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In the land of the Blessed
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Elysium and rebirth
After death, the souls of the righteous are sent
by the immortals to the Elysian Plain (Elysium), a
favoured region in Hades. In the Elysian
Plain which is "at the ends of the earth"
"… life is easiest for men. No snow is there, nor heavy storm, nor ever rain, but ever does Ocean send up blasts of the shrill-blowing West Wind that they may give cooling to men …" (Homer, Odyssey 4.561ff.).
Pindar (518-438 BC), in one of his thrénoi (the thrénos is
a dirge or song of lamentation) describes Elysium
as follows:
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"And this majestic feeling
remains with me for over three days: so
persistently does the speech and voice of the
orator ring in my ears that it is scarcely on the
fourth or fifth day that I recover myself and
remember that I really am here on earth, whereas
till then I almost imagined myself to be living in
the Islands of the Blessed, —so expert are our
orators." (Plato, Menexenus 235c).
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"For them doth
the strength of the sun shine below,
While night all the earth doth overstrow.
In meadows of roses their suburbs lie,
Roses all tinged with a crimson dye.
They are shaded by trees that incense bear,
And trees with golden fruit so fair.
Some with horses and sports of might,
Others in music and draughts delight.
Happiness there grows ever apace,
Perfumes are wafted o'er the loved place,
As the incense they strew where the gods' altars
are
And the fire that consumes it is seen from
afar." (quoted by Plutarch, Moralia:
Letter to Apollonius 35, 120c).
According to Pindar (Oly.2.55-75), the lawless spirits are immediately punished after death:
"… the reckless souls of those who have died on earth immediately pay the penalty—and for the crimes committed in this realm of Zeus there is a judge below the earth;
with hateful compulsion he passes his
sentence."
On the other hand the good lead an easy
existence:
"But having
the sun always in equal nights and equal days, the
good receive a life free from toil, not scraping
with the strength of their arms the earth, nor the
water of the sea, for the sake of a poor
sustenance. But in the presence of the honored
gods, those who gladly kept their oaths enjoy a
life without tears, while the others undergo a toil
that is unbearable to look at."
Apparently, however, they will not remain in
Elysium forever:
"Those who
have persevered three times, on either side, to
keep their souls free from all wrongdoing, follow Zeus' road to the end, to the tower of Cronos, where ocean breezes blow around
the island of the blessed, and flowers of gold are
blazing, some from splendid trees on land, while
water nurtures others."
Rather, after three lifetimes, the souls of the
good are conveyed to the Island of the Blest, ruled
by Cronos and Rhea:
"With these
wreaths and garlands of flowers they entwine their
hands according to the righteous counsels of
Rhadamanthys, whom the great father, the husband of Rhea whose throne is above all others,
keeps close beside him as his partner."
In Plato (Meno 81b), Socrates appears commenting on Pindar:
"They say that
the soul of man is immortal, and at one time comes
to an end, which is called dying, and at another is
born again, but never perishes."
Then Pindar is quoted:
"For from
whomsoever Persephone shall accept requital for ancient
wrong (pénthos), the souls of these she restores in the ninth year to the upper sun again; from them arise glorious kings and men of splendid might and surpassing wisdom, and for all remaining time are they called holy heroes amongst mankind."
Pindar is regarded here as adhering to the idea of reincarnation. Much later, also Virgil (70-19 BC) agrees with it in his own description of Elysium (Aeneid 6.637ff.), although for this author some souls are destined for reincarnation and others aren't. Aeneas' father Anchises 1 will not
reincarnate; he says:
"Each of us suffers his own spirit: a few of us are later released to wander at will through broad Elysium, the joyous fields; until, in the fullness of time … nothing is left but pure ethereal sentience and the pure flame of the spirit." (Virgil, Aeneid 6.742).
Those who are destined for reincarnation drink
from the waters of the river Lethe (Oblivion)
before they are reborn. Virgil describes Elysium
thus:
"Here an ampler ether clothes the meads with roseate light, and they know their own sun, and stars of their own. Some disport their limbs on the grassy wrestling-ground, vie in sports, and grapple on the yellow sand; some foot the rhythmic dances and chant poems aloud …" (Virgil, Aeneid 6.637).
Pindar could be one of the first poets to have
introduced the idea of reincarnation. Yet Porphyry
(c. AD 233-305) believes that Pythagoras (570-497
BC) was the first to introduce in Greece the idea
of the transmigration of the souls
(metempsychosis):
"But it became
very well known to everyone that he said, first,
that the soul is immortal; then, that it changes
into other kinds of animals; and further, that at
certain periods whatever has happened happens
again, there being nothing absolutely new; and that
all living things should be considered as belonging
to the same kind. Pythagoras seems to have been the
first to introduce these doctrines into
Greece." (Porphyry, Life of
Pythagoras 19).
And Diogenes Laertius (Lives
of Eminent Philosophers 8.4-5), the mythographer Hyginus (Fabulae 112), and Diodorus Siculus (10.6.1-3). narrate how Euphorbus, who was killed at Troy by Menelaus (Hom.Il.17.60), later reincarnated as Pythagoras.
Herodotus, however, believes that the idea of
metempsychosis came from Egypt:
"The Egyptians were the first who maintained the following doctrine, too, that the human soul is immortal, and at the death of the body enters into some other living thing then coming to birth; and after passing through all creatures of land, sea, and air, it enters once more into a human body at birth, a cycle which it completes in three thousand years. There are Greeks who have used this doctrine, some earlier and some later, as if it were their own…" (Herodotus, History 2.123.2).
Still Empedocles, a contemporary of Pindar, is
known for having embraced the Pythagorean notion of
metempsychosis.
For some, these news about reincarnation were
not good news. Otherwise they hadn't said:
"Not to be born at all is best, far best that can befall. Next best, when born, with least delay to trace the backward way. For when youth passes with its giddy train, troubles on troubles follow, toils on toils … Last comes the worst and most abhorred stage of unregarded age, joyless, companionless and slow, of woes the crowning woe." (Citizens of Colonus. Sophocles, Oedipus
at Colonus 1225).
The Islands of the Blest
The Islands of the Blest is a place where the virtuous dwell after death, retaining their faculties and enjoying a life free of care. This is probably the last abode of the righteous soul (and no reincarnation seems to affect those living in these islands).
According to some, the Islands of the Blest were
by the western limits of Libya, that is, beyond the
pillars of Hercules (Gibraltar) in the Atlantic
Ocean, or as Strabo says:
"… even calling by name certain Isles of the Blest, which, as we know, are still now pointed out, not very far from the headlands of Maurusia that lie opposite to Gades (now Cádiz)." (Strabo, Geography 3.2.13).
Above all these islands were a place "untouched
by sorrow", where a blessed life could be lived
after death. They were thus associated or
identified with Elysium (the Elysian Plain, also called Elysian Fields),
which was "at the ends of the earth". According to
Strabo, this expression refers to the West:
"For both the
pure air and the gentle breezes of Zephyrus
properly belong to this country, since the country
is not only in the west but also warm; and the
phrase 'at the ends of the earth' properly belongs
to it, where Hades has been 'mythically placed,' as
we say." (Strabo, Geography 3.2.13).
On his descent to the Underworld, Aeneas meets his father Anchises 1 in Elysium
(a part of Hades). There dwell souls who have not yet been born, and other souls who drink from the waters of the river Lethe (Oblivion) before they are reborn. (For the descent of Aeneas, see Map of the
Underworld).
The White Isle
The White Isle—also a place where some were sent after death—was supposed to be a wooded island at the mouths of the river Ister (Danube).
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