The myth of the winged chariot. The myth of the era and its meaning "Politician" and "laws"

Baths, saunas 18.04.2021

Baths, saunas

Socrates' story about afterlife rewards

Published according to the book: Plato. Inc. op. in 3 vols. V.3 (1). M., 1971.

“I will not convey to you the story of Alcinos, but the story of a brave man, Er, the son of Armenia, originally from Pamphylia. Once he was killed in the war; when ten days later they began to pick up the bodies of the already decomposed dead, they found him still whole, brought him home, and when on the twelfth day they started the burial, then, already lying on the fire, he suddenly came to life, and having come to life, he told what he had seen there.

He said that his soul, as soon as it left the body, went along with many others, and they all came to some divine place, where there were two clefts in the earth, one near the other, but on the contrary, above in the sky, there were also two . In the middle between them sat the judges. After the verdict was passed, they ordered the just people to go along the road to the right, up in the sky, and hung the sign of the sentence in front of them, and the unjust people to go along the road to the left, down, and these also had - behind - the designation of all their offenses.

When the turn came to Er, the judges said that he should become a messenger for the people of everything that he saw here, and ordered him to listen to everything and watch everything.

they gladly settled down in the meadow, as happens at national festivals. They greeted each other, if anyone knew anyone, and asked those who came from the earth how things were going there, and those who came down from heaven about what they had there.

They, remembering, told each other - alone, with sorrow and tears, how much they had suffered and seen enough in their wandering under the earth (and this journey is millennial), and others, those from heaven, about bliss and amazing beauty spectacle.

But to tell everything in detail would require, Glavkon, a lot of time. The main thing, according to Er, was this: for every offense inflicted on someone and for any offended, all offenders are punished tenfold (calculated for a hundred years, because such is the duration of human life), so that the penalty is ten times more crime. For example, if someone became the culprit in the death of many people by betraying the state and the army, and because of him many fell into slavery, or if he was an accomplice in some other atrocity, for all this, that is, for every crime, he must endure ten times the pain. On the other hand, whoever did good deeds, was just and pious, was rewarded according to merit.

What Er said about those who, having been born, lived only a short time, it is not worth mentioning. He also talked about even greater retribution for disrespect - and reverence - for gods and parents, and for suicide. He said that in his presence one asked another there where the great Ardia had gone. This Ardiae was a tyrant in some of the cities of Pamphylia a thousand years before. It was said that he killed his old father and elder brother and committed many other wickedness and crimes.

The one to whom this question was asked, answered him, according to Er, as follows: “Ardyei did not come, and he will not come here. After all, from various terrible sights we also saw this: when, after numerous torments, we were already close to the mouth and were about to enter, suddenly we noticed Ardiey and some others - there were almost entirely tyrants, and among ordinary people, perhaps only the greatest criminals; they were already thinking of entering, but the mouth did not accept them and uttered a roar, as soon as one of these villains, incurable due to their depravity or not yet sufficiently punished, made an attempt to enter. Nearby stood ready wild people with a fiery guise.

Obedient to this roar, they seized some and took them away, and they tied Ardieus and others hand and foot, threw a noose around their neck, threw them to the ground, tore off their skin and dragged them along impassable roads, over piercing thorns, and explained to everyone they met why such a execution, and they said that they would throw these criminals into Tartarus. Although we had already suffered many different fears, the fear was stronger than all of them then, lest this roar should be heard when one of us was at the mouth; therefore it was the greatest joy for each of us that this roar ceased when we entered.

That was the kind of sentences and punishments, and the rewards were just the opposite of them. Everyone who spent seven days in the meadow, on the eighth day, had to get up and go on a journey in order to reach a place in four days from where a ray of light is visible from above, stretching across the whole sky and earth, like a pillar, very similar to a rainbow, just brighter and cleaner.

They arrived at it, having made a one-day journey, and there they saw, in the middle of this pillar of light, the ends of bonds hanging from the sky: after all, this light is the knot of heaven; like a beam on ships, so it fastens the vault of heaven. Ananka's spindle hangs at the ends of these bonds, giving everything a rotational motion. At the spindle, the axis and hook are made of adamant, and the shaft is made of adamant in conjunction with other rocks.

The device of the shaft is as follows: its appearance is the same as that of the local ones, but, according to Er's description, it is necessary to imagine it in such a way that the same shaft fitted to it is inserted into a large hollow shaft, only smaller, like boxes are inserted. In the same way, the third shaft, and the fourth, and four more. There are eight shafts in all, they are nested one inside the other, their edges from above have the form of circles on a common axis, so that from the outside they seem to form a continuous surface of a single shaft, this axis is driven through the middle of the eighth shaft.

The first, outer shaft has the largest surface of the circle, the sixth shaft - the second largest, the fourth - the third, the eighth - the fourth, the seventh - the fifth, the fifth - the sixth, the third - the seventh, the second - the eighth in size. The circle of the largest shaft is colorful, the circle of the seventh shaft is the brightest; the eighth circle borrows its color from the light emitted by the seventh; the circles of the second and fifth shafts are close to each other in color and more yellow than those of a shade, the third circle is the whitest, the fourth is reddish, and the sixth is in second place in whiteness. The entire spindle as a whole, rotating, makes the same revolution every time, but during its rotational movement, the inner seven circles slowly turn in the opposite direction to the rotation of the whole.

Of these, the eighth circle moves the fastest, in second place in speed are the seventh, sixth and fifth, which move at the same speed; in third place, as they could see, are the rotational revolutions of the fourth circle; in the fourth place is the third circle, and in the fifth - the second. This spindle rotates on Ananka's knees.

On top of each of the circles of the spindle sits a Siren; rotating with them, each of them emits only one sound, always of the same pitch. Of all the sounds - and there are eight of them - a harmonious consonance is obtained. Near the Sirens, at an equal distance from them, sit, each on its own throne, the other three creatures - these are Moira, daughters of Ananka: Lbhesis, Klotu and Btropos; they are in all white, with wreaths on their heads. In harmony with the voices of the Sirens, Lachesis sings the past, Clotho the present, Atropos the future. From time to time, Clotho touches with his right hand the outer rim of the spindle, helping to rotate it, while Atropos with his left hand does the same with the inner circles, and Lachesis alternately touches both with his hand.

So, as soon as they got there, they immediately had to go to Lachesis. A certain soothsayer arranged them in order, then took lots and samples of lives from the knees of Lachesis, ascended a high platform and said:

- “The word of the daughter of Ananka, the maiden Lachesis. One Day Souls! Here is the beginning of another turn, deadly for the mortal race. The genius will not get you by lot, but you will choose it yourself. Whose lot will be the first, let him be the first to choose for himself the life inevitably coming to him. Virtue is not the property of anyone alone: honoring it or not honoring it, everyone will partake of it more or less. It is the fault of the one who chooses: God is innocent.”

Having said this, the soothsayer cast lots into the crowd, and everyone, except Er, picked up the lot that fell near him: Eru was not allowed to do this.

