ON THOSE WHO ARE PUNISHED BY THE DEITY LATE. 359
inarticulate sounds, like jells, mixed with wailing and
terror. Other souls in the upper part of the air seemed
joyful, and frequently approached one another in a friendly
way, and avoided those troubled souls, and seemed to mark
their displeasure by keeping themselves to themselves, and
their joy and delight by extension and expansion. At last
he said he saw the soul of a relation, that he thought he
knew but was not quite sure, as he died when he was a
boy, which came up to him and said to him, " Welcome,
Thespesius." And he wondering, and saying that his name
was not Thespesius but Aridaeus, the soul replied, "That
was your old name, but henceforth it will be Thespesius.
For assuredly you are not dead, but by the will of the gods
are come here with your intellect, for the rest of your soul
you have left in the body like an anchor ; and as a proof of
what I say both now and hereafter notice that the souls of
the dead have no shadow and do not move their eyelids."
Thespesius, on hearing these words, pulled himself some-
what more together again, and began to use his reason,
and looking more closely he noticed that an indistinct and
shadow-like line was suspended over him, while the others
shone all round and were transparent, but were not all
alike ; for some were like the full-moon at its brightest,
throwing out one smooth even and continuous colour,
others had spots or light marks here and there, while
others were quite variegated and strange to the sight, with
black spots like snakes, while others again had dim scratches.
Then the kinsman of Thespesius (for there is nothing to
prevent our calling the souls by the name of the persons),
pointed out everything, and told him that Adrastea, the
daughter of Necessity and Zeus, was placed in the highest
position to punish all crimes, and no criminal was either
so great or so small as to be able to escape her either by
fraud or violence. But, as there were three kinds of
punishment, each had its own oflftcer and administering
functionary. " For speedy Vengeance undertakes the punish-
ment of those that are to be corrected at once in the body
and through their bodies, and she mildly passes by many
offences that only need expiation ; but if the cure of vice
demands further pains, then the deity hands over such
criminals after death to Justice, and those whom Justice
360 Plutarch's morals.
rejects as altogether incurable, Erinnys (the third and
fiercest of Adrastea's officers), pursues as they are fleeing
and wandering about in various directions, and with pitiless
severity utterly undoes them all, and thrusts them down
to a place not to be seen or spoken about. And, of all
these punishments, that which is administered in this life
by Vengeance is most like those in use among the barbarians.
For as among the Persians they pluck off and scourge the
garments and tiaras of those that are to be punished, while
the offenders weep and beg them to cease, so most punish-
ments by fine or bodily chastisement have no sharp touch,
nor do they reach vice itself, but are only for show and
sentiment. And whoever goes from this world to that
incorrigible and impure, Justice takes him aside, naked as
lie is in soul, and unable to veil or hide or conceal his
villainy, but descried all round and in all points by every-
body, and shows him first to his good parents, if such they
were, to let them see what a wretch he is and how unworthy
of his ancestors ; but if they were wicked too, seeing them
punished and himself being seen by them, he is chastised
for a long time till he is purged of each of his bad propen-
sities by sufferings and pains, which as much exceed in
magnitude and intensity all sufferings in the flesh, as what
is real is more vivid than a dream. But the scars and marks
of the stripes for each bad propensity are more visible in
some than in others. Observe also, he continued, the dif-
ferent and various colours of the souls. That dark dirty-
brown colour is the pigment of illiberality and covetous-
ness, and the blood-red the sign of cruelty and savageness,
and where the blue is there sensuality and love of pleasure
are not easily eradicated, and that violet and livid colour
marks malice and envy, like the dark liquid ejected by the
cuttle fish. For as during life vice produces these colours
by the soul being acted upon by passions and reacting upon
the body, so here it is the end of purification and correc-
tion when they are toned down, and the soul becomes alto-
gether bright and one colour. But as long as these colours
remain, there are relapses of the passions accompanied by
palpitation and throbbing of the heart, in some faint and
soon suppressed, in others more violent and lasting. And
some of these souls by being again and again corrected
ON THOSE WHO ARE PUNISHED BY THE DEITY LA.TE. 361
recover their proper disposition and condition, while others
again by their violent ignorance and excessive love of plea-
sure ^ are carried into the bodies of animals ; for one by
weakness of reasoning power, and slowness of contempla-
tion, is impelled by the practical element in him to gene-
ration, while another, lacking an instrument to satisfy his
licentiousness, desires to gratify his passions immediately,
and to get that gratification through the medium of the
body ; for here there is no real fruition, but only an imper-
fect shadow and dream of incomplete pleasure."
