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the incurable punishments of the impious. And I too will recall a few of these things; for he speaks thus: "But those who are judged 11.22 to be incurable because of the magnitude of their sins, having committed many and great acts of sacrilege, or many unjust and lawless murders, or other such things as these may be, these the fitting destiny casts into Tartarus, from where they never come out. But those who are judged to have committed sins that are curable, yet great, such as having done some violence to a father or mother in a fit of anger, and live the rest of their lives in repentance, or have become manslayers in some other such way, these must be cast into Tartarus, and when they have been cast in and have been there for a year, the wave casts them out, the manslayers down the Cocytus, and the parricides down the Pyriphlege 11.23 thon." Then he teaches how they cry out and supplicate those they have wronged to grant them forgiveness; then, when these refuse, how they are sent back again into the lake and endure the same punishments. Thus having shown the places of punishment, he also reveals the regions of those 11.24 who have lived well, speaking somewhat as follows: "But those who are judged to have been preeminent in living a holy life, these are they who are freed and released from these regions in the earth as from prisons, and they arrive at the pure dwelling above and are settled upon the earth. And of these, those who have been sufficiently purified by philosophy live for all future time entirely without labors and arrive at dwellings even more beautiful than these, which it is not easy to describe, nor is there sufficient time at present; but for the sake of these things which we have described, O Simmias, one must do everything to partake of virtue and wisdom. 11.25 For the prize is noble, and the hope is great." And in the Gorgias he says similar things: "Listen then to a very beautiful story, which you will regard as a myth, I imagine, but I as a story; for what I am about to tell you, let it be told to you as being true." And a little later: "The one who has lived his life justly and piously, when he dies, goes to the Isles of the Blessed to live in all happiness, free from evils; but the one who has lived unjustly and godlessly goes to the prison of judgment 11.26 and of justice, which they call Tartarus." And again: "Then they must be judged stripped of all these things; for they must be judged when they are dead; and the judge must be stripped, being dead, viewing with his soul itself the soul itself of each one as soon as he has died, bereft of all his kin, having left behind on earth all that adornment, so that the judgment may be just." 11.27 Thus precisely did Plato believe the judgments in Hades to be. For having met Hebrews in Egypt, he surely heard the prophetic oracles and learned of the river of fire which the divine Daniel saw, and he understood the words of the most divine Isaiah. For he says somewhere concerning those who are punished: "Their worm shall not die, and their fire shall not be quenched." And again: "Who will announce to us that a fire 11.28 is burning? Who will announce to us the eternal place?" And many other such things can be found in the prophets. But the philosopher, taking some things from there, and mixing them with Greek myths, composed his discourses on these matters; and what follows has the same meaning: "For," he says, "of the judges, as I was saying, first there is Rhadamanthus, and if he gets hold of some such one, he knows nothing else about him, neither who he is nor of whom he is, but only that he is a wicked person; and having perceived this he sends him away to Tartarus, marking whether he seems to be curable or incurable; and he, on arriving there, suffers what is fitting. But sometimes, seeing the soul of one who has lived piously and with truth, whether a private citizen or someone else, and especially, as I say, O Callicles, a philosopher who has done his own business and not been a busybody in his life, he has admired it and sent it to the Isles of the Blessed." 11.29 And a little after he added: "I, O Callicles, am persuaded by these accounts, and I consider how I shall present my soul to the judge in the healthiest state possible.