It became clear to anyone who raised what he was in a row at the draw. After that, the soothsayer laid out before them on the ground specimens of life in an amount much greater than the number of those present. These samples were very different - the life of different animals and all kinds of human life. Among them were even tyrannies, for life, or declining in the middle of life and ending in poverty, exile and poverty. There were also the lives of people who became famous for their appearance, beauty, strength or in competitions, as well as the generosity and valor of their ancestors.

Accordingly, the life of inconspicuous people was here, as well as the life of women. But this did not determine the spiritual warehouse, because the soul will certainly change, one has only to choose a different way of life. However, there were interspersed wealth and poverty, illness and health, as well as intermediate states.

he will consider the worst way of life, which leads to the fact that the soul becomes more unjust, and the best when it becomes more just; yet he will leave the rest aside. We have already seen that both during life and after death, this is the most important choice for a person.

You must go to Hades with this firm, like adamant, conviction, so that you are not overwhelmed by wealth and similar evil, and that you do not become a tyrant, such and similar activity would not cause much irreparable evil, and would not experience even greater evil. myself. In life, one must always be able to choose the middle path, avoiding extremes - both, if possible, in this one, and in all that follows: this is the highest happiness for a person.

Yes, and the messenger from that world reported that the soothsayer then said this: “Even for the one who starts the last choice, there is a pleasant life here, not bad at all, if you make a choice wisely and live strictly. Whoever chooses at the beginning, do not be inattentive, and whoever chooses at the end, do not despair!”

After these words of the soothsayer, the one who got the first lot immediately approached: he took the life of the most powerful tyrant. Because of his foolishness and insatiability, he made a choice without thinking, and there lurked a fateful fate for him - devouring his own children and all sorts of other troubles. When he then, slowly, thought, he began to beat his chest, grieve that, making his choice, he did not reckon with the soothsayer's warning, he blamed not himself, but fate, deities - anything but himself for these troubles. . Meanwhile, he was one of those who came from heaven and lived his previous life in an orderly state system; True, this virtue of his was only a matter of habit, and not the fruit of philosophical reflection. Generally speaking, quite a few who came from heaven got caught up in it because they weren't seasoned in hardship. And those who came from the earth made their choice without haste: after all, they themselves experienced all sorts of difficulties, and they saw them on the example of other people. Therefore, and also because of the accidents of the lottery, for most souls there is a change of bad and good.

If, on coming into this life, a person philosophized soundly and when choosing, his lot did not fall out of the last, then, according to the news from that world, he will most likely be happy not only here, but his path from here to there and back will not be underground, thorny, but even, heavenly.

He also saw a swan, which preferred to choose human life; so do other musical beings. The soul that had the twentieth lot chose the life of a lion: it was the soul of Ajax, the son of Telamon, she avoided becoming a man, mindful of the history of the award of armor. After him came the soul of Agamemnon. As a result of her suffering, she also had a hostile attitude towards the human race and changed her life to the life of an eagle. Meanwhile, the lot fell to the soul of Atalanta: noticing how great honor the winner of the competition enjoys, she could not resist and chose this fate for herself.

After her, he saw how the soul of Epeus, the son of Panopaeus, entered the nature of a woman skilled in crafts. Somewhere far away, among the very last, he saw the soul of Thersites, that universal laughingstock: she was dressed in a monkey. By chance, the last of all the lot fell to go choose the soul of Odysseus. She remembered her former hardships and, casting aside all ambition, wandered for a long time, looking for the life of an ordinary person, far from business; finally, she forcibly found her, lying somewhere: after all, everyone neglected her, but the soul of Odysseus, as soon as she saw her, immediately chose herself, saying that she would do the same if she had the first lot . The souls of different animals in the same way passed into people and into each other, the unjust - into the wild, and the just - into the meek; in a word, there were all sorts of mixtures.

First of all, this guardian leads the soul to Clotho, under her hand and under the circuits of the rotating spindle: by this he affirms the fate which one has chosen for himself by lot. After touching Klotho, he leads the soul to the yarn of Atropos, which makes the threads of life already unchanged.

From here the soul, without turning around, goes to the throne of Ananka and penetrates through it. When other souls pass through it, they all together in the heat and terrible heat go to the plain of Lethe, where there are no trees or other vegetation. Already in the evening they are located near the river Amelet, the water of which cannot be kept in any vessel. In moderation, everyone should have drunk this water, but whoever did not observe prudence, they drank without measure, and whoever drinks it in this way forgets everything.

When they went to bed, at midnight there was a thunder and an earthquake. Suddenly they were carried up from there in different directions, to the places where they were destined to be born, and they scattered across the sky like stars. Eru was not allowed to drink this water. He does not know where and how his soul returned to the body. Suddenly waking up at dawn, he saw himself at the stake. Conclusion: a call to observe justice.

In this way, Glavkon, this legend was saved, and not perished. It will save us too; if we believe him, then we will easily pass through Lethe and not defile our souls. But in the conviction that the soul is immortal and capable of enduring any evil and any good, we all - if you believe me - will always keep to the higher path and observe justice in every possible way along with rationality, so that while we are here, we will be friends to ourselves and the gods.

And since we deserve a reward for ourselves, like winners in competitions, collecting gifts from everywhere, then here, and in that thousand-year journey that we analyzed, we will be fine.

Translation by A.N. Egunov.

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The story of Odysseus about his wanderings at the feast of the king Alcinous (Homer. Od. IX-XII) lasted for three days.
Pamphylian name Era is interpreted differently. In the lexicon of the Suda (v. kr) it is "proper Hebrew name". In the Gospel of Luke (3, 28) Er- An ancestor of Joseph? Carpenter. Clement of Alexandria identifies him with Zoroaster, the son of Armenia, a Pamphylian (Stromat. V, ch. XIV, 103, 2?4, St? Frucht).

Plutarch also tells about the afterlife of Era, naming, however, his son Harmony (Quaest. Conv. X 740). Similar stories are found in Origen as an argument for the resurrection of Christ before unbelievers (Contr. Gels. II 16), as well as in Macrobius (Somn. Scip. I 1, 9 Will.).

Two clefts, or two "mouths" (see 615d), are mentioned by Plutarch in the story of the cycle of souls mourning their lot (De genio Socrat. 591c), and by Porphyry (De antro nymph. 29, 31).

Rice. one.

Wed the fate of sinners in Dante's hell ("Divine Comedy"), where the devils throw them with pitchforks into boiling tar ("Hell", p. 21? 22).

The sphere of light links the earth and sky like a ship's hull and penetrates the sky and earth through and through in the form of a luminous pillar in the direction of the world axis, the ends of which coincide with the poles (see Fig. 1).

The spindle of Ananka (Necessity) is located in the center of the luminous pillar and is tied to the ends of the celestial bonds, and the axis of the spindle is nothing but the world axis, and the shaft (or “heel”) is arranged like a hemisphere or a truncated cone, which includes seven other hemispheres , forming with the first eight celestial spheres (see Fig. 2 and 2a). Ananka rotates this spindle between her knees.
Eight celestial (or planetary) spheres have different sizes of surfaces that form a certain proportion. The first, outer, sphere, containing all the others, is the largest and is the sky of fixed stars (see also note 48 to the Timaeus dialogue and Fig. 1).