After he had said this, Thespesius' kinsman hurried him
at great speed through immense space, as it seemed to him,
though he travelled as easily and straight as if he were
carried on the wings of the sun's rays. At last he got to
an extensive and bottomless abyss, where his strength left
him, as he found was the case with the other souls there :
for keeping together and making swoops, like birds, they
flitted all round the abyss, but did not venture to pass over
it. To internal view it resembled the caverns of Bacchus,
being beautiful throughout ^ with trees and green foliage
and flowers of all kinds, and it breathed a soft and gentle air,
laden with scents marvellously pleasant, and producing the
effect that wine does on those who are topers ; for the souls
were elevated by its fragrance, and gay and blithe with
one another: and the whole spot was full of mirth and
laughter, and such songs as emanate from gaiety and
enjoyment. And Thespesius' kinsman told him that this
was the way Dionysus went up to heaven by, and by which,
he afterwards took up Semele, and it was called the place of
Oblivion. But he would not let Thespesius stay there,
much as he wished, but forcibly dragged him away,
instructing and telling him that the intellect was melted and
moistened by pleasure, and that the irrational and corporeal
element being watered and made flesh stirs up the memory
of the body, from which comes a yearning and strong de-
sire for generation, so called from being an inclination to
the earth,^ when the soul is weighed down with moisture.
^ Reading <})i\T]doviag tVxiit,' with Reiske.
' Reading SiaTrsTroiKiXfispov op with Wyttenbach.
^ A paronomasia on yivtatg as if tirl yriv vtvaig. We cannot Eng-
lish it.
362 plutakch's morals.
Next Thespesius travelled as far in another direction,
and seemed to see a great crater into which several rivers
emptied themselves, one whiter than the foam of the sea
or snow, another like the purple of the rainbow, and others
of various hues whose brightness was apparent at some
distance, but when he got nearer the air became thinner
and the colours grew dim, and the crater lost all its gay
colours but white. And he saw three genii sitting together
in a triangular position, mixing the rivers together in certain
proportions. Then the guide of Thespesius' soul told him,
that Orpheus got as far as here, when he came in quest of
the soul of his wife,^ and from not exactly remembering what
he had seen spread a false report among mankind, that the
oracle at Delphi was common to Apollo and Night, though
Apollo had no communion with Night : but this, pursued the
guide, is an oracle common to Night and the Moon, that
utters forth its oracular knowledge in no particular part of
the world, nor has it any particular seat, but wanders about
everywhere in men's dreams and visions. Hence, as you see,
dreams receive and disseminate a mixture^ of simple truth
with deceit and error. But the oracle of Apollo you do not
know, nor can you see it, for the earthiness of the soul does
not suffer it to soar upwards, but keeps it down in depen-
dence on the body. And taking him nearer his guide tried to
show him the light from the tripod, which, as he said, shone
as far as Parnassus through the bosom of Themis, but
though he desired to see it he could not for its brightness,
but as he passed by he heard the shrill voice of a woman
speaking in verse several things, among others, he thought,
telling the time of his death. That, said the genius, was
the voice of the Sibyl, who sang about the future as she was
being borne about in the Orb of the moon. Though desirous
then to hear more, he was conveyed into another direction
by the violent motion of the moon, as if he had been in the
eddies of a whirlpool, so that he heard very little more,
only a prophecy about Mt. Vesuvius and that Dicaearchia*
would be destroyed by fire, and a short piece about the
^ Eurydice.
