Oddcast episode

June 6, 2025

Coming Back for More, Part III: Platonism and Reincarnation

In this episode we look at the evolution of notions of reincarnation from Plato into the Roman imperial period, concentrating on the polytheist side of things [questions of early Abrahamic reincarnationists from this same period will be addressed in the following series of episodes, don’t worry]. We begin with a five-minute recap of the picture so far. We then turn to the question of whether reincarnation might have been a belief among some Romans independent of any philosophic or cultic affiliations; our evidence says, no, the traditional Roman, at least, just died and stayed dead, and that, in the period post-Late-Republic, when Roman culture was deeply influenced by the wider cultural world which Rome had gobbled up, from Egypt to Celtic Gaul, seemingly this still held: our reincarnationists are generally members of esoteric cults like Orphism or of the philosophic lineage known as Platonism.

We then turn to ancient Platonism as a whole, discussing some of the problems which reincarnation raised for their philosophy, and some of the different ways in which these problems were solved.

Works Cited in this Episode:

Primary (in order of discussion):

For Heraklides of Pontos, see Diogenes Laërtius V 89–91 (for all the gossip), and the fragments collected in Fritz Wehrli, editor. Die Schule des Aristoteles: Texte und Kommentar. Benno Schwabe, Basel, 1944-55. Reincarnation and immortal soul: Fr. 97 Wehrli. Empedotimos, Hades and Persephonē: Proclus, In R. II 119, 18 ff. Kroll = Fr. 93 Wehrli.

Nihilistic Latin tombstone: CIL 13, 530. See Richmond Lattimore. Themes in Greek and Roman Epitaphs. University of Illinois Press, Urbana, IL, 1962, p. 84 and ff.

A list of Platonist primary loci for doctrines of reincarnation, taken from Fortier 2021, n. 10, slightly trimmed here and there [Fortier 2021 cited in full below. Note that PidA in what follows is a reference to the great work of scholarship Heinrich Dörrie. Der Platonismus in der Antike: Grundlagen—System—Entwicklung, 8 vols. Frommann, Stuttgart/Bad Cannstatt, 1987]: Philo of Alexandria (De somn. 1.138–139; Cher. 114; QE 2.40), Ofellios Laetus (IG II/III2 3816), Plutarch (inter alia, De Is. et Os. 31 [363 B]; 72 [379 E ff.]; De sera num. 26 [565 D]; 27 [566 A]; 32 [567 E ff]), Alcinoos (PidA 168, lines 86–95), Albinus (Tertullian, de A. 28.1; 29.4; PidA, vol. III.189), Numenius (PidA 179.3, line 14), Cronius (PidA 179.2, line 20), Harpocration (PidA 179.3, line 13), Celsus (Origen, Cels. 7.32; 8.53), Boethos (PidA 179.3, line 14), Euboulos (Porphyry, De abst. 4.16), Pallas (ibid.), the authors of the Chaldean Oracles (fr. 223–224; 226; 229), Plotinus (for passages, see Rich 1957; PidA VI.2, 358–366), Porphyry (for passages, see Carlier 1998), Iamblichus (inter alia, De anima, 10–13), Theodore of Asine (Nemesius of Emesa, nat. hom., 35.5–6; Proclus, In R. 2.310), Salustius (De deis, 20), Hierocles (inter alia, in CA 23.8–9), Syrianus (Aeneas of Gaza, Theophr. 14.6–7), Proclus (for passages, see Fortier 2018), Hermias (inter alia, in Phdr. 180.11–14), Damascius (inter alia, in Phd. I.355), and Olympiodorus (see Fortier’s article).

Damascius on three different models of reincarnation: in Phd. I.355 Westerink.

Numenius of Apamea taught animal reincarnation: Aeneas of Gaza, Theophr. 12.6–7.

Porphyry on the eschatological pneuma-body: Sent. c. 32; Philoponus In de anima I. The passage quoted shewing the integration of astrological theory, planetary influences, and the literal descent of the soul, via her bodies: 271 F, 68-75 Smith = Stobæus II 8,42 (II 168, 9 – 173, 2) = On What is up to Us. We cite Wilberding’s translation: James Wilberding, editor. Porphyry: To Gaurus on How Embryos are Ensouled and On What is In Our Power. Ancient Commentators on Aristotle. Bloomsbury, London/New Delhi/New York, NY/Sydney, 2011.

Secondary:

Alberto Bernabé and Ana Isabel Jiménez San Cristóbal. Instructions for the Netherworld: The Orphic Gold Tablets. Brill, Leiden/Boston, MA, 2008. Michael Chase, trans.

John Dillon. The Heirs of Plato: A Study of the Old Academy (347-274 BC). Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2003.

Simon Fortier. Olympiodorus, Metensomatosis, and Christianity. In Albert Joosse, editor, Olympiodorus of Alexandria: Exegete, Teacher, Platonic Philosopher, number 159 in Philosophia antiqua, pages 221–42. Brill, Leiden/Boston, MA, 2021.

John Glucker. Antiochus and the Late Academy. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen, 1978.

Hans B. Gottschalk. Heraclides of Pontus. Clarendon, Oxford, 1980.

Dorian G. Greenbaum. Porphyry of Tyre on the Daimon, Birth and the Stars. In Luc Brisson, Seamus O’Neill, and Andrei Timotin, editors, Neoplatonic Demons and Angels, pages 102–39. Brill, Leiden/Boston, MA, 2018.

Akindynos Kaniamos. The Personal Daimōn in Iamblichus’ De Mysteriis: Astral Origins, Ritual and Divinization. In John F. Finamore and Mark Nyvlt, editors, Plato in Late Antiquity, the Middle Ages and Modern Times. Selected Papers from the Seventeenth Annual Conference of the International Society for Neoplatonic Studies, pages 27–58. Prometheus Trust/ISNS, Lydney, 2020.

H. Wrede. Consecratio in formam deorum: Vergöttlichte Privatpersonen in der Römischen Kaiserzeit. Zabern, Mainz, 1981.

Themes

Heraklides of Pontos, Iatromanteis, Late Platonism, Metempsychosis, Plato, Platonism, Pythagorean Tradition