Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-qxdb6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-28T13:47:38.329Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Chapter 1 - The Soul and the Celestial Afterlife in Greek Philosophy before Plato

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 May 2021

By
Simon Trépanier
Edited by
A. G. Long
A. G. Long
Affiliation:
University of St Andrews, Scotland
Get access

Summary

This study examines the evidence for the celestial afterlife in Greek philosophy before Plato. Starting from Plato’s Phaedo myth, where we find evidence for three levels of life for souls (our level, the ‘aithêr-dwellers’ above us, and, above that, a more mysterious third level), it argues that such a stratified cosmos was not original to Plato, but can be found in certain of his predecessors. The two best-documented instances of it occur in Heraclitus and the new, Strasbourg papyrus of Empedocles. Both thinkers, in attempting to frame the place of soul in the order of nature, also adopt a stratified, hierarchical cosmic scheme, with rewards and demotions along the vertical axis. But they also thereby take up positions on the nature of soul: What stuff is it made of? Is it (essentially) immortal or not? And if not, can its immortality be secured? Against Plato’s later doctrine of an essentially immortal soul, both conceive of soul as somehow physical and, for different reasons, appear to deny its full or essential immortality.

Keywords

soulimmortalitymythafterlifegodsHeraclitusEmpedoclesPlatoHadesreincarnation
Type
Chapter
Information
Immortality in Ancient Philosophy , pp. 12 - 40
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2021