^ " fiiyvvntvov, Turn, et Bong.," Reiske. Surely the right reading.
^ Latin Puteoli.
ON THOSE WHO ARE PUNISHED BY THE DEITY LATE. 363
Emperor then reigning,^ that "though he was good he
would lose his empire through sickness."
After this Thespesius and his guide turned to see those
that were undergoing punishment. And at first they saw
only distressing and pitiable sights, but after that, Thespe-
sius, little expecting it, found himself among his friends
and acquaintances and kinsfolk who were being punished,
and undergoing dreadful sufferings and hideous and bitter
tortures, and who wept and wailed to him. And at last
he descried his father coming up out of a certain gulf
covered with marks and scars, stretching out his hands,
and not allowed to keep silence, but compelled by those
that presided over his torture to confess that he had been
an accursed wretch and poisoned some strangers that had
gold, and during his lifetime had escaped the detection of
everybody ; but had been found out here, and his guilt
brought home to him, for which he had already suffered
much, and was being dragged on to suffer more. So
great was his consternation and fear that he did not dare
to intercede or beg for his father's release, but wishing to
turn and flee he could no longer see his gentle and kind
guide, but he was thrust forward by some persons horrible
to look at, as if some dire necessity compelled him to go
through with the business, and saw that the shades of
those that had been notorious criminals and punished in
their life-time were not so severely tortured here or like
the others, but had an incomplete" though toilsome punish-
ment for their irrational passions.'^ Whereas those who
under the mask and show of virtue had lived all their lives
in undetected vice were forced by their torturers with
labour and pain to turn their souls inside out, unnaturally
wriggling and writhing about, like the sea-scolopendras
who, when they have swallowed the hook, turn themselves
inside out; but some of them their torturers flayed and
crimped so as to show their various inward vices which
were only skinned over, which were deep in their soul the
^ Vespasian. See Suetonius, " Vespasian,'' ch. 24, as to the particu-
lars of his death.
- The reading is very doubtful. I have followed Wyttenbach in
reading TpijSofisvrjv Tpifiyv arfXi}.
' Such as that of the Danaides. So Wyttenbach.
364 Plutarch's morals.
principal part of man. And he said he saw other souls,
like snakes two or three or even more twined together,
devouring one another in malignity and malevolence for
what they had suffered or done in life. He said also that
there were several lakes running parallel, one of boiling
gold, another most cold of lead, another hard of iron, and
several demons were standing by, like smiths, who lowered
down and drew up by turns with instruments the souls of
those whose criminality lay in insatiable cupidity. For
when they were red-hot and transparent through their
bath in the lake of gold, the demons thrust them into the
lake of lead and dipped them in that ; and when they got
congealed in it and hard as hail, they dipped them into the
lake of iron, and there they became wonderfully black, and
broken and crushed by the hardness of the iron, and
changed their appearance, and after that they were dipped
again in the lake of gold, after suffering, he said, dreadful
agony in all these changes of torment. But he said those
souls suffered most piteously of all that, when they seemed
to have escaped justice, were arrested again, and these were
those whose crimes had been visited on their children or
descendants. For whenever one of these latter happened
to come up, he fell into a rage and cried out, and showed
the marks of what he had suffered, and upbraided and pur-
sued the soul of the parent, that wished to fly and hide
himself but could not. For quickly did the ministers of
torture pursue them, and hurry them back again to Jus-
tice,^ wailing all the while on account of their fore-know-
ledge of what their punishment would be. And to some of
them he said many of their posterity clung at once, and
just like bees or bats stuck to them, and squeaked and gib-
bered '^ in their rage at the memory of what they had suf-
fered owing to them. Last of all he saw the souls of those
that were to come into the world a second time, forcibly
moulded and transformed into various kinds of animals by
artificers appointed for the very purpose with instruments
and blows, who broke off all the limbs of some, and only
wrenched off some of others, and polished others down or
^ Adopting the arrangement of Wyttenbach.
