Metempsychosis
1. Metempsychosis
Metempsychosis (μετεμψύχωσις), in philosophy, refers to transmigration of the soul, especially its reincarnation after death.
The term is derived from ancient Greek philosophy, and has been recontextualised by modern philosophers such as Arthur Schopenhauer and Kurt Gödel; otherwise, the term transmigration
is more appropriate.
The word plays a prominent role in James Joyce's Ulysses and is also associated with Nietzsche. Another term sometimes used synonymously is Palingenesis.
It is unclear how the doctrine of Metempsychosis arose in Greece.
It is easiest to assume that earlier ideas which had never been extinguished were utilized for religious and philosophic purposes.
2. Orphism
The Orphic religion, which held it, first appeared in Thrace upon the semi-barbarous north-eastern frontier.
Orpheus, its legendary founder, is said to have taught that soul and body are united by a compact unequally binding on either;
the Soul is divine, immortal and aspires to freedom,
while the Body holds it in fetters as a prisoner.
Death dissolves this compact, but only to re-imprison the liberated Soul after a short time: for the wheel of birth revolves inexorably.
Thus the Soul continues its journey, alternating between a separate unrestrained existence and fresh reincarnation, round the wide circle of necessity, as the companion of many bodies of men and animals.
To these unfortunate prisoners Orpheus proclaims the message of Liberation, that they stand in need of the grace of redeeming Gods and of Dionysus in particular, and calls them to turn to the Gods by ascetic piety of life and self-purification:
the purer their lives the higher will be their next reincarnation, until the soul has completed the spiral ascent of destiny to live forever as a God from whom it comes.
Such was the teaching of Orphism which appeared in Greece about the 6th century BCE, organized itself into private and public mysteries at Eleusis, near Athens, and elsewhere, and produced a copious literature.
3. Pre-Socratic philosophy
The earliest Greek thinker with whom Metempsychosis is connected is Pherecydes of Syros.
However, Pythagoras, who is said to have been his pupil, is its first famous philosophic exponent.
Pythagoras is not believed to have invented the doctrine or to have imported it from Egypt.
Instead, he made his reputation by bringing the Orphic doctrine from North-Eastern Hellas to Magna Graecia (South of Italy now), and creating societies for its diffusion.
4. Platonic philosophy
The real weight and importance of Metempsychosis in the Western tradition are due to its adoption by Plato:
In the eschatological myth which closes the Republic he tells the myth how Er, the son of Armenius, miraculously returned to life on the 12th day after death and recounted the secrets of the other world.
After death, he said, he went with others to the place of Judgment and saw the souls returning from heaven, and proceeded with them to a place where they chose new lives, human and animal.
He saw the soul of Orpheus changing into a swan, Thamyris becoming a nightingale, musical birds choosing to be men, the soul of Atalanta choosing the honours of an athlete.
Men were seen passing into animals and wild and tame animals changing into each other. After their choice, the souls drank of Lethe, the underworld river, and then shot away like stars to their birth.
There are myths and theories to the same effect in other dialogues, the Phaedrus, Meno, Phaedo, Timaeus and Laws.
In Plato's view the number of souls was fixed; birth, therefore, is never the creation of a soul, but only transmigration from one body to another.
Plato's acceptance of the doctrine is characteristic of his sympathy with popular beliefs and desire to incorporate them in a purified form into his system.
The extent of Plato's belief in Metempsychosis has been debated by scholars since at least the Renaissance.
In later Greek literature, the doctrine of Metempsychosis appears from time to time in works of famous Ancient authors.
In Roman literature it is found as early as Quintus Ennius (c. 239 – c. 169 BC), who in his Calabrian home must have been familiar with the Greek teachings which had descended to his times from the cities of Magna Graecia.
The doctrine of Metempsychosis persists in antiquity down to the latest classic thinkers, Plotinus and the other Neo-Platonists.