Once they had arrived at the foot of the Spindle of Necessity, the souls were asked to come forth one by one and to choose their next life from a scattered jigsaw of human and animal lives. Not having known the terrors of the underworld, the first soul hastily chose the life of a powerful dictator, only to discover that he was fated, amongst others evils, to devour his own children. His previous life had been virtuous out of habit rather than out of philosophy, and so his judgement was poor. In contrast, the souls that had known the terrors of the underworld often chose a better, more virtuous life, but on no other basis than bitter experience. Thus, many of the souls exchanged a good destiny for an evil or an evil for a good. The soul of wily Odysseus, which was the last to come forth, sought out the life of a private man with no cares. This he found lying about, neglected by everybody else. After this, the souls travelled through the scorching Plain of Oblivion and encamped by the River of Forgetfulness. Each soul was required to drink from the river’s water so as to forget all things, but the souls that had not been saved by wisdom drank more than was strictly necessary. In the night, as they slept, the souls shot up like stars to be reborn into their chosen life. As they did so, Er opened his eyes to find himself lying on his funeral pyre.â€
Plato: Letters to my Son, has just been published.
**Book launch promotion: The ebook edition is currently free from Amazon.**
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