Book 1, Chapter 16

36 “But just as nature leads us to believe that gods exist, while reason teaches us what they are like, so the agreement of all nations leads us to believe that souls endure; where they dwell and what they are like must be learned by reason. Ignorance of this fashioned the underworld and those terrors you seemed, not without cause, to despise. Since bodies fell to earth and were covered with soil, humus—hence the Latin humari, ‘to be buried’—people thought that the rest of the dead person’s life was spent beneath the earth. Great errors followed this belief, and poets increased them.

37 “A crowded theater audience, including women and children, is stirred when it hears such lofty verse:

“‘I am here: from Acheron I have come, with difficulty, by a deep and rugged road,“‘Through caverns built of rough, overhanging rocks,“‘Enormous, where the underworld’s dense darkness stands congealed.’

“So powerful was the error—though I think it has now been dispelled—that, although people knew bodies had been burned, they still imagined things taking place in the underworld that could neither occur nor be conceived without bodies. They could not grasp in their minds souls living by themselves; they looked for some shape and figure. Hence the whole of Homer’s ‘Visit to the Dead’; hence the ‘divinations through the dead’ that my friend Appius used to perform; hence the lake of Avernus in our neighborhood,

“‘From which souls are summoned, covered in dim shadow, images“‘Of the dead, from Acheron’s deep mouth, with salt blood.’

“Yet they want these images to speak, which is impossible without a tongue, a palate, or the strength and structure of throat, chest, and lungs. They could see nothing with the mind: they referred everything to the eyes.

38 “But it takes great genius to call the mind away from the senses and draw thought out of its accustomed paths. I certainly believe there were others in all those centuries, but, so far as written records show, Pherecydes of Syros was the first to say that human souls are everlasting. He was ancient indeed: he lived in the reign of the king who shared my family name. His pupil Pythagoras did most to establish this belief. Coming to Italy during the reign of Tarquin the Proud, he held sway over Magna Graecia, both through [his prestige and] his teaching and also through his authority. For many centuries afterward the name of the Pythagoreans remained so powerful that no one else was thought learned.”

36 “Nature gives us our belief that gods exist; reason lets us learn what they’re like. In the same way, agreement among all nations leads us to think souls survive. But we must use reason to learn where they stay and what they’re like. Not knowing this gave rise to the underworld and those terrors you seemed, with good reason, to dismiss. Bodies fell to the ground and were covered with earth—humus, which gave us humari, ‘to be buried.’ So people thought the dead lived out the rest of their lives underground. Many serious errors followed from that opinion, and poets made them worse.

37 “A packed theater, with women and children in the audience, gets worked up when it hears grand verse like this: “‘I’ve come, I’m here from Acheron, barely making it up that deep, steep road, “‘Through caves built of rough, overhanging “‘Gigantic rocks, where the underworld’s thick, freezing darkness stands still.’ “The mistake was so powerful—though I think it’s now been cleared away—that people knew bodies had been burned, yet still imagined things happening in the underworld that couldn’t happen, or even be understood, without bodies. They couldn’t grasp in their minds souls living on their own. They kept looking for some shape and form. That’s the source of Homer’s whole visit to the dead, of the attempts to consult the dead that my friend Appius used to make, and of Lake Avernus in our neighborhood, “‘From which souls are summoned, images of the dead, wrapped in dark shadow, “‘With salted blood, at Acheron’s deep opening.’ “Yet they expect these images to talk. That can’t happen without a tongue, a palate, and the force and form of a throat, sides, and lungs. They couldn’t see anything with the mind. They referred everything back to the eyes.

38 “It takes great intelligence to call the mind away from the senses and lead thought away from habit. I believe others did it over all those centuries too, but the first person on record to say that human souls last forever was Pherecydes of Syros. He was certainly early: the king at the time was a member of my own clan. His pupil Pythagoras did the most to establish this view. He came to Italy while Tarquin the Proud was king and held sway over what was called Greater Greece, both through his teaching and through his personal authority. For many centuries afterward the Pythagoreans’ reputation was so strong that no one else seemed learned.”