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Section 108

"It is said that when a person dies, the guiding spirit (daimon) assigned to him in life leads him to a certain place where the dead must gather to be judged before traveling to Hades, guided by the one appointed to bring them from here to there. Once they have received what they must and spent the required time, another guide brings them back here over many long cycles of time. The journey is not as Aeschylus's Telephus describes it. He says the path to Hades is simple, but to me it seems neither simple nor single. If it were, there would be no need of guides, for no one could lose the way on a single path. In truth, it has many forks and crossways—I say this based on the sacrifices and customs observed here. The orderly and wise soul follows its guide and is not ignorant of its present state. But the soul that eagerly desires the body, as I said before, flutters about the body and the visible place for a long time. Only after much resistance and suffering is it forcibly dragged away by its appointed spirit. When it arrives where the others are, if it is impure and has committed some wrong—either participating in unjust murders or similar deeds kin to these—all the other souls flee from it and turn away. They refuse to be its fellow traveler or guide, and it wanders alone in complete perplexity until a certain timespan has passed. When that time is over, it is carried by necessity into its fitting habitation. But the soul that has passed through life purely and moderately finds gods as fellow travelers and guides, and each dwells in the place fitting for it. There are many wondrous places on the earth, and the earth itself is neither of the nature nor the size supposed by those who usually discourse about it. This I have been persuaded of by a certain person." Simmias said, "What do you mean, Socrates? I have heard many things about the earth myself, but not these things you are persuaded of. I would gladly hear them." "Well, Simmias, I do not think it requires the art of Glaucus to narrate what these things are. But to prove they are true seems too hard for the art of Glaucus. I might not be able to do it, and even if I knew how, the time remaining in my life does not seem sufficient for such a long account. Nevertheless, nothing prevents me from describing the shape of the earth as I am persuaded it is, and its regions." "That is sufficient," said Simmias.