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Adoménas, M. 1999. “Heraclitus on religion,” Phronesis 44: 87–113.Google Scholar
Annas, J. 1982. “Plato’s myths of judgement,” Phronesis 27: 119–43.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Baltzly, D. 2013. Proclus: Commentary on Plato’s Timaeus, Volume 5. Book 4: Proclus on Time and the Stars. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
von Arnim, H. 1903–5. Stoicorum Veterum Fragmenta (Fragments of the Early Stoics), Leipzig; Teubner, with vol. 4, indexes, by M. Adler, 1924.Google Scholar
Barnes, J. 1982. The Presocratic Philosophers. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Bartoš, H. and King, C. G. (eds.) 2020. Heat, Pneuma, and Soul in Ancient Philosophy and Science. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Betegh, G. 2009. “Tale, theology and teleology in the Phaedo,” in Partenie (ed.): 77–100.Google Scholar
Betegh, G. 2013. “On the physical aspects of Heraclitus’ psychology, with new appendices,” in Sider and Obbink (eds.): 225–62.Google Scholar
Boys-Stones, G. 2017. Platonist Philosophy 80 BC to AD 250. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bremmer, J. N. 2002. The Rise and Fall of the Afterlife. London and New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Bremmer, J. N. 2010. “The rise of the unitary soul and its opposition to the body: from Homer to Socrates,” in Jansen and Jedan (eds.): 11–30.Google Scholar
Bremmer, J. N. and Erskine, A. (eds.) 2010. The Gods of Ancient Greece. Edinburgh Leventis Studies 5. Edinburgh: University of Edinburgh Press.Google Scholar
Burkert, W. 1972 [1962]. Lore and Science in Ancient Pythagoreanism. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Burnet, J. 1911. Plato, Phaedo. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Cairns, D. 2003. “Myths and metaphors of mind and mortality,” Hermathena 175: 41–75.Google Scholar
Caston, V. and Graham, D. W. (eds.) 2002. The Presocratics: Essays in Honour of Alexander Mourelatos. Aldershot: Ashgate.Google Scholar
Clarke, M. 1999. Flesh and Spirit in the Songs of Homer. A Study of Words and Myths. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Curd, P. 2002. “The metaphysics of physics: mixture and separation in Empedocles and Anaxagoras,” in Caston and Graham (eds.): 139–58.Google Scholar
Curd, P. 2013. “Where are Love and Strife? Incorporeality in Empedocles,” in McCoy (ed.): 113–38.Google Scholar
Curd, P. and Graham, D. W. (eds.) 2008. The Oxford Handbook of Presocratic Philosophy. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Everson, S. (ed.) 1991. A Companion to Ancient Thought 2: Psychology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Finkelberg, A. 2013. “Heraclitus, the rival of Pythagoras,” in Sider and Obbink (eds.): 147–62.Google Scholar
Finkelberg, A. 2017. Heraclitus and Thales’ Conceptual Scheme: A Historical Study. Jerusalem Studies in Religion and Culture 23. Leiden and Boston: Brill.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Frede, D. and Reis, B. (eds.) 2009. Body and Soul in Ancient Philosophy. Berlin and New York: De Gruyter.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gantz, T. 1993. Early Greek Myth: A Guide to Literary and Artistic Sources. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.Google Scholar
Garland, R. 2001. The Greek Way of Death, 2nd ed. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Gee, E. R. G. 2020. Mapping the Afterlife: From Homer to Dante. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Gerber, D. (ed.) 1985. Greek Poetry and Philosophy: Studies in Honour of L. Woodbury. Chico, CA: Scholars’ Press.Google Scholar
Graham, D. W. 2006. Explaining the Cosmos. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Graham, D. W. 2010. The Texts of Early Greek Philosophy, 2 vols. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Graham, D. W. 2013. Science before Socrates: Parmenides, Anaxagoras, and the New Astronomy. New York: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Granger, H. 2000. “Death’s other kingdom: Heraclitus on the life of the foolish and the wise,” Classical Philology 95: 260–81.Google Scholar
Gregory, A. 2014. The Presocratics and the Supernatural. London: Bloomsbury Academic.Google Scholar
Guthrie, W. K. C. 1975. A History of Greek Philosophy, vol. IV: Plato. The Man and his Dialogues: Earlier Period. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Hackforth, R. 1952. Plato’s Phaedrus. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Hackforth, R. 1955. Plato’s Phaedo. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Huffman, C. 2007. “Philolaus and the central fire,” in Stern-Gillet and Corrigan (eds.): 57–94.Google Scholar
Huffman, C. 2008. “Heraclitus’ critique of Pythagoras’ enquiry in fragment 129,” Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy 35: 19–48.Google Scholar
Huffman, C. (ed.) 2014. A History of Pythagoreanism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Hussey, E. 1999a. “Heraclitus,” in Long (ed.): 88–112.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hussey, E. 1999b. “The enigmas of Derveni: a review of André Laks and Glenn W. Most (eds.), Studies on the Derveni Papyrus,” Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy 17: 303–24.Google Scholar
Inwood, B. 2001. The Poem of Empedocles, 2nd ed. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.Google Scholar
Jahn, T. 1987. Zum Wortfeld “Seele-Geist” in der Sprache Homers. Zetemata 83. Munich: Bech.Google Scholar
Janko, R. 2004. “Empedocles, On Nature, I 233–364: a new reconstruction of P. Strasb. Gr. Inv. 1665–66,” Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik 150: 1–26.Google Scholar
Jansen, L. and Jedan, C. (eds.) 2010. Philosophische Anthropologie in der Antike. Frankfurt: Ontos.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jouanna, J. 2012a. “The theory of sensation, thought and the soul in the Hippocratic treatise regimen: its connections with Empedocles and Plato’s Timaeus,” in Jouanna (ed.): 195–228.Google Scholar
Jouanna, J. (ed.) 2012b. Greek Medicine from Hippocrates to Galen: Selected Papers. Translated by N. Allies. Leiden and Boston: Brill.Google Scholar
Kahn, C. H. 1979. The Art and Thought of Heraclitus. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Kingsley, P. 1995. Ancient Philosophy, Mystery and Magic. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Laks, A. 1999. “Soul, sensation and thought” in Long (ed.): 250–69.Google Scholar
