The True Myth (Part I)

Socrates: Listen to this truly beautiful story, as they say, which you will indeed believe to be a myth, but I hold it as fact, for its content is indeed true.

As Homer said, Zeus, Poseidon, and Pluto divided the rule of the universe among themselves after they had received it from their father, Cronus. 

Under Cronus, there was a law which governed how humans existed. This law has continued to exist and exists among the Gods today. It concerns those who have passed through life in a just and pious manner. When these people die, they depart to the Islands of the Blessed and dwell there in absolute happiness, removed from harm. However, the person who has lived in an unjust and impious manner shall depart to the prison of judgment and punishment, which they call Tartarus.

But, under the reign of Cronus, and even more recently under the rule of Zeus, the judges of these people were themselves living and judged other living people on the very day one of the living happened to die. As a result, the judges judged poorly.

Therefore, Pluto, who ruled Hades, and the governors of the Islands of the Blessed visited Zeus to inform him that the people who were coming to each of them were unworthy, whether they be the just or the unjust.

Zeus assured Pluto and the governors that he would prevent this from happening in the future. 

Zeus explained that, at the moment, judgments are poorly conducted because those who are judged are being judged clothed. This is because they are being judged while living. There are many whose souls are depraved but who are clothed with beautiful bodies, are noble by birth, and are wealthy, and when judgement comes, many witnesses suddenly appear, testifying that this type of person has lived a just life. Hence, the judges are in awe of these people and the things they hear whilst, at the same time, their selves are fully clothed. They judge with a veil of eyes and ears, and the whole of their body is placed in front of their souls. All of these things are placed before them, as well as their clothing and the clothing of those who are being judged.

Humans, at the moment, have the power to foresee death, which must be taken away from them so that they can no longer foresee it. Prometheus will be ordered to make this faculty in them cease. People are to be judged after being stripped of all things because it is a requirement that they be judged when dead. Likewise, the judge must also be stripped of all things and be dead, observing soul-self being with soul-self, everyone dying instantly, without family, and leaving all possessions on earth to allow the judgement to be just.

Knowing these things before you, I have appointed my sons as judges: two from Asia, Minos and Rhadamantus, and one from Europe, Æacus. After their death, they shall judge in the meadow, the crossroads from where two roads extend, one to the Islands of the Blessed and the other to Tartarus. And Rhadamantus will judge those from Asia, and Æacus will judge those from Europe. And, whenever a decision cannot be reached by these two, I appoint Minos to be the one who is worthy enough to judge the most appropriate path a person shall take.

These are things, O Callicles, which I have been told and believe to be true.

Plato, The Gorgias

The destiny of humans.

In Plato's Philebus (and under the Elements section of this website), Socrates says, 'We see clearly, as mariners say when they are tossed about in a storm at sea and catch sight of land.' As somebody who has sailed the seas and braved many a turbulent, unyielding storm, I assure you that clarity is present at the moment when even the slightest elevation of land is spotted. The place that transcends our present situation is the Islands of the Blessed.

Two from Asia and one from Europe. Light and Darkness.

Note from the editor of Classical Philosophy