Rice. 2.

Antique spindle, which corresponds to the shape of the Ananka spindle. AB - spindle axis; C - shaft.

The colors of the spheres correspond to the color of the planets themselves. The sphere of the fixed stars is the most variegated, as it is transmitted by all the shades of the luminaries that make it up, the seventh sphere - the solar one - is the brightest, the eighth - the Moon and the Earth - shines with the reflected light of the Sun; the second - Saturn - and the fifth - Mercury - golden yellowish; the third - Jupiter - is heated to whiteness, the fourth - Mars - glows red; the sixth, Venus, bright white. See note for details. 52 to the dialogue "Timaeus", which explains the color significance of the planets.

For the rotation of the heavenly spheres, see Timaeus 38b-c.

The intervals between the eight spheres make up an octave, or harmony, so that the whole Platonic cosmos sounds like a well-tuned instrument, especially since a siren sits on each sphere and sings in a certain key. See also Timaeus, approx. 48.

About Necessity - Ananke- and its incarnations, as well as about three Moira see t. 1, note. 82 to the dialogue "Gorgias" (p. 575). The names of these arbiters of human destiny mean: Lachesis- "giving lots" (lagchano - "to receive by lot"); Clotho- “spinning thread”, “spinning thread of human lot” (clotho - “spinning”); Atropos- “unchanging”, “unshakable” (lit.: “one that does not turn back”). Thus, the first Moira draws lots for a person in the past, the second spins his present life, and the third inevitably brings the future closer. Accordingly, Klotho - the present- knows the outer circle of fixed stars; Atropos - future- is in charge of the mobile planets of the inner spheres; Lachesis, as determining the lot, combines both types of movement.

Rice. 2a.

Top view of the Ananka spindle. Roman numerals indicate the order of the spheres. Arabic - the ratio of their surfaces.

Here we are talking about geniuses("demon") of the human soul, good or evil. In Horace we read about a genius directing the star of a person from birth and dying with each of the people, “sometimes bright, sometimes gloomy” (Epist. II 2, 187-189). This genius takes care of the fleeting human life (Epist. II 1, 143 ff.). Pindar (01. XIII 105) recalls the "demon of birth" and the struggle in man of two demons - good and evil (Pyth. Ill 34). Wed "Phaedo" (107d) - about the genius, or "demon", inherited by a person during life and accompanying him in death. It is important to note Plato's idea about the choice of genius by man himself, which indicates free will. see also A.F. Losev. ancient mythology in its historical development. M., 1957, pp. 55–60.

Orpheus- see above, approx. 16 to book. II.

Famira- see t. 1, approx. 11 to the dialogue "Ion".

After the death of Achilles, his weapon was awarded not to the bravest Greek ajax, son Telamon, but to the "cunning" Odysseus. This plot is dedicated to the tragedy of Sophocles "Ajax? The scourge-bearer".

Agamemnon- see t. 1, approx. 20 to the dialogue "Cratyl".

Atalanta. - the daughter of Iasitn and Klymene - a virgin? A huntress from Arcadia, who participated in the Calydonian hunt and received the head of a killed boar from the hands of Meleager.

Epey- see t. 1, approx. 10 to the dialogue "Ion".

Fersit- see t. 1, approx. 89 to the dialogue "Gorgias".

Odysseus- see t. 1, approx. 54 to the Apology of Socrates.

Summer- the river of oblivion in the realm of the dead, having drunk which, the souls of the dead forgot their earthly life. The "valley of Lethe" is mentioned by Aristophanes (Ran. 186).

River Amelet– i.e. "carrying away worries", "carefree". Wed in Virgil (Aep. VI 714 ff.), where the souls of the dead “by the waves of the river Lethe drink carefree jets and long oblivion”, i.e. Lethe and Amelet are identified here, since oblivion gives a complete lack of care.
In these images of Lethe and the river Ameleth there are echoes of the legends about the water of Mnemosyne, i.e. memory, on the one hand, and Leta, i.e. oblivion, on the other. Pausanias writes about the soothsayer Trophonius in Lebadeya, where the pilgrim first drinks water from the spring of Lethe in order to forget about worries and worries, and then from the source of memory in order to remember everything that he saw in Trophonius' cave (IX 39, 8). For the rivers of Hades see Phaedo 113a?d.

The history of the afterlife of the soul, its wanderings and reincarnations is covered in detail, taking into account other works of Plato, in vol. 1, approx. 82 to the dialogue "Gorgias".

Socrates urges his interlocutors to strive upward, i.e. go back to the highest good(See also vol. 2, "Phaedrus", 256b-257a and notes 40, 41 to the same dialogue).

Materials: http://grani.agni-age.net/articles10/4004.htm
Plato.

The myth of Atlantis (dialogue "Timaeus")

I will tell what I heard as an ancient legend from the lips of a man who himself was far from young. Yes, in those days our grandfather was, in his own words, about ninety years old, and I was ten at the most. At that time we were celebrating the Feast of Koureotis on Apaturia, and according to the established rite for us boys, our fathers offered rewards for reading poetry. Various works of various poets were read, including many boys who performed the verses of Solon, which at that time were still a novelty. And so one of the members of the phratry, either out of conviction, or thinking to please Critias, declared that he considered Solon not only the wisest in all other respects, but also the noblest of poets in his poetic work. And the old man - I remember it as now - was very happy and said, smiling: "If, Aminander, he did not study poetry in fits and starts, but seriously, like others, and if he brought to the end the legend that he brought here from Egypt, and was not forced to abandon him because of the troubles and other troubles that met him upon his return to his homeland, and I believe that then neither Hesiod, nor Homer, nor any other poet could surpass him in glory. "And what was that legend, Critias?" he asked. “It concerned,” our grandfather replied, “the greatest deed ever committed by our city, which would deserve to become the most famous of all, but due to the time and death of those who committed this deed, the story of it did not reach us.” “Tell me from the very beginning,” Aminander asked, “what is the matter, under what circumstances and from whom did Solon hear what he told as the true truth?” “There is in Egypt,” our grandfather began, “at the top of the Delta, where the Nile diverges into separate streams, a nome called Saissky; main city this nome is Sais, from where, by the way, King Amasis was born. The patroness of the city is a certain goddess, who in Egyptian is called Neith, and in Hellenic, according to the locals, this is Athena: they are very friendly to the Athenians and claim some kind of relationship with the latter.

Solon said that when he arrived there in his wanderings, he was received with great honor; when he began to ask about ancient times the most knowledgeable among the priests, he had to make sure that neither he himself, nor any of the Hellenes in general, one might say, knew almost nothing about these subjects. Once, intending to turn the conversation to old traditions, he tried to tell them our myths about ancient events - about Forons, revered as the first man, about Niobo, and about how Deucalion and Pyrrha survived the flood; at the same time, he tried to derive the genealogy of their descendants, as well as calculate the number of generations of the periods that have elapsed since those times. And then one of the priests, a man of very advanced years, exclaimed: "Ah, Solon, Solon! You Hellenes always remain children, and there is no elder among the Hellenes!" "Why do you say that?" Solon asked. “You are all young in mind,” he replied, “for your minds do not retain in themselves any tradition that has passed from generation to generation from time immemorial, and no doctrine that has grayed over time. The reason for this is this. There have already been and will be repeated and various cases of death of people, and, moreover, the most terrible - because of fire and water, and others, less significant, - because of thousands of other disasters.Hence the legend that is widespread among you about Phaethon, the son of Helios, who supposedly once harnessed his father's chariot, but he could not direct her along her father's path, and therefore he burned everything on Earth and died himself, incinerated by lightning.

