Taylor - Eleusianian and Bacchic Mysteries.pdf - Platonic Philosophy

36 Eleusinian andIndeed,if these wise men believed in afuture state of retribution, and at the sametime considered a connection with the bodyas death of the soul, it necessarily follows,that the soul s punishment and existencehereafter are nothing more than a continuation of its stateat present, and a transmigration, as it were, from sleep to sleep, andfrom dream to dream. But let us attendto the assertions of these divine men concerningnature.the soul s union with a materialAnd to begin with the obscure andprofound Heracleitus, speaking of soulsunembodied: "We live their death, and wedie their life."Z(o[isv TOV xscvo>v ftava-cov,Tcih 7jyva|iv Ss TOV sxsivcov J3:ov.And Empedocles,deprecating the condition termedugeneration," beautifully says of her:The aspect changing with destruction dread.She makes the living pass into the dead..Exvsxpa stAnd again, lamenting his connection withthis corporeal world, he pathetically exclaims :