The Myth of Er

In Plato's Republic, Plato gives his take on the afterlife in the Myth of Er. Er, sort of like Dante, recounts his experiences in the after life. However, Er does this after dying and then coming back to life when his body is being burned on a pyre.

Er describes coming to a mysterious place and observes two holes that lead into the ground, and two holes that lead into the heavens. Between these gateways there were judges, who sent people to the heavens or underworld respectively. When Er approaches the judges, he is told that he should stick around and then go back into the world and tell people what he saw. Here, I think the judges are a bit like Charon.

In the place where Er is, however, there is a strange convergence of souls. Souls from the underworld and the heavens are basically able to meet up and chat about what it is like where they were sent.  In each place, people experience tenfold what they had done on the earth. For the virtuous, they experience ten times the good, and for the sinners, they experience ten times the damage they have inflicted upon others.

Er then comes to the Spindle of Necessity, and near here Er witnesses lots being passed out with numbers on them, and a board displayed with corresponding new lives. Here we see some familiar names as well such as Orpheus, who picks a swan,  Ajax, who picks a lion,  Atalanta, who picks a monkey. All of these are animals that correspond to their living selves.

And Er wakes up soon after.

I thought this story was interesting, especially the part in which people are reincarnated in different forms, as the only thing that comes near to the concept of reincarnation in the Inferno is the Harrowing. Also, I think the Myth of Er is an intriguing fusion of Dante’s Paradise, Purgatory, and Inferno.