and they came to a certain divine place, in which there were two chasms of the earth adjoining one another, and again above, in the heaven, two others directly opposite.

And judges sat between these, who, when they had given judgment, bade the just to go the way to the right and upward through the heaven, having fastened upon them in front signs of the judgments given, and the unjust the way to the left and downward, these also bearing behind them signs of all that they had done.

And when he himself came forward, they told him that he must become a messenger to men of the things there, and charged him to listen to and behold everything in that place.

These things Plato says; and akin to these, Plutarch too relates something along the same lines in the first book of his On the Soul.

'We ourselves were present with this Antyllus; but let us tell it to Sositeles and Heracleon. For having fallen ill not long ago, he seemed to the physicians beyond hope of living; and having been brought back a little from a certain uncertain collapse, he neither did nor said anything else deranged, but said that he had died, and had again been released, and would not die at all from that illness, but that those who had brought him had been misinformed by their lord; for having been sent for Nicandas, they had come bringing him instead of that man. Now Nicandas was a leather-worker, and otherwise a familiar and well-known figure among those who frequented the wrestling-schools and to many others besides. Hence the young men, coming up to him, mocked him as one who had run away and corrupted the attendants from that place. He himself, however, was clearly at once troubled and displeased; and at last, a fever having fallen upon him, he died suddenly on the third day. But this man revived, and is alive and doing well, the most reasonable of our guests from abroad.'

Let this be set down by me, because in the scriptures of the Hebrews too accounts of the revival of the dead are recorded. And since they also contain in their promises that a certain land will be given only to those who love God, according to the oracle which says, 'the meek shall inherit the earth,' and the passage which affirms this makes clear that this land is heavenly — 'the Jerusalem above is free, which is our mother' — the prophet too hints at this same land, in a figure of allegory, as consisting of costly and precious stones, saying, 'Behold, I prepare for you a carbuncle as your stone, and I will make your battlements of jasper, and your foundations of sapphire, and your enclosure of choice stones.' See how Plato too, in his work On the Soul, confesses that he is persuaded these very things, or things very like them, are true, attributing the account to Socrates, somewhat as follows:

'But indeed, Simmias, to relate what these things are does not seem to me to be a matter for the skill of Glaucus; yet to show that they are true seems to me harder even than the skill of Glaucus. And at the same time I would perhaps not even be capable of it; and even if I knew it, my life, Simmias, seems to me not sufficient for the length of such an account. But the shape of the earth, such as I am persuaded it is, and its regions, nothing prevents me from telling.' 'Well,' said Simmias, 'even that is enough.'

'I am persuaded, then,' said he, 'first, that if the earth is round and situated in the middle of the heaven, it needs neither air nor any other such necessity in order not to fall, but that the likeness of the heaven to itself in every direction is sufficient to sustain it, together with the equilibrium of the earth itself; for a thing in equilibrium, placed in the middle of something uniform, will have no more and no less reason to incline in any direction, but, being in like condition, remains unswayed.'

'This, then, is the first thing I am persuaded of,' said he. 'And rightly so,' said Simmias. 'Further,' he said, 'that it is something exceedingly great, and that we who dwell between the Pillars of Heracles and the Phasis inhabit but a small portion of it, like ants or frogs about a marsh, dwelling around the sea, and that many others dwell elsewhere in many such regions.'

'For everywhere around the earth there are many hollows of every sort, both in shape and in size, into which the water and the mist and the air have flowed together; but the earth itself lies pure in the pure heaven, in which are the stars — which most of those accustomed to speak of such things call the ether; of which these are the sediment, and continually flow together into the hollows of the earth.'

'We then, dwelling in its hollows, are unaware of this, and think we dwell above upon the earth; just as if someone dwelling in the midst of the depths of the sea should think he dwelt upon the sea, and, seeing the sun and the other stars through the water, should suppose the sea to be heaven, but because of slowness and weakness should never have arrived at the surface of the sea, nor have seen — by emerging and lifting his head out of the sea into this region here — how much purer and more beautiful it happens to be than the region among them, nor have heard from anyone else who had seen this.'

'This same thing has happened to us too; for dwelling in some hollow of the earth, we think we dwell above upon it, and call the air heaven, as though the stars moved through this as through heaven itself; but the fact is that, because of weakness and slowness, we are unable to pass through to the outer limit of the air, since if anyone should come to its surface, or, having become winged, should fly up, he would look up and behold — just as here the fish, emerging from the sea, behold the things here — so would he behold the things there; and if his nature were able to endure the sight, he would know that that is truly the heaven, and the true light, and the true earth.'

'For this earth here, and the stones, and the whole region here, are corrupted and eaten away, just as things in the sea are by the brine; and nothing worth mention grows in the sea, nor, so to speak, is anything there perfect, but there are caverns and sand and endless mire and mud, wherever there is earth at all, and, judged beside the beautiful things among us, they are not worthy of comparison in any way.'

'And those things there, again, would appear to differ from the things among us by far more still. For indeed, if it is proper also to tell a myth, it is worth hearing, Simmias, what sort of things happen to be upon the earth under the heaven.' 'But indeed,' said Simmias, 'O Socrates, we would gladly hear this myth.'

'It is said, then,' he said, 'my friend, first, that the earth itself, if one were to view it from above, is such to look at as the twelve-piece leather balls, variegated, marked out by colors, of which the colors here are, as it were, samples such as painters make use of; but there, the whole earth is composed of such colors, and indeed of colors far brighter and purer than these.'

'For one part is sea-purple, wondrous in beauty; another golden-hued; another whiter than gypsum or snow; and likewise composed of the other colors, and indeed of colors still more numerous and more beautiful than any we have seen.'

