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Plato was a Greek philosopher who lived between 427 and 347 BC. Founder of the Academy of Athens, student of Socrates and teacher of Aristotle, he wrote The Republic , an extensive work that collects his philosophical ideas. The myth of Er is contained in The Republic : it is the story with which Plato concludes his work.
Er was a soldier believed to be dead who descends into the underworld, but is later revived; he is sent back to the world of the living to convey to humanity what awaits them after death. The just will be rewarded and the wicked punished; souls are reborn in a new body and a new life, and the life they choose will reflect how they lived their previous life and what their soul was like when they died. Below is a translation of the myth of Er, by Plato.
The myth of Er
Well, I said, I’ll tell you a story; It is not one of the tales that Odysseus tells the hero Alcínoo, but it is the story of a hero, Er, the son of Armenio, pamphilous by birth. They killed him in battle and ten days later, when the bodies of the dead had already rotted, his body was unaffected by decomposition and they took him home for burial.
On the twelfth day, as he lay on the funeral pyre, he came back to life and told them what he had seen in the other world. He said that when his soul left his body he went on a journey with a great company, and they came to a mysterious place where there were two openings in the earth; these were together and in front of them were two other openings to the sky.
In the intervening space sat the judges, who ordered the righteous after having judged them and fixed their sentences before them, after which they ascended on the heavenly path to the right hand. In the same way, the judges ordered the unjust to go down the path to the left. These also carried the symbols of their deeds attached to their backs.
Er approached and they told him that he would be the messenger who would inform men about the other world; they asked him to listen and see everything that should be heard and seen in that place. Then he contemplated: he saw on one side the souls that departed through the opening of heaven and earth when sentence had been pronounced on them; in the other two openings he saw other souls, some ascending from the earth, dusty and travel-worn; others, descending from the sky, clean and bright.
When they arrived they seemed to have come from a long journey and they went out with joy to the meadow where they camped as if at a party. Those who knew each other hugged and talked; the souls that came from the earth inquired curiously about the affairs above; the souls that came from heaven inquired about matters below.
They told each other what had happened on the way. Those below wept, afflicted by the memory of what they had suffered and seen on their journey underground, a journey that lasted a thousand years. Meanwhile, those above described heavenly delights and visions of inconceivable beauty.
The story, Glaucon, would take too long to tell, but the summary would be as follows. Er said that for every damage done to someone, he would suffer ten times, or once every hundred years. It is calculated that one hundred years is the duration of a man’s life and the penalty is thus paid ten times every thousand years. If, for example, there was someone who had been the cause of many deaths, or had betrayed or enslaved cities or armies, or had been guilty of any other evil behavior, for each and every offense they would receive ten times the punishment. The rewards for beneficence, justice, and holiness were in the same proportion.
I don’t need to repeat what Er said about little children dying almost as soon as they are born. On mercy and impiety towards gods, fathers and murderers there were assignments greater than those he described. He mentioned that he was present when one of the spirits asked another: “Where is Ardiaeus the Great?” The response of the other spirit was: “he does not come here and he will never come.” And this, he said, was one of those awful spectacles we ourselves witnessed.*
We were at the mouth of the cave, and having completed all our experiences, were about to ascend again, when suddenly Ardiaeus appeared with others, most of whom were tyrants; besides the tyrants there were people who had been great criminals. They were just about to return to the upper world, but the mouth, instead of admitting them, let out a roar every time one of these incurable sinners or someone who had not been sufficiently punished tried to ascend; then wild men alight with flames, who were waiting and listening for the sound, seized them and led them away. And Ardiaeus and others had their heads, feet, and hands bound, thrown, and flayed with whips, declaring to those who passed by what their crimes were,
And of all the many terrors they had endured, Er said there was none like the terror each of them felt at that moment, so that they did not hear the voice. When there was silence, they ascended one by one, with great joy. These, said Er, were the penalties and retributions; and there were equally great blessings.”
«Now, when the spirits that were in the meadow had completed seven days there, on the eighth they were forced to continue their journey. Then on the fourth day he said that they would have come to a place where they could see from above a line of light, straight as a column, stretching across the whole sky and the earth, in a color resembling the rainbow, only brighter and purer. Another day of travel he would take them to that place and there, in the middle of the light, they would see how the ends of the chains of heaven descended; for this light is the girdle of heaven and holds the circle of the universe together, like the lower beams of a trireme.
From these ends extends the axis of Necessity, on which everything revolves. Both the y-axis and its hook are made of steel, while the coil is made partly of steel and also partly of other materials.
Now the shape of the whorl is like the one used on earth, and describing it implied that there is a large hollow spiral that is excavated, and another smaller one is fitted into it, and another, and another, and four others, making eight in total. total, like containers that fit together. The whorls show their edges on the upper side, while on their lower side all together form a continuous whorl.