Suppose this legend has the appearance of a myth, but it contains the truth: in fact, the bodies revolving in the sky around the Earth deviate from their paths, and therefore, at certain intervals, everything on Earth perishes from a great fire. At such times the inhabitants of mountains and high or dry places are subject to more complete extermination than those who live near rivers or the sea; therefore, our constant benefactor, the Nile, delivers us from this misfortune, overflowing.

But when the gods, doing cleansing over the Earth, flood it with waters, the booherds and cattle breeders in the mountains can survive, while the inhabitants of your cities are carried away by streams into the sea, but in our country the water is not at such a time, nor at any other time. falls on the fields from above, but, on the contrary, by its nature rises from below. For this reason the traditions which are preserved among us are the most ancient, although it is true that in all lands where excessive cold or heat does not prevent it, the human race invariably exists in greater or lesser numbers. Whatever glorious or great deed, or in general a remarkable event may take place, whether in our region or in any country about which we receive news, all this from ancient times is imprinted in the records that we keep in our temples; meanwhile, as soon as you and other peoples have time to develop writing and everything else that is necessary for city life, again and again at the appointed time, streams fall from heaven like pestilence, leaving all of you only illiterate and unlearned. And you start all over again, as if you had just been born, knowing nothing about what happened in ancient times in our country or in your own country.

Take at least those of your pedigrees. Solon, which you have just described, because they are almost no different from children's fairy tales. So, you keep the memory of only one flood, and there were many before that; moreover, you do not even know that the most beautiful and noblest race of people once lived in your country. You yourself and your whole city come from those few who remained of this kind, but you do not know anything about it, for their descendants have been dying for many generations, leaving no records and therefore, as it were, silent. Meanwhile. Solon, before the greatest and most destructive flood, the state now known under the name of Athens, was also the first in matters of military prowess, and in the perfection of its laws stood above comparison; tradition ascribes to him such deeds and institutions that are more beautiful than anything we know under heaven. "Hearing this, Solon, by his own admission, was amazed and fervently entreated the priests with all the details and in order to tell about these ancient Athenian citizens.

The priest answered him: “I’m not sorry, Solon; I’ll tell everything for the sake of you and your state, but first of all for the sake of the goddess who received her lot, raised and educated both your city and our city. However, she founded Athens for a whole millennium earlier, having received about your seed from Gaia and Hephaestus, and this city of ours - later. Meanwhile, the antiquity of our city institutions is determined by sacred records at eight thousand years. So, nine thousand years ago these your fellow citizens lived, and whose laws and whose greatest I will have to briefly tell you about the feat; later, at your leisure, we will find out everything in more detail and in order with letters in our hands. first of all, the class of priests, isolated from all others, then the class of artisans, in which everyone is engaged in his craft, without interfering in anything else, and, finally, the class of shepherds, hunters and farmers; e and the military class, as you yourself must have noticed, is separated from the rest, and its members are ordered by law to care for nothing but war.

Add to this that our warriors are equipped with shields and spears, this kind of weaponry was revealed by the goddess, and we introduced it first in Asia, as you were the first in your lands.

With regard to mental pursuits, you yourself see what care our law showed from the very beginning, exploring the cosmos and from the divine sciences with the derivation of human sciences, up to the art of divination and the health-care art of healing, as well as all other types of knowledge. which stand in connection with those mentioned. But the goddess introduced all this order and structure even earlier, arranging your state, and she began by finding a place for your birth where, under the influence of a mild climate, you would be born the most intelligent people on Earth. Loving battles and loving wisdom, the goddess chose and was the first to populate such a land that promised to give birth to husbands more than anyone similar to herself. And so you began to dwell there, possessing beautiful laws, which were then even more perfect, and surpassing all people in all kinds of virtue, as is natural for the offspring and pets of the gods. Of the great deeds of your state, there are many that are known from our records and serve as an object of admiration; however, there is one among them, which exceeds all the rest in grandeur and valor. After all, according to our records, your state put a limit to the insolence of countless military forces that set off to conquer all of Europe and Asia, and kept their way from the Atlantic Sea.

In those days it was possible to cross this sea, for there was still an island that lay in front of that strait, which is called in your language the Pillars of Hercules. This island exceeded in size Libya and Asia, instead of those taken, and from it it was easy for travelers of that time to move to other islands, and from the islands to the entire opposite mainland, which encompassed that sea, which really deserves such a name (after all, the sea on this side the said strait is but a bay with a narrow passage into it, while the sea on the other side of the strait is the sea in the proper sense of the word, as well as the land surrounding it may truly and quite rightly be called a mainland). On this island, called Atlantis, there arose a kingdom of amazing size and power, whose power extended over the whole island, to many other islands and to part of the mainland, and moreover, on this side of the strait they took possession of Libya as far as Egypt and Europe as far as to Tirrenia. And so all this cohesive power was thrown at one blow to plunge into slavery both your and our lands and all the countries on this side of the strait in general. It was then, Solon, that your state showed the whole world a brilliant proof of its valor and strength: surpassing everyone in fortitude and experience in military affairs, it first stood at the head of the Hellenes, but because of the betrayal of the allies, it turned out to be left to itself, in loneliness met with extreme dangers and yet defeated the conquerors and erected victorious trophies.

Those who were not yet enslaved, it saved from the threat of slavery; all the rest, no matter how much we lived on this side of the Pillars of Heracles, it generously made free. But later, when the time came for unprecedented earthquakes and floods, in one terrible day, all your military strength was swallowed up by the cracked earth; likewise, Atlantis disappeared, plunging into the abyss. After that, the sea in those places became, until this day, unnavigable and inaccessible due to the shallowing caused by the huge amount of silt that the settled island left behind. "Well, so I told you, Socrates, perhaps briefly what I conveyed from the words of Solon old man Critias: When you spoke yesterday about your state and its citizens, I remembered this story, and I was surprised to notice how many of your words, by some amazing chance, coincide with the words of Solon.

But then I did not want to say anything, because after such a long time I did not remember the content of the story enough; so I decided that I should not speak until I could remember everything in sufficient detail. And that is why I so willingly accepted the duties that you offered me yesterday: it seemed to me that if in such a case it is most important to base the speech on a subject that agrees with our intention, then we have nothing to worry about. As Hermocrates has already noted, I began to recall the essence of the matter in conversation with them, as soon as I left here yesterday, and then, left alone, I recalled the details all night long and remembered almost everything.

