The Judgment of Just and Unjust
Souls Text from Republic
Bk 10: 614c
edited and paraphrased from the Jowett public domain
translation
He [Er, the narrator] said that when his soul left the
body he went on a journey with a great company, and that they came to a
mysterious place at which there were openings in the earth . . . In the
space between the openings judges were seated, who commanded the just,
after they had given judgment on them, to ascend by the heavenly way on
the right hand; and in like manner the unjust were bidden by them to descend
by the lower way on the left hand. [The just and unjust souls are rewarded
and punished for 1000 years.]
The Punishment of the Unjust
Text: from Republic Bk 10: 614d-616a
edited and paraphrased from the Jowett public domain
translation
. . .for every wrong which they had done to any one they
suffered tenfold; or once in a hundred years -- the penalty being thus
paid ten times in a thousand years. For impiety to gods and parents, and
for murderers, there were retributions far greater. . . "And this," said
he, "was one of the dreadful sights: We were at the mouth of the cavern,
about to leave, when suddenly . . . individuals who had been great criminals
were also about to exit into the upper world, but the mouth of the cavern
gave a roar, whenever any of these who had not been sufficiently punished
tried to leave . . .then wild men of fiery aspect seized and carried them
off . . . to be cast into hell." . . . there was nothing like the terror
each of them felt at that moment, lest they should hear the voice; and
when there was silence, one by one they ascended with exceeding joy.
The Cosmos or Universe Overall
Text: from Republic Bk 10:
616b-617b
edited and paraphrased from the Jowett public domain
translation
. . .they came to a place where they could see from above
a line of light, straight as a column, extending right through the whole
heaven and through the earth, in colour resembling the rainbow, only brighter
and purer. From these is extended the spindle of Necessity, on which all
the revolutions turn. Now the whorl is in form like the whorl used on earth;
The largest is spangled, and the seventh is brightest; the eighth coloured
by reflected light . . .the fourth is reddish . . .
The Fates Oversee Reincarnation
of Souls text: from Republic
Bk 10: 617b-619b
edited and paraphrased from the Jowett public domain
translation
. . .round about there is another group, three in number,
each sitting upon her throne: these are the Fates, daughters of Necessity,
Lachesis and Clotho and Atropos -- Lachesis singing of the past, Clotho
of the present, Atropos of the future; When Er and other souls arrived,
their duty was to go at once to Lachesis: "Hear the word of Lachesis, the
daughter of Necessity. Mortal souls, behold a new cycle of life and mortality.
Your destiny will not be allotted to you, but you choose it; and let him
who draws the first lot have the first choice, and the life which he chooses
shall be his destiny . . the responsibility is with the chooser. There
were many more lives than the souls present, lives of animals and of people
in every condition . . .