This is pierced by the shaft heading home through the center of the eighth. The first whorl, the outermost, has the widest edge, and the seven inner whorls are narrower. The proportions are as follows: the sixth is close to the first in size, the fourth is similar to the sixth; then comes the eighth; the seventh whorl is fifth in size, the fifth whorl is sixth in size, the third whorl is seventh in size, and the last whorl in size is second in order.
The largest stars, or fixed stars, are the brightest, and the seventh (or Sun) is the brightest; the eighth (or Moon) is colored by the light reflected from the seventh; the second and fifth (Saturn and Mercury) are similar in color to each other and more yellow than the previous ones; the third (Venus) is the one with the whitest light; the fourth (Mars) is reddish; the sixth (Jupiter) is second in whiteness.
Now, the whole axis has the same movement; but, as the whole turns in one direction, the seven inner circles move slowly in the other, and of these the eighth is the fastest; They are followed in speed by the seventh, sixth, and fifth, which move together; the third in speed seemed to move according to the law of the inverse motion of the fourth; the third circle is fourth in speed, while the second is fifth.
The axis revolves on the knees of Necessity, and on the upper surface of each circle is a siren, which revolves with them, singing a single tone or note.
The eight together form a harmonic whole. Around, at equal intervals, is another group of three figures, each seated on her throne. These are the Fates, (Fates in Roman mythology), daughters of Necessity. Their names are Lachesis, Clotho and Atropos, they are dressed in white tunics and have small crowns on their heads; They accompany with their voices the harmony of the sirens. Lachesis sings about the past, Clotho about the present, and Atropos about the future. From time to time, Clotho assists in the revolution of the outer circle of the whorl or shaft with a touch of his right hand; with his left hand, Atropos touches and guides the interiors, and Lachesis secures each one in turn, first with one hand and then with the other ».
«When Er and the spirits arrived, their duty was to go immediately to Lachesis. But first of all a prophet came who ordered them; he then he took from the knees of Lachesis the numbers and samples of lives. After ascending to a high pulpit, the prophet said the following: «Listen to the word of Lachesis, the daughter of Necessity. Mortal souls, behold a new cycle of life and mortality. Your genius will not be assigned to you, but you will choose your genius; and whoever is first will have the first choice and the life he chooses will be his destiny. Virtue is free, and when a man honors or dishonors it, he will have more or less of it; the responsibility belongs to the one he chooses: God is justified. »
When the Interpreter had thus spoken, he distributed the numbers indistinctly among all, and each took the one near him, all except Er himself, who was not allowed. Upon taking it, each one knew the number he had obtained.
Then the Interpreter placed on the ground before them the samples of lives; there were many more lives than the souls present and they were of all kinds. There were lives of all animals and of man in all conditions. And among them there were tyrannies; some lasted the life of the tyrant, others that broke in half and ended up in poverty, exile and beggary. There were lives of famous men, some of whom were famous for their form and beauty, as well as for their strength and their success in the games, or, again, for their birth and the qualities of their ancestors. Other men were the opposite of famous for the opposite qualities.
And there were also women’s lives; however, they did not have any definite character, because the soul, choosing a new life, must necessarily become different. But there were all the other qualities and they were all mixed together, and also with elements of wealth and poverty, sickness and health; likewise, there were petty states.
And here, my dear Glaucon, lies the supreme danger of our human state, and therefore the greatest care must be taken. Let each one of us leave all other kinds of knowledge and seek and follow only one thing, if by chance he can learn and can find someone who allows him to learn and discern between good and evil, and thus always and everywhere choose the best life you have at the chance.
You will have to consider the relationship of all these things that have been mentioned individually and collectively about virtue; he must know what is the effect of beauty when combined with poverty or wealth on a particular soul, and what are the good and bad consequences of noble and humble birth, of public and private position, of strength and of weakness, intelligence and clumsiness, and all the natural and acquired gifts of the soul, and the working of them when combined. Only then will he look at the nature of the soul and from the consideration of all these qualities will he be able to determine which is the best and which is the worst; and thus he will choose, giving the name of evil to the life that will make his soul more unjust, and good to the life that will make his soul more just; everything else will ignore it.
Because we have seen and we know that this is the best option both in life and after death. A man must take with him to the world below an uncompromising faith in truth and justice, lest he be dazzled there by the desire for wealth or other evil attractions either, lest, falling into similar tyrannies and villainies, he commit irreparable evils. to others and suffer even worse himself. He must know how to choose the means and avoid the extremes on both sides, as far as possible, not only in this life but in the whole life to come. Because this is the path of happiness.