It is fair to say that hardened in childhood, how well it is kept in memory. I am not at all sure that I would be able to fully recall what I heard yesterday; but if from this story, which I heard a long time ago, at least something escapes me, it will seem strange to me. Indeed, at one time I listened to all this with such truly boyish pleasure, and the old man so willingly gave explanations in response to my constant questions, that the story was indelibly imprinted in my memory, like a picture burned by fire on wax. And today, early in the morning, I shared the story with them here, so that they, too, like me, would have something to talk about. So, in order to finally get to the heart of the matter, I agree, Socrates, to repeat my narration, no longer in an abbreviated form, but with all the details with which I myself heard it. Citizens and the state that were presented to us yesterday as in a calm myth, we will transfer to reality and will proceed from the fact that your state is our homeland, and the citizens that you thought about are our ancestors who really lived from the stories priest.

The myth of Era (afterlife rewards). "The State", book 10.

I will not give you the story of Alcinos, but the story of a brave man, Er, the son of Armenia, a native of Pamphylia 20 . Once he was killed in the war; when ten days later they began to pick up the bodies of the already decomposed dead, they found him still whole, brought him home, and when on the twelfth day they started the burial, then, already lying on the fire, he suddenly came to life, and having come to life, he told what he had seen there 21 .

He said that his soul, as soon as it left the body, went along with many others, and they all came to some divine place, where there were two clefts in the earth, one near the other, but on the contrary, above in the sky, there were also two 22 . In the middle between them sat the judges. After the verdict was passed, they ordered the just people to go along the road to the right, up in the sky, and hung the sign of the sentence in front of them, and the unjust people to go along the road to the left, down, and these also had - behind - the designation of all their offenses. When it was Er's turn, the judges; they said that he should become a messenger for the people of everything that he saw here, and ordered him to listen to everything and watch everything.

He saw there how the souls, after their judgment, left through two clefts - heaven and earth, and came through two others: souls full of dirt and dust rose from the earth one by one, and pure souls descended from heaven through the other. And everyone who came seemed to have returned from a long journey: they happily settled down in the meadow, as happens at national festivities. They greeted each other, if anyone was familiar with anyone, and asked those who came from the earth how things were going there, and those who descended from heaven about what they had there. They, remembering, told each other - 615 some, with sorrow and tears, how much they had suffered and seen enough in their journey under the earth (and this journey is millennial), and others, those from heaven, about bliss and amazing beauty spectacle.

But to tell everything in detail would require, Glavkon, a lot of time. The main thing, according to Er, was this: for every offense inflicted on someone and for any offended, all offenders are punished tenfold (calculated for a hundred years, because such is the duration of human life), so that the penalty is ten times more crime. For example, if someone became the culprit in the death of many people by betraying the state and the army, and because of him many fell into slavery, or if he was an accomplice in some other crime, for all this, that is, for every crime, he must endure ten times the pain. On the other hand, whoever did good deeds, was just and pious, was rewarded according to merit.

What Er said about those who, having been born, lived only a short time, it is not worth mentioning. He also talked about even greater retribution for disrespect - and veneration - of the gods and parents, and for suicide. He said that in his presence one asked another there where the great Ardia had gone. This Ardiae had been a tyrant in one of the cities of Pamphylia for a thousand years before. It was said that he killed his old father and elder brother and committed many other wickedness and crimes. The one to whom this question was asked, answered him, according to Er, as follows: “Ardia did not come, and will not come here. were about to enter, suddenly we noticed Ardieus and some others - there were almost entirely all tyrants, and among ordinary people, perhaps only the greatest criminals; they were already thinking of entering, but the mouth would not accept them and let out a roar, as soon as one of these villains 616, incurable in their depravity or not yet sufficiently punished, made an attempt to enter. Wild men with a fiery appearance stood ready nearby. Obedient to this roar, they seized some and took them away, to the ground, they tore off their skin and dragged them across impassability, over piercing thorns, and they explained to everyone they met why such an execution, and said that they would throw these criminals into Tartarus.Although we have already suffered many different fears, but all of them then the fear was stronger, lest this roar should be heard when one of us was at the mouth; therefore it was the greatest joy for each of us that this roar ceased when we entered.

This is what kind of sentences and punishments were, and rewards were exactly the opposite of them. 23 . All who had spent seven days in the meadow had to get up on the eighth day and set out on their journey, so that in four days they would arrive at a place from which a ray of light could be seen from above, stretching across the whole heaven and earth, like a pillar very similar to a rainbow, just brighter and cleaner. They arrived at it, having made a one-day journey, and there they saw, in the middle of this pillar of light, the ends of the bonds hanging from the sky: after all, this light is the knot of heaven; like a beam on ships, so it fastens the vault of heaven 24 . Ananka's spindle hangs at the ends of these bonds, giving everything a rotational motion. At the spindle, the axis and hook are made of adamant, and the shaft is made of adamant in conjunction with other breeds. The device of the shaft is as follows: its appearance is the same as that of the local ones, but, according to Er's description, it is necessary to imagine it in such a way that the same shaft fitted to it is inserted into a large hollow shaft, only smaller, like boxes are inserted. In the same way, the third shaft, and the fourth, and four more. There are eight shafts in all, they are nested one inside the other, their edges from above have the form of circles on a common axis, so that from the outside they seem to form a continuous surface of a single shaft, this axis is driven through the middle of the eighth shaft. The first, outer shaft has the largest surface of the circle, the sixth shaft - the second largest, the fourth - the third, the eighth - the fourth, the seventh - the fifth, the fifth - the sixth, the third - the seventh, the second - the eighth largest 25 . The circle of the largest shaft is motley, the circle of the seventh shaft is the brightest; the eighth circle borrows its color from the light emitted by the seventh; 617 circles of the second and fifth shafts are close to each other in color and more yellow than those hues, the third circle is the whitest, the fourth is reddish, and the sixth is in second place in whiteness 26 . The entire spindle as a whole, rotating, makes the same revolution each time, but with its rotational movement, the inner seven circles slowly turn in the opposite direction to the rotation of the whole. Of these, the eighth circle moves the fastest, in second place in speed are the seventh, sixth and fifth, which move at the same speed; in third place, as they could see, are the rotational revolutions of the fourth circle; in fourth place is the third circle, and in fifth place is the second. This spindle is spinning on Ananka's knees 27 .

On top of each of the circles of the spindle sits a Siren; rotating with them, each of them emits only one sound, always of the same pitch. Of all the sounds - and there are eight of them - a harmonious consonance is obtained. 28 . Near the Sirens, at an equal distance from them, they sit, each on its own throne, the other three creatures are Moira, daughters of Ananki: L a hesis, Clot o and A tropos; dormouse - in all white, with wreaths on their heads. In harmony with the voices of the Sirens, Lachesis sings the past, Clotho the present, Atropos the future. From time to time, Clotho touches with his right hand the outer rim of the spindle, helping to rotate it, while Atropos with his left hand does the same with the inner circles, and Lachesis alternately touches both with his hand. 29 .

- "The word of the daughter of Ananka, the maiden Lachesis. One-day souls! Here is the beginning of another turn, deadly for the mortal race. The genius will not receive you by lot 30 and you choose it yourself. Whose lot will be the first, let him be the first to choose for himself the life inevitably coming to him. Virtue is not the property of anyone alone: honoring it or not honoring it, everyone will partake of it more or less. It is the fault of the one who chooses: God is innocent."