' Compare Homer, " Odyssey," xxiv. 5-10.
ON THOSE WHO ARE PUNISHED BT THE DEITY LATE. 365
annihilated them, altogether, to fit them for other habits
and modes of life. Among them he saw the sonl of Nero
tortured in other ways, and pierced with red-hot nails.
And the artificers having taken it in hand and converted
it into the semblance of a Pindaric viper, which gets its
way to life by gnawing through its mother's womb, a great
light, he said, suddenly shone, and a voice came out of the
light, ordering them to change it into something milder,
so they devised of it the animal that croaks about lakes
and marshes, for he had been punished sufficiently for his
crimes, and now deserved some favour at the hands of the
gods, for he had freed Greece, the noblest nation of his sub-
jects and the best-beloved of the gods.^ So much did
Thespesius behold, but as he intended to return a horrible
dread came upon him. For a woman, marvellous in
appearance and size, took hold of him and said to him,
" Come here that you may the better remember everything
you have seen." And she was about to strike him with a
red-hot iron pin, such as the encaustic painters use,^ when
another woman prevented her ; and he was suddenly sucked
up, as through. ^ a pipe, by a strong and violent wind, and
lit upon his own body, and woke up and found that he was
close to his tomb.
AGAINST BORROWING MONEY.
§ I. Plato in his Laws * does not permit neighbours to
use one another's water, unless they have first dug for
themselves as far as the clay, and reached ground that is
unsuitable for a well. For clay, having a rich and com-
pact nature, absorbs the water it receives, and does not let
it pass through. But he allows people that cannot make
a well of their own to use their neighbour's water, for the
law ought to relieve necessity. Ought there not also to
' See Pausanius, vii. 17, for a sneaking kindness for Nero.
* See Athenseus, 687 B. ^ Reading did with lieiske.
* Page 844, A. B. C.
366 Plutarch's morals.
be a law about monej, that people should not borrow of
others, nor go to other people's sources of income, until they
have first examined their own resources at home, and col-
lected, as by drops, what is necessary for their use ? But
nowadays from luxury and effeminacy and lavish expendi-
ture people do not use their own resources, though they
have them, but borrow from others at great interest with-
out necessity. And what proves this very clearly is the
fact that people do not lend money to the needy, but only
to those who, wanting an immediate supply, bring a wit-
ness and adequate security for their credit, so that they can
be in no actual necessity of borrowing.^
§ II. Why pay court to the banker or trader ? Borrow
from your own table. You have cups, silver dishes, pots
and pans. Use them in your need. Beautiful Aulis or
Tenedos will furnish you with earthenware instead, purer
than silver, for they will not smell strongly and unpleasantly
of interest, a kind of rust that daily soils your sumptuous-
ness, nor will they remind you of the calends and the new
moon, which, though the most holy of days, the money-
lenders make ill-omened and hateful. For those who
instead of selling them put their goods out at pawn cannot
be saved even by Zeus the Protector of Property : they are
ashamed to sell, they are not ashamed to pay interest on
their goods when out at pawn. And yet the famous Peri-
cles made the ornament of Athene, which weighed forty
talents of fine gold, removable at will, for "so," he said, "we
can use the gold in war, and at some other time restore as
costly a one." So should we too in our necessities, as in a
siege, not receive a garrison imposed on us by a hostile
money-lender, nor allow our goods to go into slavery ; but
stripping our table, our bed, our carriages, and our diet, of
superfluities, we should keep ourselves free, intending to
restore all those things again, if we have good luck.
