Thrice-Greatest Hermes, Vol. I — G. R. S. Mead (1906)
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4 The names of the spheres may be deduced from Tim. 38, and are as follows : 1. Fixed Stars (all-coloured) ; 2. Saturn (yellow) ; 3. Jupiter (whitish) ; 4. Mars (reddish) ; 5. Mercury (yellowish) ; 6. Venus (white) ; 7. Sun (light-colour) ; 8. Moon (light-colour reflected). How the above statements as to " width of rim " and colours are to be made to work in with the scheme of rates of motions and numbers given in Tim. 36, I have not as yet been able to discover from any commentator. And seeing that Er is said to have seen this mystery from a region that transcended even the daimonian region, it is perhaps out of place to insist on a purely physical interpretation of the data.
"Now the spindle as a whole circled round at the same rate in its revolution ; and within this revolution as a whole the seven circles revolved slowly in a contrary direction to the one as a whole ; of these the eighth went the fastest of them ; the seventh, sixth, and fifth came second [in speed, and at the same rate] with one another ; the fourth, in a reversed orbit, as it appeared to them, was third in speed ; the third was fourth and the second fifth.
" The spindle revolved on the knees of Necessity ; and on its circles above, on each of them, was a Siren whom they carried round with them, singing a single sound or tone; and from all eight of them a single harmony was produced.
"And there were three others seated at equal distances round about, each upon a throne, — the Daughters of Necessity, the Fates, clothed in white robes, with garlands on their heads, Lachesis and Clotho and Atropos ; and they sang to the tune of the Sirens' harmony, — Lachesis sang things that have been, Clotho things that are, and Atropos things that shall be.
"And Clotho from time to time with her right hand gave an extra turn to the outer spin of the spindle ; Atropos, with her left, in like fashion to the inner ones ; while Lachesis in turn touched the one with one hand and the other with the other.
"Now when they [Er and the souls] arrived, they had to go immediately to Lachesis. Accordingly a prophet [a proclaimer] first of all arranged them in their proper order, and taking from the lap of Lachesis both lots l and samples of lives, he ascended a kind of raised place and said :
" ' The word (logos) of the Virgin Lachesis, Daughter of Necessity ! Ye souls, ye things of a day, lo the 1 Or number-turns.
beginning of another period of mortal birth that brings you death. It is not your daimon who will have you assigned to him by lot, but ye who will choose your daimon. He who obtains the first turn let him first choose a life to which he will of necessity have to hold. As for Virtue, Necessity has no control over her, but every one will possess her more or less just as he honours or dishonours her. The responsibility is the chooser's; God is blameless.'
" Thus speaking he threw the lots to all of them, and each picked up the one that fell beside him, except Er, who was not permitted to do so. So every one who picked up a lot knew what turn he had got.
618. — " After this he set on the ground before them the samples of the lives, in far greater number than those present. They were of every kind; not only lives of every kind of animal, but also lives of every kind of man. There were lives of autocratic power [lit., tyrannies] among them, some continuing to the end, some breaking off half-way and ending in poverty, exile, and beggary. There were also lives of famous men, some famed for their beauty of form and strength, and victory in the games, others for their birth and the virtues of their forebears ; others the reverse of famous, and for similar reasons. So also with regard to the lives of women.
" As to the rank of the soul, it was no longer in the power [of the chooser], for the decree of Necessity is that its choosing of another life conditions its change of soul-rank. As for other things, riches and poverty were mingled with each other, and these sometimes with disease and sometimes with health, and sometimes a mean between these."
Thereupon Plato breaks into a noble disquisition on what is the best choice, and how a man should take with him into the world an adamantine faith in truth and right ; and then continues :
61 9 B. — "And this is precisely what the messenger from that invisible world reported that the prophet said: