Pamphylian warrior Er, who is supposed to have died in battle, revives when placed on the funeral pyre and relates his experiences in the other world. He tells how the just are rewarded and the wicked punished, and is privileged to describe the spectacle which he had witnessed of the choice of a new life by the pilgrim souls. The reward of release from bodily existence is not held out to the philosopher (Phaedo 114 C), but his wisdom, which has a deeper root than habit (10. 619), preserves him from overhaste in his choice and ensures him a happy destiny. —The transmigration of souls is represented in the myth much as in the Phaedrus and Timaeus. Plato in all likelihood derived the doctrine from an Oriental source, but through Pythagorean channels. It probably had a real hold on his mind, as it agreed, or could be made to agree, with the conviction, which he elsewhere expresses, of the remedial nature of punishment [cp.* Protag. 323; Gorg. 523–525].
Sounds in