Having said this, the soothsayer cast lots into the crowd, and everyone, except Er, picked up the lot that fell beside him: Eru Having said this, the soothsayer cast lots into the crowd, and everyone, except Er, picked up the lot that fell beside him: Eru it was not allowed. It became clear to everyone who raised what he was in the score at the drawing of lots. After that, the soothsayer laid out before them on the ground specimens of life in an amount much greater than the number of those present. These samples were very different - the life of different animals and all kinds of human life. Among them were even tyrannies, for life or declining in the middle of life and ending in poverty, exile and poverty. There were also the lives of people who became famous for their appearance, beauty, strength or in competitions, as well as the generosity and valor of their ancestors. Accordingly, the life of inconspicuous people was here, as well as the life of women. But this did not determine the spiritual warehouse, because the soul will certainly change, one has only to choose a different way of life. However, there were interspersed wealth and poverty, illness and health, as well as intermediate states.

For a person, dear Glavkon, all the danger lies precisely here, and therefore, as far as possible, care should be taken that each of us, leaving other knowledge unattended, would become a researcher and student in the field of this, if he is able to draw it from somewhere. . It is also necessary to find someone who would give him the ability and ability to recognize a decent and bad way of life, and from the opportunities presented, always and everywhere to choose the best. Considering how everything that was discussed now has a relation to a virtuous life, and comparing it all with each other, a person must understand what beauty is if it is combined with poverty or wealth, and in combination with what state of mind it creates evil or good, and also what is meant by noble or low birth, private life, public office, power and weakness, susceptibility and incapacity for learning. The natural properties of the soul, in combination with each other and with some acquired qualities, make it possible for a person, taking into account the nature of the soul, to make a choice after reflection: he will consider the worst way of life, which leads to the fact that the soul becomes more unjust, but the best when it is done more justly; all the rest he will leave aside. We have already seen that both during life and after death this is the most important choice for a person. You must go to Hades with this firm, like adamant, conviction, so that even there you will not be overwhelmed by wealth and similar evil, and so that you will not become a tyrant, such and similar activities would not cause much irreparable evil, and would not experience even greater evil. myself. In life, one must always be able to choose the middle path, avoiding extremes - both, if possible, here, and in the future. all subsequent: in this is the highest happiness for a person.

Yes, and a messenger from that world reported that the soothsayer then said this: “Even for the one who starts the last choice, there is a pleasant life here, not bad at all, if you make a choice wisely and live strictly. inattentive, and who in the end, do not despair!"

After these words of the soothsayer, the one who got the first lot immediately approached: he took the life of the most powerful tyrant. Because of his foolishness and insatiability, he made a choice without thinking, and there lurked a fateful fate for him - devouring his own children and all sorts of other troubles. When he then, slowly, thought, he began to beat his chest, grieve that, making his choice, he did not reckon with the soothsayer's warning, he blamed not himself, but fate, deities - anything but himself for these troubles. . Meanwhile, he was one of those who came from heaven and lived his previous life in an orderly state system; True, this virtue of his was only a matter of habit, and not the fruit of philosophical reflection. Generally speaking, not a few who came from heaven fell for it because they weren't seasoned in hardship. And those who came from the earth made their choice without haste: after all, they themselves experienced all sorts of difficulties, and they saw them on the example of other people. Therefore, and also because of the accidents of the lottery, for most souls there is a change of bad and good. If, when coming to this life, a person philosophized soundly and when choosing, he did not fall out of the last lot, then, according to the news from that world, he will most likely be happy not only here, but his path from here to there and back will not be underground, thorny, but smooth, heavenly.

It was worth looking, said Er, at this spectacle, how different souls chose this or that life for themselves. It was pathetic, funny and strange to watch. For the most part, the choice corresponded to the habits of the previous life. Er saw the soul of the former Orpheus 31 chose the life of a swan: because of the hatred of the female sex, since he suffered death from them, his soul did not want to be born from a woman. He saw the soul of Famira 32 She chose the life of a nightingale. He also saw a swan who preferred to choose human life; so do other musical beings. The soul that had the twentieth lot chose the life of a lion: it was the soul of Ajax, son of Telamon 33 , - she avoided becoming human, mindful of the history with the award of armor. After him came the soul of Agamemnon 34 . As a result of her suffering, she also had a hostile attitude towards the human race and changed her life to the life of an eagle. Meanwhile the lot fell for the soul of Atalanta 35 : noticing how great honor the winner of the competition enjoys, she could not resist and chose this fate for herself. After her, he saw how the soul of Epeus, the son of Panopea 36 , was part of the nature of a woman skilled in crafts. Somewhere far away, among the very last, he saw the soul of Thersites 37 , this universal laughingstock: she dressed in a monkey. By chance, the last of all the lot fell to go choose the soul of Odysseus 38 . She remembered her former hardships and, casting aside all ambition, wandered for a long time, looking for the life of an ordinary person, far from business; finally, she forcibly found her, lying somewhere: after all, everyone neglected her, but the soul of Odysseus, as soon as she saw her, immediately chose her, saying that she would do the same if she had the first lot. The souls of different animals in the same way passed into people and into each other, the unjust - into the wild, and the just - into the meek; in a word, there were all sorts of mixtures.

So, when all the souls chose this or that life for themselves, they began to approach Lachesis in the order of lot. Whoever chooses a genius for himself, she sends with him as a guardian of life and an executor of the choice made. First of all, this guardian leads the soul to Clotho, under her hand and under the circles of the rotating spindle: by this he affirms the fate which one has chosen for himself by lot. After touching Klotho, he leads the soul to the yarn of Atropos, thereby making the threads of life already unchanged.

From here the soul, without turning around, goes to the throne of Ananki and penetrates through it. When other souls pass through it, they all go together in the heat and terrible heat to the plain of Lethe. 39 where there are no trees or other vegetation. Already in the evening they are located near the river Amelet 40 whose water cannot be contained in any vessel. Everyone was supposed to drink this water in moderation, but those who did not observe prudence drank without measure, and whoever drinks it in this way forgets everything. When they went to bed, at midnight there was a thunder and an earthquake. Suddenly they were carried upward from there in different directions, to the places where they were destined to be born, and they scattered across the sky like stars. Eru was not allowed to drink this water. He does not know where and how his soul returned to the body 41 . Suddenly waking up at dawn, he saw himself at the stake.

The myth of the chariot. "Phaedrus"

Let us liken the soul to the united power of a winged pair team and a charioteer. Among the gods, both horses and charioteers are all noble and descended from noble ones, while the rest have mixed origins. Firstly, it is our master who rules the team, and then, and his horses - one is beautiful, noble and born from the same horses, and the other horse is his opposite and his ancestors are different. It is inevitable that ruling us is a hard and tedious business.