'For even these very hollows of it, being full of water and air, present a certain kind of color, gleaming amid the variety of the other colors, so that a single, continuous, variegated appearance of it is presented to view.'

'And in this earth, being of such a kind, it is fitting that such trees and flowers should grow in due proportion, bearing their fruits; and likewise the mountains too, and the stones, possess in the same measure a smoothness and transparency and colors more beautiful; of which the little stones prized here — cornelians and jaspers and emeralds and all such — are but fragments; but there, nothing whatsoever of this kind is lacking, and things still more beautiful than these.'

'And the cause of this is that those stones are pure, and not eaten away nor corrupted as those here are, by decay and brine and the things that have flowed together here, which bring about ugliness and diseases in stones and earth and the other living creatures and plants as well. But the earth itself is adorned with all these things, and further with gold and silver and the other such things besides; for these are by nature conspicuous, and of them there are great quantities, large in size, in many places of the earth, so that the earth must needs be a spectacle for blessed beholders.'

Since the scripture of the Hebrews, through countless other passages and also through those in which it says, 'The court was seated, and the books were opened, and the Ancient of Days sat; a river of fire flowed before him; a thousand thousands ministered to him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him,' foretells that there will be a tribunal of God and a judgment of souls after their departure hence, listen now to Plato's account of the divine judgment, in which he even mentions the river by name, and describes many differing abodes of the pious as well as the punishments of the impious, in agreement with the words of the Hebrews.

He says, then, in his work On the Soul, as follows: 'A third river breaks forth midway between these, and near its outlet falls into a great place burning with much fire, and forms a lake larger than our sea, seething with water and mud; from there it proceeds in a circle, turbid and muddy, and, winding about the earth, arrives elsewhere, and also alongside the edges of the Acherusian lake, without mingling with its water; and having wound many times beneath the earth, it discharges lower down into Tartarus.'

'This is the river they call Pyriphlegethon, of which the streams of lava that burst forth in whatever part of the earth they happen to be are fragments. And directly opposite this, the fourth river falls into a place at first terrible and wild, as is said, having a color altogether like dark blue, which they call Stygian, and the lake which the river forms by falling into it, Styx. And this river, having fallen in there and taken on terrible powers in the water, sinks beneath the earth and, winding about, proceeds in a direction opposite to Pyriphlegethon, and meets it in the Acherusian lake from the opposite side; and its water likewise mingles with none other, but this too, having gone around in a circle, discharges into Tartarus opposite to Pyriphlegethon; and its name, as the poets say, is Cocytus.'

'These things being thus formed, when the dead arrive at the place to which each one's daimon conducts him, first those who have lived well and piously and justly, and those who have not, are judged apart from one another. And those who are judged to have lived a middling life, journeying to the Acheron, and mounting upon what are indeed their vehicles, arrive on these at the lake, and there they dwell, and, being purified and paying the penalty for their wrongdoings, are absolved, if anyone has done any wrong, and receive the honors due to their good deeds, each according to his worth; but those who are judged incurable because of the magnitude of their offenses — having committed many great sacrileges, or many unjust and lawless murders, or other such things as happen to be of this kind — these the fitting destiny hurls into Tartarus, whence they never emerge.'

'But those who are judged to have committed sins that, though great, are curable — such as having, in anger, done some violent deed against father or mother, and having lived the rest of their life in repentance for it, or having become manslayers in some such other way — these must indeed fall into Tartarus; but having fallen in and spent a year there, the wave casts them out, the manslayers by way of Cocytus, the parricides and matricides by way of Pyriphlegethon; and when, being borne along, they come opposite the Acherusian lake, there they cry out and call — some upon those whom they killed, others upon those whom they wronged — and having called, they beseech and implore them to permit them to come out into the lake; and if they persuade them, they come out and cease from their afflictions; but if not, they are carried back again into Tartarus, and from there again into the rivers, and suffering this, they do not cease until they have persuaded those whom they wronged; for this penalty was appointed for them by the judges.'

'But those who are judged to have excelled in living piously — these are they who are freed and released from these regions here upon the earth, as from prisons, and who arrive above at the pure dwelling and are settled upon the earth there. And of these, those who have been sufficiently purified by philosophy live thereafter altogether without toils for the time to come, and arrive at dwellings still more beautiful than these, which it is neither easy to describe, nor is there time enough at present. But for the sake of these things which we have gone through, Simmias, one must do everything to share in virtue and wisdom in this life; for the prize is fair, and the hope is great.'

These things Plato says. And you may set beside 'and they arrive at dwellings more beautiful, which it is neither easy to declare, nor is there time enough at present,' what stands thus with us: 'Eye has not seen, and ear has not heard, and it has not entered into the heart of man, what things God has prepared for those who love him.'

And to the dwellings mentioned — the promise that there are many mansions with the Father prepared for those beloved of God — and to what was said concerning Pyriphlegethon — the eternal fire threatened against the impious — compare, according to the Hebrew prophet who says to them: 'Who will declare to you that the fire is burning? Who will declare to you the everlasting place?' And again: 'Their worm shall not die, and the fire shall not be quenched, and they shall be a spectacle to all flesh.'

Observe how Plato too is in accord with these things: having said that the impious will go to Tartarus, he adds, 'whence they never come out.' And again, having said that the pious will live among the blessed, he adds, saying, 'altogether, even for the time to come.' Moreover, what was said by him concerning being 'without toils' would be similar to 'pain and grief and sighing have fled away.'

And in saying that those journeying to the Acheron do not simply arrive there, but first mount upon what are indeed their vehicles — whatever, then, does he wish these vehicles to signify, if not the bodies, upon mounting which the souls of the dead are punished together with them, according to what is customary among the Hebrews? But since this discourse too has now received sufficient limits, I shall pass on to the twelfth book of the Evangelical Preparation.