And according to the report of the messenger from the other world, this was what the prophet said at that time: “Even for the last comer, if he chooses wisely and lives diligently, a happy and not undesirable existence has been appointed for him. The one who chooses first should not be neglected and the last should not despair”. And when he had spoken, he who had the first choice stepped forward and in a moment chose the greatest tyranny; his mind had been darkened by madness and sensuality, he had not thought through the whole matter before choosing, and he had not perceived at first glance that he was destined, among other evils, to devour his own children. .
But when he had time to reflect and saw what he had chosen, he began to beat his chest and lament over his choice, forgetting what was proclaimed by the prophet; for instead of blaming his misfortune on himself, he blamed chance, the gods, and everything instead of himself. Now, he was one of those who came from heaven and in a previous life he had lived in a well-ordered state, but his virtue was only a matter of habit and he had no philosophy.
And it was true that others who were equally surpassed, that most of them came from heaven and therefore had never been educated by experience, while the pilgrims who came from earth, having suffered and seen others suffer, did not they were in a hurry to choose. And due to this inexperience, and also because luck was a coincidence, many of the souls exchanged a good destiny for a bad one, or a bad one for a good one.
For if a man on his arrival in this world had devoted himself from the beginning to sound philosophy, and had been moderately fortunate in the number obtained, he might, as the messenger reported, be happy here; His journey to another life, instead of being rough and subterranean, would be smooth and heavenly. The most curious thing, he said, was the spectacle: sad, laughable and strange, because the choice of souls was based, in most cases, on their experience from a previous life.
There he saw the soul that had been Orpheus choosing the life of a swan out of enmity with the race of women; he hated being born to a woman because they had been his murderers. He also beheld the soul of Thamyris choose the life of a nightingale; instead, birds like the swan and other singers wanted to be men.
The soul that obtained the twentieth number chose the life of a lion and this was the soul of Ajax, son of Telamon, who did not want to be a man, remembering the injustice that was done to him in the trial over weapons. Next was Agamemnon, who gave himself the life of an eagle because, like Ajax, he hated human nature because of his sufferings.
Halfway through it was Atalanta’s turn; she, seeing the great fame of an athlete, could not resist the temptation. And after her followed the soul of Epeus, the son of Panopeus, who passed into the nature of a woman cunning in the arts; and in the distance, among the last to choose, the soul of the jester Thersites chose the shape of a monkey.
The soul of Odysseus also arrived, who had not yet made up his mind, and his choice turned out to be the last of all. Now the memory of earlier labors had disenchanted him with ambition, and he wandered for a considerable time in search of the life of a simple man who had no cares; he had some difficulty finding this life, which had been neglected by everyone else. When he saw it he said that he would have done the same if his turn had been first instead of last and that he was delighted to choose her.
“And not only did men become animals, but I must also mention that there were tame and wild animals that changed into each other and into the corresponding human natures: good into gentle and bad into savage, in all sorts of combinations. .
All the souls had now chosen their lives and went in the order of their choice with Lachesis, who sent with them the genie they had jointly chosen to be the guardian of their lives and the fulfiller of the choice. This genius led the souls first with Clotho and attracted them within the revolution of the axis driven by his hand, thus ratifying the destiny of each one; and then, when they fastened to the axis, they led the souls to Atropos, who braided the threads and made them irreversible, whence without turning they passed under the throne of Necessity. When they all passed, they marched in blistering heat towards the Plain of Oblivion, which was a barren desert, devoid of trees and greenery. Then, at nightfall, they camped by the River of Oblivion, whose waters cannot be contained in any container; everyone was obliged to drink a certain amount, and those who were not saved by wisdom drank more than necessary. And, while drinking, each one forgot everything.
Now, after they had gone to rest, around midnight there was a thunderstorm and an earthquake. Thereupon, in an instant, they were carried upwards in all sorts of shapes towards their birth, like shooting stars. Er himself was prevented from drinking the water. In what way or by what means he returned to his body, he could not say; only, in the morning, waking suddenly, he found himself lying on the pyre.
And so, Glaucon, the story has been saved and has not perished, and it will save us if we are obedient to the word spoken; we will safely cross the river of Oblivion and our soul will not be contaminated. Therefore, my advice is that we always cling to the heavenly path and always follow justice and virtue, considering that the soul is immortal and capable of enduring all kinds of good and all kinds of evil.
Thus we will live loving each other, and the gods, both while we remain here and when, as the victors in the games that go to collect the prizes, we receive our reward. And we will do well both in this life and in the pilgrimage of a thousand years that we have described.
*Ardiaeos lived a thousand years before the time of Er: he had been the tyrant of some city in Pamphylia, and had murdered his old father and older brother; it was said that he had committed many other abominable crimes.
Sources
GMA Grube. Plato’s thought . Editorial Gredos, Madrid, Spain, 1988.
Plato. Dialogues IV – The Republic . Translation by Conrad Enggers Lans. Editorial Gredos, Madrid, Spain, 1988.
