Mircea Eliade "From Primitives to Zen": PLATO
ON THE IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL
('Meno,' 81, b)
MENO: What was it, and who were they?
SOCRATES: Those who tell it are priests and priestesses of the sort who make it their business to
be able to account for the functions which they perform. Pindar speaks of it too, and
many another of the poets who are divinely inspired. What they say is this-see whether
you think they are speaking the truth. They say that the soul of man is immortal. At
one time it comes to an end-that which is called death-and at another is born again, but
is never finally exterminated. On these grounds a man must live all his days as
righteously as possible. For those from whom
Persephone receives requital for ancient doom,
In the ninth year she restores again
Their souls to the sun above.
From whom rise noble kings
And the swift in strength and greatest in wisdom,
And for the rest of time
They arc called heroes and sanctified by men.(1)
Thus the soul, since it is immortal and has been born many times, and has seen all things both
here and in the other world, has learned everything that is.
Note
1 Pindar, Fragment 133.
Translated by W. K. C. Guthrie, in Hamilton and Caims (ed.), Plato.- The Collected Dialogues
(New York: Bollingen Series LXXI, 1961), P. 364
Books by Mircea Eliade:
- Mircea Eliade, Mac Linscott Ricketts “Journal I, 1945-1955 (Journal)”
- Mircea Eliade, Willard R. Trask “The Myth of the Eternal Return: Or, Cosmos and History”
- Mircea Eliade “The Forge and the Crucible: The Origins and Structure of Alchemy”
- Mircea Eliade, Jr., Fred H. Johnson “Journal II, 1957-1969 (Journal)”
- Mircea Eliade “Autobiography, Volume 1: 1907-1937, Journey East, Journey West”
- Mircea Eliade “Two Strange Tales”
- Mircea Eliade, Willard R. Trask “Rites and Symbols of Initiation: The Mysteries of Birth and Rebirth”
- Mircea Eliade, Alf Hiltebeitel, Diane Apostolos-Cappadona “A History of Religious Ideas: From Muhammad to the Age of Reforms (History of Religious Ideas) Vol.3”
- Mircea Eliade, Mac Linscott Ricketts “Journal IV, 1979-1985 (Journal)”
- Mircea Eliade, Teresa Lavender Fagan “Journal III, 1970-1978 (Journal)”
- Mircea Eliade, Willard R. Trask, Wendy Doniger “Shamanism: Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy (Bollingen Series (General))”
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