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ἠσεβηκότων τὰς ἀνηκέστους κολάσεις. Ὀλίγων δέ πῄ τινων ἀπομνημονεύσω κἀγώ· λέγει δὲ οὕτως· "Οἳ δ' ἂν δόξωσιν 11.22 ἀνηκέστως ἔχειν διὰ τὰ μεγέθη τῶν ἁμαρτημάτων, ἢ ἱεροσυλίας πολλὰς καὶ μεγάλας ἢ φόνους πολλοὺς καὶ ἀδίκους καὶ παρανό μους ἐξειργασμένοι ἢ ἄλλα, ὅσα τυγχάνει τοιαῦτα ὄντα, τούτους δὲ ἡ προσήκουσα μοῖρα ῥίπτει εἰς τὸν Τάρταρον, ὅθεν οὔποτ' ἐκβαίνουσιν. Οἳ δ' ἂν ἰατὰ μέν, μεγάλα δὲ δόξωσιν ἡμαρτηκέναι ἁμαρτήματα, οἷον πρὸς πατέρα ἢ πρὸς μητέρα ὑπ' ὀργῆς βίαιόν τι πράξαντες, καὶ μεταμέλον αὐτοῖς τὸν ἄλλον βίον βιῶσιν, ἢ ἀνδροφόνοι ἢ τοιούτῳ τινὶ ἄλλῳ τρόπῳ γένωνται, τούτους δεῖ ἐμπεσεῖν μὲν εἰς τὸν Τάρταρον, ἐμπεσόντας δὲ αὐτοὺς καὶ ἐνι αυτὸν ἐκεῖ γενομένους ἐκβάλλει τὸ κῦμα, τοὺς μὲν ἀνδροφόνους κατὰ τὸν Κωκυτόν, τοὺς δὲ πατραλοίας κατὰ τὸν Πυριφλεγέ 11.23 θοντα." Εἶτα διδάσκει, ὅπως βοῶσί τε καὶ ἱκετεύουσι τοὺς ἠδικημένους δοῦναι σφίσι ξυγγνώμην· ἔπειτα ἐκείνων ἀνανευόντων, ὅπως εἰς τὴν λίμνην αὖθις ἀναπεμπόμενοι τὰς αὐτὰς ὑπομένουσι τιμωρίας. Οὕτω δὴ τὰ κολαστήρια δείξας, παραδηλοῖ καὶ τῶν 11.24 εὖ βεβιωκότων τοὺς χώρους, ὧδέ πῃ λέγων· "Οἳ δ' ἂν δόξωσι διαφερόντως πρὸς τὸ ὁσίως διαβιῶναι προκεκρίσθαι, οὗτοί εἰσιν οἱ τῶνδε μὲν τῶν τόπων τῶν ἐν τῇ γῇ ἐλευθερούμενοι καὶ ἀπαλ λαττόμενοι ὥσπερ δεσμωτηρίων, ἄνω δὲ εἰς τὴν καθαρὰν οἴκησιν ἀφικνούμενοι καὶ ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς οἰκιζόμενοι. Τούτων δὲ αὐτῶν οἱ φιλοσοφίᾳ ἱκανῶς καθηράμενοι ἄνευ τε καμάτων ζῶσι τὸ παράπαν εἰς τὸν ἔπειτα χρόνον καὶ εἰς οἰκήσεις ἔτι τούτων καλλίους ἀφικνοῦνται, ἃς οὔτε ῥᾴδιον δηλῶσαι, οὔτε ὁ χρόνος ἱκανὸς ἐν τῷ παρόντι· ἀλλὰ τούτων δὴ εἵνεκα χρή, ὧν διεληλύθαμεν, ὦ Σιμμία, πᾶν ποιεῖν, ὥστε ἀρετῆς καὶ φρονήσεως μετασχεῖν. 