Let's try to talk about how the name of a mortal and immortal being came about. Every soul knows everything inanimate, but it spreads throughout the sky, sometimes taking on different images. Being perfect and winged, she soars in the heights and rules with the world, but if she loses her wings, she rushes about until she comes across something solid - then she settles there, having received an earthly body, which, thanks to her strength, seems to move by itself. ; and what is called a living being - all together, that is, the conjugation of soul and body, received the nickname of a mortal.

One cannot judge the immortal by this one word alone. Having not seen and mentally but having comprehended God to a sufficient extent, we picture to ourselves some kind of immortal being, having a soul, having a body, and they are inseparable for eternity. However, here, as God pleases, so be it, and so be it.

We will touch on the reasons for the loss of wings, why they fall away from the soul. The reason here, apparently, is this: the wing is naturally characterized by the ability to lift heavy things in height, where the family of gods lives. And of all that is connected with the body, the soul most of all joined the divine - the divine is beautiful, wise, valiant, and so on; this nourishes and nurtures the wings of the soul, and from its opposite - from the ugly, bad - sleep withers and dies.

The great leader to heaven, Zeus, rides first on a winged chariot, ordering everything and taking care of everything. He is followed by an army of gods and geniuses, lined up in eleven squadrons; only Hestia does not leave the houses of the gods, and of the rest, all the main gods, which are among the twelve, each lead the formation entrusted to him.

Within the sky there are many blissful spectacles and paths in which the happy race of the gods moves; each of them accomplishes his own, and [them] is always followed by the one who wants and can, - after all, envy is alien to the assembly of the gods.

Going to a festive feast, they rise to the top and edge of the heavenly here, and already there their chariots, not losing balance and well controlled, easily make their way; but the oval ones move with difficulty, because the horse, involved in evil, pulls to the ground with all its weight and depresses its charioteer if he raised him poorly. From this, the soul has to suffer and be extremely strained.

The souls called immortal, when they reach the top, go out and stop on the ridge of heaven; they stand, the vault of heaven carries them in a circular motion, and they contemplate those beyond the sky.

None of the local poets sang the heavenly region, and they will never sing it with dignity. But this is what it is (after all, one must finally dare to tell the truth, especially when one speaks about the truth): this area is occupied by a colorless, without outline, intangible essence, truly existing, visible only to the helmsman of the soul - the mind; it is to this that the true kind of knowledge is directed.

The thought of God feeds on the mind and pure knowledge, like the thought of every soul that strives to perceive the proper, having seen the [genuine] being, even if only for a short time, appreciates it, feeds on the contemplation of truth and is blissful, until the vault of heaven transfers it in a circle again to that same place. In this circuit, it contemplates justice itself, contemplates prudence, contemplates knowledge - not that knowledge, which is inherent in the emergence and which, as something else, is in the other, which we now call existing, but the true knowledge contained in the true being. Having enjoyed the contemplation of all that is true being, the soul again descends into the inner region of the sky and comes home. Upon her return, the charioteer puts the horses to the manger, asks them for ambrosia and, in addition, gives them nectar to drink.

Such is the life of the gods. As for the rest of the souls, the head of the charioteer rises into the region beyond the heavens and rushes in a circular motion through the vault of heaven; but the horses do not give her rest, and she contemplates being with difficulty. Another soul rises, then falls - the horses tear so hard that it sees one thing and not the other. Following them, the rest of the souls greedily strive upward, but they cannot do it, and they rush in a circle in the depths, trampling each other, pushing, trying to get ahead of one another. And now there is confusion, a struggle, from tension they are thrown into sweat. Let's ride with them but cope, many are crippled, many often have their wings broken. Despite extreme efforts, all of them cannot achieve the contemplation of [true] being, and, having departed, they are content with an imaginary subsistence.

But why are they trying so hard to see the field of truth, to see where it is? Why, just there, in the meadows, there is a pasture with for the better side of the soul, and the nature of the wing that lifts the soul feeds on this. The law of Adrastea is this: the soul that has become the companion of God and has seen at least a particle of truth will be safe until the next circuit, and if it is able to do this always, it will always be unharmed. When she is not able to accompany and see, but, comprehended by some accident, she will be filled with oblivion and evil and will become heavy, and having become heavy, she will lose her wings and fall to the ground, then there is a law that at her first birth she would not dwell in any animal. The soul that has seen the most falls into the fruit of a future admirer of wisdom and beauty or a person devoted to the Muses and love; the second after it - into the fruit of a king who observes the laws, into a man of war or capable of governing; the third - into the fruit of a statesman, owner, earner; the fourth - in the fruit of a person diligently engaged in the exercise or healing of the body; the fifth in order will lead the life of a soothsayer or a person involved in the sacraments; the sixth will stick to asceticism in poetry or any other field of imitation; the seventh is to be an artisan or farmer; the eighth will be a sophist or demagogue; the ninth is a tyrant. In all these callings, those who live in justice will receive a better share, and those who violate it will receive a worse.

But where it came from, no soul returns for ten thousand years - after all, it will not take wings before this period, with the exception of the soul of a person who sincerely loved wisdom or combined love for her with falling in love with young men: these souls take wings for three thousand years. cycle, if three times in a row they choose for themselves such a way of life, and depart in the year three thousandth. The rest, after the end of their first life, are subjected to judgment, and after the verdict of the court, some serve their sentence, descending into underground dungeons, while the other, whom Dike lightened from the burden and raised into a certain region of the sky, lead a life corresponding to that which they lived in human form. In the thousandth year, both of them appear to receive a new destiny for themselves and choose a second life for themselves - whoever wants what. Here the human soul can also receive the life of an animal, and from the animal that was once a man, the soul can again inhabit a person; but the soul, which has never seen the truth, will not take on such an image, because a person must comprehend [it] in accordance with an idea that comes from many sensory perceptions, but is brought together by the mind. And this is a remembrance of what our soul saw not when it accompanied God, looked down on what we now call being, and rose to true being. Therefore, in justice, only the philosopher is inspired: in him, to the best of his ability, his memory is always turned to that by which God is divine. Only a person who makes the right use of such remembrances, always initiated into the perfect mysteries, becomes truly perfect. And since he stands outside human vanity and is turned towards the divine, the majority, of course, will admonish him as if he were crazy, because his frenzy is hidden from the majority.

As they continue their millennial journey, souls gather to determine their future destiny. According to the Greek tradition, the fate of a person is decided by the Gods, among whom Necessity plays a major role. Plato makes a real revolution here. The paradigms of life, says Plato, are hidden in the bosom of Moira Lachesis, daughter of Necessity, but not in such a way that they are imputed to souls, but rather, variably offered to them, the choice between them belongs entirely to the free souls themselves. A person does not choose freely whether to live or not to live, but he is free to choose - to live in justice and in goodness, or to live in vice and evil. "And Er told those who, having come here, were to go to Lachesis, that a certain prophet, who first of all arranged the souls in order, having accepted destinies and worldly paradigms from the knees of Lachesis, went up to the pulpit and said: - This is the virgin Lachesis speaking, daughter of the goddess Themis: "Ephemeral souls, this is the main law of the next period of life, which leads you to death. There is not and will not be a demon who chooses you, but there will be you who will choose your demon. And your first step will be the choice of life, the fate of which will subsequently be connected with necessity. Virtue has no master: everyone who either honors it or neglects it gains or loses something from it. Choice is the source of guilt; the fault belongs to the chooser. God has no guilt."

