Phaedrus — Plato

p. 401whose desire is to become just and to be like God, as far as man can attain his likeness, by the pursuit of virtue? Yes, he said ; if he is like God he will surely not be neglected by him. And of the unjust may not the opposite be assumed ? Certainly. Such, then, is the prize of victory which the gods give the just? Yes, he said, that is my belief. And what do they receive of men ?

Look at things as they really are and you will see that the clever unjust are in the case of runners, who run well from the starting-place to the goal, but not back again from the goal : they start off at a great pace, but in the end only look foolish, slinking away with their ears draggling on their shoulders, and without a crown ; but the true runner comes to the finish and receives the prize and is crowned.

And this is the way with the just ; he who endures to the end of every action and occasion of his entire life has a good report and carries off the prize which men bestow. True. And now you must allow me to repeat the blessings which you attributed to the fortunate unjust.

I shall say of the just as you were saying of the unjust, that as they grow older, if that is their desire, they become rulers in their own city ; they marry whom they like and give in marriage to whomsoever they like ; all that you said of the others I now say of these.

And, on the other hand, I say of the unjust that the greater number, even though they escape in their youth, are found out at last and look foolish at the end of their course, and when they come to be old and miserable are flouted alike by stranger and citizen ; they are beaten and then come those things unfit for ears polite, as you truly term them ; they will be racked and burned, as you were saying ; I shall ask you to suppose that you have heard all that.

Will you allow me to assume that much ? Certainly, he said, for what you say is true. These, then, are the prizes and rewards and gifts which ^ are bestowed upon the just by gods and men in this pres- ^ ent life, in addition to those other good things which justice of herself gives. 26

p. 402Yes, he said ; and they are fair and lasting. And yet, I said, all Uiese things are as nothing/ either in number or greatness, in comparison with those other recompenses which await both just and unjust after death, which are more and greater far. And you ought to hear them, and then both of them will have received the perfect meed of words due to them. Speak, he said ; there are few things which I would more gladly hear.

Well, I said, I will tell you a tale ; not one of the tales which Odysseus tells to Alcinous,* yet this too is a tale of a brave man, Er the son of Armenius, a Pamphylian by birth. He was slain in battle, and ten days afterwards, when the bodies of the dead were brought in already in a state of corruption, he was brought in with them undecayed, and carried home to be buried.

And on the twelfth day, as he was lying on the funeral pile, he returned to life and told them what he had seen in the other world. He said that when his soul departed he went on a journey with a great company, and that they came to a mysterious place at which there were two chasms in the earth ; they were near together, and over against them were two other chasms in the heaven above.

In the intermediate space there were judges seated, who bade the just, after they had judged them, ascend by the heavenly way on the right hand, having the signs of the judgment bound on their foreheads; and in like manner the unjust were commanded by them to descend by the lower way on the left hand ; these also had the symbols of their deeds fastened on their backs.

He drew near, and they told him that he was to be the messenger of the other world to men, and they bade him hear and see all that was to be heard and seen in that place.

Then he beheld and saw on one side the souls departing at either chasm of heaven and earth when sentence had been given on them ; and *at the two other openings other souls, some ascending out of the earth dusty and worn with travel, some descending out of heaven, clean and bright.

And always, on their arrival, they seemed as if they had come from a long journey, and they went out into the meadow with joy and there encamped as at a festival, and those who knew one * Alcinous (Sl-sTn'o-us) : a mythical king whom Odysseus met in his journeys.

p. 403another embraced and conversed, the souls which came from earth curiously inquiring about the things of heaven, and the souls which came from heaven of the things of earth.

And they told one another of what had happened by the way, some weeping and sorrowing at the remembrance of the things which they had endured and seen in their journey '' beneath the earth (now the journey lasted a thousand years), while others were describing heavenly blessings and visions of inconceivable beauty.

There is not time, Glaucon, to tell ^ all ; but the sum was this : He said that for every wrong which ^^ they had done to any one they suffered tenfold ; the thousand years answering to the hundred years which are reckoned as the life of man.

If, for example, there were any who had committed murders, or had betrayed or enslaved cities or armies, or been guilty of any other evil behavior, for each and all of these they received punishment ten times over, and the rewards of beneficence and justice and holiness were in the same proportion.

Not to repeat what he had to say concerning young children dying almost as soon as they were bom; of piety and impiety to gods and parents, and of murderers, there were retributions yet greater which he narrated.

He mentioned that he was present when one of the spirits asked another, "Where is Ardiaeus^ the Great?" (Now this Ardiaeus was the tyrant of some city of Pamphylia, who had murdered his aged father and his elder brother, and had committed many other abominable crimes, and he lived a thousand years before the time of Er.) The answer was : ** He comes not hither, and will never come.

And ''indeed," he said, ** this was one of the terrible sights which was witnessed by us.

For we were approaching the mouth of the cave, and having seen all, were about to re-ascend, when of a sudden Ardiaeus appeared and several others, most of whom were tyrants ; and there were also besides the tyrants private individuals who had been great criminals ; they were just at the mouth, being, as they fancied, about to return into the upper world, but the opening, instead of receiving them, gave a roar, as was the case when any incurable or impunished sinner ^ , tried to ascend ; and then wild men of fiery aspect, who knew the meaning of the sound, came up and seized and carried ofif several of them, and Ardiaeus and others they bound • Ardiaras (^dl-Tus).