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11.38.1 λθʹ. HOW MATTERS CONCERNING THE JUDGMENT AFTER DEATH SIMILARLY

TO THE HEBREWS PLATO ALSO BELIEVES WILL BE Since the Scripture of the Hebrews foretells that there will be a tribunal of God and a judgment of souls after their departure from hence both through countless other passages and through those in which it says: “The court was seated, and the books were opened, and the Ancient of Days was seated. A river of fire flowed before him; ten thousand times ten thousand ministered to him, and a thousand thousands stood before him,” listen to Plato mentioning the divine judgment and indeed the river by name and describing many mansions for the pious and various 11.38.2 punishments for the impious, in accordance with the words of the Hebrews. He says, then, in his work On the Soul the following: “And the third river of these issues forth between them, and near its out-flow it falls into a great place burning with much fire, and makes a lake larger than our sea, boiling with water and mud; from there it goes about, foul and muddy, and winding around the earth it comes to other places and to the edge of the Acherusian lake, not mingling with its water; having wound11.38.3 around many times under the earth it empties into a lower part of Tartarus. This is the one they call Pyriphlegethon, and its streams spout forth fragments of it, wherever they happen upon the earth's surface. Opposite this one again the fourth river issues forth into a place that is first terrible and wild, as it is said, and has a color that is all of a dark blue, which they call the Stygian, and the lake which the river makes by emptying into it, the Styx. And falling in there and taking on terrible powers in the water, it plunges beneath the earth and winding about proceeds in the opposite direction to the Pyriphlegethon and meets it in the Acherusian lake from the opposite side, and the water of this one also mingles with none, but this too, circling around, empties into Tartarus opposite the Pyriphlegethon; and its name is, as the 11.38.4 poets say, Cocytus. Now as these things are so constituted, when the dead arrive at the place to which the genius of each conveys him, first they are judged, those who have lived piously and justly and those who have not. And those who are judged to have lived moderately, proceeding to the Acheron and embarking on what are for them vessels, on these they arrive at the lake, and there they dwell and, being purified and paying penalties for their wrongdoings, are absolved, if anyone has done some wrong, and for their good deeds they receive honors, each according to his worth, but those who are judged to be incurable because of the greatness of their sins, either many and great acts of sacrilege or having committed many unjust and lawless murders or other such things as happen to be of this kind, these their fitting 11.38.5 destiny casts into Tartarus, from which they never emerge. But those who are judged to have committed curable, yet great, sins, such as having done some violence against a father or mother in anger, and having lived the rest of their lives in repentance, or have become murderers in some other such way, these must fall into Tartarus, but when they have fallen in and been there for a year, the wave casts them out, the murderers by way of Cocytus, and the parricides by way of Pyriphlegethon; and when, being carried along, they come to the Acherusian lake, there they cry out and call, some to those whom they killed, others to those whom they wronged, and calling they supplicate and beseech them to allow them to come out into the lake and to receive them, and if they persuade them, they come out and cease from their evils; but if not, they are carried again into Tartarus and from there back into the rivers, and suffering these things they do not cease before they persuade those whom they wronged; for this is the penalty by

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11.38.1 λθʹ. ΩΣ ΚΑΙ ΤΑ ΠΕΡΙ ΤΗΣ ΜΕΤΑ ΘΑΝΑΤΟΝ ΚΡΙΣΕΩΣ ΟΜΟΙΩΣ

