New life

Often the choice of a new life is determined by the habits of former lives.

So for example, Er saw Orpheus' soul select the life of a swan, being unwilling to be born of a woman, because women had been the cause of his death. In the same way the soul of Ajax 1 was unwilling to become a man and chose the life of a lion, not being able to forget the adjudication of the arms of Achilles. A similar hatred of the human race made the soul of Agamemnon to choose the life of an eagle. Odysseus, he says, drew the last lot and went looking for the life of an ordinary citizen who minds his own business, and at last found it in a corner disregarded by the others as they chose with higher ambitions in mind. When all had chosen their new lives, the MOERAE confirmed their fates and, having come to the Plain of Lethe and its River of Oblivion, they were asked to drink a measure, though some drank more than the measure, and the more they drank the more they forgot.

And after they had fallen asleep a sound of thunder was heard and the souls were wafted in different ways to their birth like shooting stars.

Download ebooks on http://www.frenchtheory.com/
See that post with different algorithms in metabole
See the journal French Metablog with today different posts

Messenger from beyond

According to Er, the son of Armenius, who was killed in battle but woke up when he was laying upon the funeral pyre about to be cremated, he came to the world beyond while he was dead and was allowed to return so that he could be the messenger to mankind to tell them of the Underworld.

He speaks about four mouths through which the souls pass, some to damnation and some to salvation, according to their deeds. For each wrong they have done they pay the penalty tenfold for each, measured by periods of a hundred years each, and the same applies for those that are rewarded. And before receiving judgement the souls wait in a meadow, where acquaintances greet and tell their stories to one another, some lamenting and others relating their visions of beauty, depending on the world they had just experienced. After several days, when another cycle is about to begin, each soul selects a new life. Says the Moerae Lachesis (Alotter), attendant of Ananke (Necessity):

"Now is the beginning of another cycle of mortal generation where birth is the beacon of death. No divinity shall cast lots for you, but you shall choose your own deity [daemon, genius]. Let him to whom falls the first lot first select a life to which he shall cleave of necessity. But Virtue has no master over her, and each shall have more or less of her as he honors her or does her despite. The blame is his who chooses: God is blameless." [Plato, Republic 10.617d]

Download ebooks on http://www.frenchtheory.com/
See that post with different algorithms in metabole
See the journal French Metablog with today different posts

World of the dead

Between the world of the living and that of the dead there are, it is said, great rivers and dread streams.

First, greatest and outermost is Oceanus, which winds about the earth and the sea with nine rings, but is also a subterranean river. The river Styx (river of Hate), which is a primordial figure too (daughter of Oceanus), is a branch of Oceanus and a tenth part of his water is allotted to her.

So Styx, which flows out from a rock, is the tenth ring, though some say that Styx itself corrals the souls in the Underworld with nine rings.



Download ebooks on http://www.frenchtheory.com/
See that post with different algorithms in metabole
See the journal French Metablog with today different posts

Orpheus and Theuth?

Orpheus, whom Apollo taught to play the lyre, travelled to Egypt (writing has been created in that land by Theuth, the Egyptian god of the underworld...) where he increased his knowledge about the gods and their initiatory rites, bringing from that country most of his mystic ceremonies, orgiastic rites, and his extraordinary account of his descent to the Underworld.

• Download ebooks on http://www.frenchtheory.com/
• See that post with different algorithms in metabole
• See the journal French Metablog with today different posts

Beautiful songs

When Orpheus' wife, Eurydice, was killed by the bite of a serpent, he went down to the underworld to bring her back.

His songs were so beautiful that Hades finally agreed to allow Eurydice to return to the world of the living. However, Orpheus had to meet one condition: he must not look back as he was conducting her to the surface. Just before the pair reached the upper world, Orpheus looked back, and Eurydice slipped back into the netherworld once again.

Download ebooks on http://www.frenchtheory.com/

See that post with different algorithms in metabole

See the journal French Metablog with today different posts