Lesher, J. H. 1995. “Mind’s knowledge and powers of control in Anaxagoras DK B 12,” Phronesis 40: 125–42.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Long, A. A. (ed.) 1999. The Cambridge Companion to Early Greek Philosophy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Long, A. A. 2013. “Heraclitus on measure and the explicit emergence of rationality,” in Sider and Obbink (eds.): 201–24.Google Scholar
Long, A. G. 2007. “Wisdom in Heraclitus,” Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy 33: 1–18.Google Scholar
Long, A. G. 2017. “Immortality in Empedocles,” Apeiron 50(1): 1–20.Google Scholar
Mansfeld, J. 1992. Heresiography in Context: Hippolytus’ Elenchos as a Source for Greek Philosophy. Leiden: Brill.Google Scholar
Mansfeld, J. 2015/2018. “Heraclitus on soul and super-soul, with an afterthought on the afterlife,” Rhizomata. A Journal for Ancient Philosophy and Science 3: 62–93; repr. in Mansfeld 2018: 218–50.Google Scholar
Mansfeld, J. 2018. Studies in Early Greek Philosophy. Leiden and Boston: Brill.Google Scholar
Mansfeld, J. and Primavesi, O. 2011. Die Vorsokratiker. Stuttgart: Reclam.Google Scholar
Marcovich, M. 1967. Heraclitus. Merida, Venezuela: Los Andes University Press.Google Scholar
Martin, A. and Primavesi, O. 1999. L’Empédocle de Strasbourg (P. Strasb. gr. 1665–1666): Introduction, édition et commentaire. Berlin, New York, and Strasbourg: De Gruyter.Google Scholar
McCoy, J. (ed.) 2013. Early Greek Philosophy: The Presocratics and the Emergence of Reason. Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press.Google Scholar
Mihai, A. 2010. “Soul’s aitherial abode according to the Poteidaia epitaph and the Presocratic philosophers,” Numen 57: 553–82.Google Scholar
Most, G. 2013. “Heraclitus on religion,” Rhizomata 1(2): 153–67.Google Scholar
Mouraviev, S. 2008. “Doctrinalia Heraclitea I et II: âme du monde et embrasement universel (notes de lecture),” Phronesis 53: 315–58.Google Scholar
Nussbaum, M. 1972. “ΨΥΧΗ in Heraclitus,” Phronesis 17: 1–16 and 153–70.Google Scholar
O’Brien, D. 1969. Empedocles’ Cosmic Cycle. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
O’Brien, D. 2016. “Empedocles and the identity of the elements,” Elenchos 37: 5–32.Google Scholar
O’Brien, M. J. 1985. “Becoming immortal in Plato’s Symposium,” in Gerber (ed.): 185–205.Google Scholar
Olson, S. D. 1998. Aristophanes, Peace. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Onians, R. B. 1951. The Origins of European Thought. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Osborne, C. 1987a. “Empedocles recycled,” Classical Quarterly, New Series 37: 24–50.Google Scholar
Osborne, C. 1987b. Rethinking Early Greek Philosophy: Hippolytus of Rome and the Presocratics. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Palmer, J. 2009. Parmenides and Presocratic Philosophy. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Palmer, J. 2016. “Elemental change in Empedocles,” Rhizomata 4(1): 30–54.Google Scholar
Partenie, C. (ed.) 2009. Plato’s Myths. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Pelliccia, H. 1995. Mind, Body, and Speech in Homer and Pindar. Hypomnemata 107. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht.Google Scholar
Picot, J.-C. 2006. “Aristote, Poétique 1457 b 13–14: la métaphore d’espèce à espèce,” Revue des Études Grecques 119: 532–51.Google Scholar
Picot, J.-C. and Berg., W. 2015. “Lions and promoi: final phase of exile for Empedocles’ daimones,” Phronesis 60: 380–409.Google Scholar
Pradeau, J. F. 1996. “Le Monde terrestre: le modèle cosmologique du mythe final du Phédon,” Revue Philosophiqe de la France et de l’Étranger 186(1): 75–105.Google Scholar
Primavesi, O. 2008. “Physical and mythical divinity,” in Curd and Graham (eds.): 250–83.Google Scholar
Rashed, M. 2009. “Aristophanes and the Socrates of the Phaedo,” Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy 36: 107–36.Google Scholar
Renehan, R. 1980. “On the Greek origins of the concepts incorporeality and immateriality,” Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies 21: 105–38.Google Scholar
Robin, L. 1926. Platon Phédon. Paris: Les Belles Lettres.Google Scholar
Robinson, T. 1995. Plato’s Psychology, 2nd ed. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.Google Scholar
Rowe, C. J. 1993. Plato, Phaedo. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Schofield, M. 1991. “Heraclitus’ theory of soul and its antecedents,” in Everson (ed.): 1–34.Google Scholar
Sedley, D. 1990. “Teleology and myth in the Phaedo,” Proceedings of the Boston Area Colloquium in Ancient Philosophy 5: 359–83.Google Scholar
Sedley, D. 2007. Creationism and its Critics in Antiquity. Berkeley, Los Angles, and London: University of California Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sedley, D. 2009. “Three kinds of Platonic immortality,” in Frede and Reis (eds.): 145–62.Google Scholar
Sedley, D. 2016. “Empedoclean superorganisms,” Rhizomata 4(1): 111–25.Google Scholar
Sider, D. and Obbink, D. (eds.) 2013. Doctrine and Doxography: Studies on Heraclitus and Pythagoras. Berlin and Boston: De Gruyter.Google Scholar
Sourvinou-Inwood, C. 1995. “Reading” Greek Death. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Stern-Gillet, S. and Corrigan, K. (eds.) 2007. Reading Ancient Texts, vol. I: Presocratics and Plato: Essays in Honour of Denis O’Brien. Leiden: Brill.Google Scholar
Stewart, J. A. 1905. The Myths of Plato. London: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Trépanier, S. 2003. “Empedocles on the ultimate symmetry of the world,” Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy 24: 1–57.Google Scholar
Trépanier, S. 2004. Empedocles: An Interpretation. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Trépanier, S. 2010. “Early Greek theology: God as nature and natural gods,” in Bremmer and Erskine (eds.): 273–317.Google Scholar
Trépanier, S. 2014. “From wandering limbs to limbless gods: δαίμων as substance in Empedocles,” Apeiron 47(2): 172–210.Google Scholar
Trépanier, S. 2017. “From Hades to the stars: Empedocles on the cosmic habitats of soul,” Classical Antiquity 36(1): 130–82.Google Scholar
Trépanier, S. 2020. “The spirit in the flesh: Empedocles on embodied soul,” in Bartoš and King (eds.): 80–105.Google Scholar
Vermeule, E. 1979. Aspects of Death in Early Greek Art and Poetry. Berkeley, Los Angeles, and London: University of California Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wagner, E. (ed.) 2001. Essays on Plato’s Psychology. Oxford: Lexington Books.Google Scholar
Wilson, M. 2013. Structure and Method in Aristotle’s Meteorologica. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Zeller, E. (1919–20 [1844–52]), Die Philosophie der Griechen in ihrer geschichtlichen Entwicklung, 6th ed. in 3 vols., ed. Nestle, W.. Leipzig: Reisland.Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×