11.25 Καλὸν γὰρ τὸ ἆθλον, καὶ ἡ ἐλπὶς μεγάλη." Κἀν τῷ Γοργίᾳ δὲ τὰ παραπλήσια λέγει· "Ἄκουε δὴ μάλα καλοῦ λόγου, ὃν σὺ μὲν ἡγήσῃ μῦθον, ὡς ἐγὼ οἶμαι, ἐγὼ δὲ λόγον· ὡς ἀληθῆ γὰρ ὄντα σοι λεγέσθω, ἃ μέλλω λέγειν." Καὶ μετ' ὀλίγα· "Τὸν δὲ δικαίως τὸν βίον διεληλυθότα καὶ ὁσίως, ἐπειδὰν τελευτήσῃ, εἰς μακάρων νήσους ἀπιόντα οἰκεῖν ἐν πάσῃ εὐδαιμονίᾳ ἐκτὸς κακῶν· τὸν δὲ ἀδίκως καὶ ἀθέως εἰς τὸ τῆς κρίσεώς τε καὶ δίκης δεσμω 11.26 τήριον, ὃ δὴ Τάρταρον καλοῦσιν, ἰέναι." Καὶ αὖθις· "Ἔπειτα γυμνοὺς κριτέον ἁπάντων τούτων· τεθνεῶτας γὰρ δεῖ κρίνεσθαι· καὶ τὸν κριτὴν δεῖ γυμνὸν εἶναι τεθνεῶτα, αὐτῇ τῇ ψυχῇ αὐτὴν τὴν ψυχὴν θεωροῦντα ἐξαίφνης ἀποθανόντος ἑκάστου, ἔρημον πάντων ξυγγενῶν, καταλιπόντα ἐπὶ γῆς πάντα ἐκεῖνον τὸν κόσμον, ἵνα δικαία ἡ κρίσις ᾖ." 11.27 Οὕτως ἀκριβῶς ὁ Πλάτων ἐπίστευεν εἶναι τὰ ἐν Ἅιδου κρι τήρια. Ἐντυχὼν γὰρ Ἑβραίοις ἐν Αἰγύπτῳ, τῶν προφητικῶν πάντως λογίων ἐπήκουσε καὶ τὸν τοῦ πυρὸς ἔμαθε ποταμόν, ὃν ὁ θεσπέσιος ἐθεάσατο ∆ανιήλ, καὶ τοὺς Ἡσαΐου τοῦ θειοτάτου κατέμαθε λόγους. Ἐκεῖνος γάρ που περὶ τῶν κολαζομένων φησίν· "Ὁ σκώληξ αὐτῶν οὐ τελευτήσει, καὶ τὸ πῦρ αὐτῶν οὐ σβεσθήσεται." Καὶ πάλιν· "Τίς ἀναγγελεῖ ἡμῖν, ὅτι πῦρ 11.28 καίεται; τίς ἀναγγελεῖ ἡμῖν τὸν τόπον τὸν αἰώνιον;" Καὶ ἄλλα δὲ τοιαῦτα πλεῖστα ἔστι παρὰ τοῖς προφήταις εὑρεῖν. Ὁ δὲ φιλόσοφος τὰ μὲν ἐκεῖθεν λαβών, τὰ δὲ ἐκ τῶν Ἑλληνικῶν ἀναμίξας μύθων, τοὺς περὶ τούτων ἐποιήσατο λόγους· καὶ τὰ ἐφεξῆς δὲ τὴν αὐτὴν ἔχει διάνοιαν· "Τῶν" γάρ φησι "δικα στῶν, ὅπερ ἔλεγον, πρῶτον μὲν ὁ Ῥαδάμανθυς ἐκεῖνος, ἂν τοιοῦ τόν τινα λάβῃ, ἄλλο μὲν περὶ αὐτοῦ οὐκ οἶδεν οὐδέν, οὔτε ὅστις οὔτε ὧντινων, ὅτι δὲ πονηρός τις· καὶ τοῦτο κατιδὼν ἀπέπεμψεν εἰς τὸν Τάρταρον, ἐπισημαινόμενος, ἐάν τε ἰάσιμος, ἐάν τε ἀνίατος εἶναι δοκῇ· ὁ δὲ ἐκεῖσε ἀφικόμενος τὰ προσήκοντα πάσχει. Ἐνίοτε δέ, Ἕλληνος ἰδὼν ὁσίως βεβιωκυῖαν καὶ μετὰ ἀληθείας, ἀνδρὸς ἰδιώτου ἢ ἄλλου τινός, μάλιστα μέν, ὡς ἔγωγέ φημι, ὦ Καλ λίκλεις, φιλοσόφου τὰ αὑτοῦ πράξαντος καὶ οὐ πολυπραγμονήσαν τος ἐν τῷ βίῳ, ἠγάσθη τε καὶ εἰς μακάρων νήσους ἀπέπεμψεν." 11.29 Καὶ μετὰ βραχέα ἐπήγαγεν· "Ἐγὼ μέν, ὦ Καλλίκλεις, ὑπὸ τούτων τῶν λόγων πέπεισμαι καὶ σκοπῶ, ὅπως ἀποφανοῦμαι τῷ κριτῇ ὡς ὑγιεστάτην τὴν ψυχήν.