Having said this, the prophet Lachesis threw in the direction of the fates of the numbers to determine the order in which the souls are assigned to the choice: the number that fell next to any of the souls causes it to self-determination. Therefore, the prato, the meadow of paradigms, in the midst of which the prophet rises, reveals to the gaze of every soul all possible examples of human life paths and the destinies of animals, a hundred times greater than the number of souls present. The one who chooses first has many paths at his disposal, but for the one who chooses last, the problem of choice is far from hopeless. And for him there remains the possibility of choosing a good fate, even if it is not the best for him.

The choice made is then sealed with a seal by two other Moirai - Clotho and Atropos, and becomes irreversible. Souls fall to the waters of the Lethe River (the river of oblivion), and then fall and settle in bodies in order to realize their own choice.

It can be said that the choice depends on the “freedom of the soul”, but it would be more accurate to say, on “knowledge”, on understanding the essence of a good life and a vicious one, i.e. from "philosophy", which, according to Plato, acts as a force that saves always and everywhere, in this world and the next. Ethical intellectualism here reaches extreme limits: “After all, if there is someone,” Plato says, “who is capable of healthy philosophizing in this life, the matter of choosing a superearthly fate will not find him among the last; moreover, he has the opportunity insofar as Er reports about what is happening in this world, to be not only happy on this earth, but also, traveling to another world, and then back, do not fall into the underground spheres and painful trials, but move smoothly towards heaven.

As they continue their millennial journey, souls gather to determine their future destiny. According to the Greek tradition, the fate of a person is decided by the Gods, among whom Necessity plays a major role. Plato makes a real revolution here. The paradigms of life, says Plato, are hidden in the bosom of Moira Lachesis, daughter of Necessity, but not in such a way that they are imputed to souls, but rather variably offered to them, the choice between “them is wholly and completely belongs to the free souls themselves. A person does not choose freely whether to live or not to live, but he is free to choose - to live in justice and in goodness, or to live in vice and evil. "And Er told those who, having come here, were to go to Lachesis, that a certain prophet, who first of all arranged the souls in order > having accepted destinies and worldly paradigms from his knees Lachesis, rose # and the pulpit and said: - This is the virgin Lachesis speaking , daughter of the goddess Themis: "Ephemeral souls, this is the main law of the next period of life, which leads you to death. There is not and will not be a demon who chooses you, but there will be you who will choose your demon. And your first step will be the choice of life, the fate of which will subsequently be connected with necessity. Virtue has no master: everyone who either honors it or neglects it gains or loses something from it. Choice is the source of guilt; the fault belongs to the chooser. God knows no guilt."

Having said this, the prophet Lachesis threw in the direction of the fates of numbers to determine the order in which the souls are assigned to the choice: the number that fell next to any of the souls causes it to self-determination. Therefore, the prato, the meadow of paradigms, in the midst of which the prophet rises, reveals to the gaze of every soul all possible examples of human life paths and the destinies of animals, a hundred times greater than the number of souls present. The one who chooses first has many paths at his disposal, but for the one who chooses last, the problem of choice is far from hopeless. And for him there remains the possibility of choosing a good fate, even if it is not the best for him.

It can be said that the choice depends on the “freedom of the soul”, but it would be more accurate to say, on “knowledge”, on understanding the essence of a good life and a vicious one, i.e. from "philosophy", which, according to Plato, acts as a force that saves everything and everywhere, in this world and the next. Ethical intellectualism here reaches extreme limits: “After all, if there is someone,” Plato says, “who is capable of healthy philosophizing in this life, the matter of choosing a superearthly fate will not find him among the last; moreover, he has the opportunity insofar as Er reports about what is happening in this world, to be not only happy on this earth, but also, traveling to another world, and then back, do not fall into the underground spheres and painful trials, but move smoothly towards heaven.

Plato deals with the problem of cosmology in two dialogues - at the end of the last book of the "States" and in "Timaeus", which is completely devoted to this problem.

In The Republic, Plato considers the problem within the framework of the myth of Era.

Er is a brave warrior who died on the battlefield and was resurrected 12 days after death under the influence of the heat of the funeral pyre on which his body was laid. Having resurrected, he talks about what he saw on the "other side of being": the souls of the dead appear before the judges, according to the sentence of which they are sent up to heaven, or down, underground. Villains must be punished tenfold for the injustices they committed during their earthly life. At the end of the thousand-year redemption, they begin their new earthly existence, and when they move from the underground dwellings of Hades to the surface of the Earth, they see how the Cosmos works (for Plato, this is primarily a rotating sky). At this point, the myth of Era becomes rather vague and difficult to interpret. When scrupulously studying the text, something like this emerges.

The said souls come to a place from where a ray of light is visible, stretching from above through the whole of Heaven and Earth, like a pillar, similar to a rainbow, but even brighter and purer. Inside this pillar of light hang the ends of the ties, because this pillar of light is the knot of the sky: it fastens the vault of heaven like a beam on a ship. Ananke's spindle hangs at the ends of these bonds, giving everything a rotational motion. The axis of the spindle is nothing but the world axis passing through the center of the Earth, which is thought to be motionless. The shaft (“heel”) of the spindle is arranged like a truncated cone, which includes seven spheres forming together with the first eight celestial spheres, and the largest, outer, enclosing the rest, is the sphere of fixed stars. The spheres differ in size and color.

Here is their order, starting with the eighth:

8) The sphere of the Moon is colorless, because it shines with the reflected light of the Sun;

7) Sun - the brightest of all spheres;

Roger Carotini

6) Venus - bright white;

5) Mercury - golden yellowish;

4) Mars - red;

3) Jupiter - red-hot to bright whiteness; 2) Saturn - golden yellowish;

1) the sphere of fixed stars is the most variegated, as it is transmitted by all the shades of its constituent luminaries (“mica-like”).

The entire spindle as a whole, while rotating, makes the same revolution, but during the rotational movement, the inner seven circles slowly turn in the direction opposite to the rotation of the whole. They have a different speed (it is not known on the basis of what Plato establishes it). The eighth circle moves the fastest, in second place - the seventh, sixth and fifth, in third place - the fourth circle, in fifth - the second.

Each sphere has a sound of a certain pitch, thus making up a musical octave (Pythagorean idea). The one that rotates fastest of all - the sphere (sky) of the fixed stars - corresponds to the highest note, and the spheres (sky) of the Moon, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn correspond to the lowest notes. Other planets correspond to intermediate notes. The eight notes that make up an octave are sounded by eight Sirens seated on the corresponding circle of Ananake's spindle.

This cosmic movement, in which both the real movement of the planets, known to modern astronomers, and the arbitrary geometrization of their movement, accompanied by the chants of the Sirens, is guessed - all this happens under the control of the goddess Necessity (Ananke), on whose knees lies a spindle. She is helped by three creatures personifying fate (Ananke's daughters are Greek Moiras, they are also Roman Parks). Lachesis sings of the past, Clotho of the present, Atropos of the future.

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