ΕΒΡΑΙΟΙΣ ΚΑΙ Ο ΠΛΑΤΩΝ ΕΣΕΣΘΑΙ ΠΙΣΤΕΥΕΙ Τῆς παρ' Ἑβραίοις γραφῆς θεοῦ δικαιωτήριον καὶ κρίσιν ψυχῶν μετὰ τὴν ἐνθένδε ἀπαλλαγὴν ἔσεσθαι προαγορευούσης διά τε μυρίων ἄλλων καὶ δι' ὧν φησι· «Κριτήριον ἐκάθισε καὶ βίβλοι ἠνεῴχθησαν καὶ παλαιὸς ἡμερῶν ἐκάθητο. ποταμὸς πυρὸς εἷλκεν ἔμπροσθεν αὐτοῦ· μύριαι μυριάδες ἐλειτούργουν αὐτῷ, καὶ χίλιαι χιλιάδες παρειστήκεισαν ἔμπροσθεν αὐτοῦ,» ἐπάκουσον τοῦ Πλάτωνος τῆς θείας κρίσεως καὶ δὴ καὶ τοῦ ποταμοῦ ὀνομαστὶ μεμνημένου πολλάς τε μονὰς τῶν εὐσεβῶν διαφόρους τε τῶν δυσσεβῶν 11.38.2 τιμωρίας συμφώνως τοῖς Ἑβραίων ὑπογράφοντος λόγοις. φησὶ δ' οὖν ἐν τῷ Περὶ ψυχῆς τάδε· «Τρίτος δὲ ποταμὸς τούτων κατὰ μέσον ἐκβάλλει καὶ ἐγγὺς τῆς ἐκβολῆς ἐκπίπτει εἰς τόπον μέγαν πυρὶ πολλῷ καιόμενον καὶ λίμνην ποιεῖ μείζω τῆς παρ' ἡμῖν θαλάττης, ζέουσαν ὕδατος καὶ πηλοῦ· ἐντεῦθεν δὲ χωρεῖ κύκλῳ θολερὸς καὶ πηλώδης, περιελιττόμενος δὲ τῇ γῇ ἄλλοσέ τε ἀφικνεῖται καὶ παρ' ἔσχατα τῆς Ἀχερουσιάδος λίμνης, οὐ συμμιγνύμενος τῷ ὕδατι· περι11.38.3 ελιχθεὶς δὲ πολλάκις ὑπὸ γῆν ἐμβάλλει κατωτέρω τοῦ Ταρτάρου. οὗτος δ' ἐστὶν ὃν ἐπονομάζουσι Πυριφλεγέθοντα, οὗ καὶ οἱ ῥύακες ἀποσπάσματα ἀναφυσῶσιν, ὅπου ἂν τύχωσι τῆς γῆς. τούτου δὲ αὖ καταντικρὺ ὁ τέταρτος ἐκπίπτει εἰς τόπον πρῶτον δεινόν τε καὶ ἄγριον, ὡς λέγεται, χρῶμα δὲ ἔχοντα ὅλον οἷον ὁ κυανός, ὃν δὴ ἐπονομάζουσι Στύγιον καὶ τὴν λίμνην, ἣν ποιεῖ ὁ ποταμὸς ἐμβάλλων Στύγα. ὁ δ' ἐμπεσὼν ἐνταῦθα καὶ δεινὰς δυνάμεις λαβὼν ἐν τῷ ὕδατι, δὺς κατὰ τῆς γῆς καὶ περιελιττόμενος χωρεῖ ἐναντίως τῷ Πυριφλεγέθοντι καὶ ἀπαντᾷ ἐν τῇ Ἀχερουσίᾳ λίμνῃ ἐξ ἐναντίας, καὶ οὐδὲ τὸ τούτου ὕδωρ οὐδενὶ μίγνυται, ἀλλὰ καὶ οὗτος κύκλῳ περιελθὼν ἐμβάλλει εἰς τὸν Τάρταρον ἐναντίως τῷ Πυριφλεγέθοντι· ὄνομα δὲ τούτῳ ἐστίν, ὡς οἱ 11.38.4 ποιηταὶ λέγουσι, Κωκυτός. τούτων δὲ οὕτως πεφυκότων, ἐπειδὰν ἀφίκωνται οἱ τετελευτηκότες εἰς τὸν τόπον οἷ ὁ δαίμων ἕκαστον κομίζει, πρῶτον μὲν διεδικάσαντο οἵ τε ὁσίως καὶ δικαίως βιώσαντες καὶ οἱ μή. καὶ οἳ μὲν ἂν δόξωσι μέσως βεβιωκέναι, πορευθέντες ἐπὶ τὸν Ἀχέροντα ἀναβάντες ἃ δὴ καὶ αὐτοῖς ὀχήματά ἐστιν, ἐπὶ τούτων ἀφικνοῦνται εἰς τὴν λίμνην καὶ ἐκεῖ οἰκοῦσί τε καὶ καθαιρόμενοι τῶν τε ἀδικημάτων διδόντες δίκας ἀπολύονται, εἴ τίς τι ἠδίκηκε, τῶν τε εὐεργεσιῶν τιμὰς φέρονται κατὰ τὴν ἀξίαν ἕκαστος, οἳ δ' ἂν δόξωσιν ἀνιάτως ἔχειν διὰ τὰ μεγέθη τῶν ἁμαρτημάτων, ἢ ἱεροσυλίας πολλὰς καὶ μεγάλας ἢ φόνους ἀδίκους καὶ παρανόμους πολλοὺς ἐξειργασμένοι ἢ ἄλλα ὅσα τοιαῦτα τυγχάνει ὄντα, τούτους δὲ ἡ προσήκουσα 11.38.5 μοῖρα ῥίπτει εἰς τὸν Τάρταρον, ὅθεν οὔποτε ἐκβαίνουσιν. οἳ δ' ἂν ἰάσιμα μέν, μεγάλα δὲ δόξωσιν ἡμαρτηκέναι ἁμαρτήματα, οἷον πρὸς πατέρα ἢ μητέρα ὑπ' ὀργῆς βίαιόν τι πράξαντες, καὶ μεταμέλον αὐτοῖς τὸν ἄλλον βίον βιῶσιν ἢ ἀνδροφόνοι ἢ τοιούτῳ τινὶ ἄλλῳ τρόπῳ γένωνται, τούτοις δὲ ἐμπεσεῖν μὲν εἰς τὸν Τάρταρον ἀνάγκη, ἐμπεσόντας δὲ αὐτοὺς καὶ ἐνιαυτὸν ἐκεῖ γενομένους ἐκβάλλει τὸ κῦμα, τοὺς μὲν ἀνδροφόνους κατὰ τὸν Κωκυτόν, τοὺς δὲ πατραλῴας κατὰ τὸν Πυριφλεγέθοντα· ἐπειδὰν δὲ φλεγόμενοι γένωνται κατὰ τὴν λίμνην τὴν Ἀχερουσιάδα, ἐνταῦθα βοῶσί τε καὶ καλοῦσιν, οἱ μὲν οὓς ἀπέκτειναν, οἱ δὲ οὓς ὕβρισαν, καλέσαντες δὲ ἱκετεύουσι καὶ δέονται ἐᾶσαι σφᾶς ἐκβῆναι εἰς τὴν λίμνην καὶ δέξασθαι, καὶ ἐὰν μὲν πείσωσιν, ἐκβαίνουσί τε καὶ λήγουσι τῶν κακῶν· εἰ δὲ μή, φέρονται αὖθις εἰς τὸν Τάρταρον κἀκεῖθεν πάλιν εἰς τοὺς ποταμούς, καὶ ταῦτα πάσχοντες οὐ πρότερον παύονται πρὶν ἂν πείσωσιν οὓς ἠδίκησαν· αὕτη γὰρ ἡ δίκη ὑπὸ