§ III. So the Roman matrons offered their gold and orna-
ments as first-fruits to Pythian Apollo, out of which a
golden cup was made and sent to Delphi ; ^ and the Car-
thaginian matrons had their heads shorn, and with the
' Reading with Wyttenbach didoixn and txovai.
^ See Livy, v. 25.
AGAINST BORROWING MONEY. 367
hair cut off made cords for the machines and engines to be
nsed in defence of their country.^ But we being ashamed
of independence enslave ourselves to covenants and con-
ditions, when we ought to restrict and confine ourselves to
what is useful, and dock or sell useless superfluities, to
build a temple of liberty for ourselves, our wives, and
children. The famous Artemis at Ephesus gives asylum
and security from their creditors to debtors, when they take
refuge in her temple ; but the asylum and sanctuary of
frugality is everywhere open to the sober-minded, afEording
them joyful and honourable and ample space for much ease.
For as the Pythian Priestess told the Athenians at the
time of the Median war that the god had given them wooden
walls,- and they left the region and city, their goods and
houses, and took refuge in their ships for liberty, so the
god gives us a wooden table, and earthenware plate, and
coarse garments, if we wish to live free. Care not for fine
horses or chariots with handsome harness, adorned with
gold ^ and silver, which swift interest will catch up and out-
run, but mounted on any chance donkey or nag flee from
the hostile and tyrannical money-lender, not demanding
like the Mede land and water,* but interfering with your
liberty, and lowering your status. If you pay him not, he
duns you ; if you offer the money, he won't have it ; if you
are selling anything, he cheapens the price ; if you don't
want to sell, he forces you ; if you sue him, he comes to
terms with you ; if you swear, he hectors ; if you go to
his house, he shuts the door in your face ; whereas if you
stay at home, he billets himself on you, and is ever rapping
at your door.
§ IV. How did Solon benefit the Athenians by ordaining
that debtors should no longer have to pay in person ? For
they are slaves to all money-lenders,^ and not to them only,
what would there be so monstrous in that ? but to their
^ See Appian, Iv. 26.
^ See Herodotus, vii. 141-143; viii. 51.
^ Reading with Reiske Kardxpyaa.
^ The technical term for submission to an enemy. See Pausanias
iii. 12; x. 20. Herodotus, v. 17,18; vii. 133.
" Reading with Reiske SaveiaTaig. Perhaps dipaviaToig originally
came after dypioig, and got somehow displaced.
368 Plutarch's morals.
slaves, wlio are insolent and savage barbarians, such as
Plato represents the fiery torturers and executioners in
Hades who preside over the punishment of the impious.
For they make the forum a hell for wretched debtors, and
like vultures devour and rend them limb from limb,
"piercing into their bowels," 1 and stand over others and
prevent their tasting their own grapes or crops, as if they
were so many Tantaluses. And as Darius sent Datis and
Artaphernes to Athens with manacles and chains in their
hands for their captives, so they bring into Greece boxes
full of bonds and agreements, like fetters, and visit the
towns and scour the country round, sowing not like Trip-
tolemus harmless corn, but planting the toilsome and pro-
lific and never-ending roots of debts, which grow and
spread all round, and ruin and choke cities. They say that
hares at once give birth and suckle and conceive again, but
the debts of these knaves and barbarians give birth before
they conceive ; for at the very moment of giving they ask
back, and take up what they laid down, and lend what they
take for lending.
§ V. It is a saying among the Messenians, that " there is
a Pylos before Pylos, and another Pylos too." So it may be
said with respect to these money-lenders, " there is interest
before interest, and other interest too." Then of course they
laugh at those natural philosophers who say that nothing
can come of nothing, for they get interest on what neither
is nor was ; and they think it disgraceful to farm out the
taxes, though the law allows it, while they themselves
against the law exact tribute for what they lend, or rather,
if one is to say the truth, defraud as they lend, for he who
receives less than he signs his name for is defrauded. The
Persians indeed think lying a secondary crime, but debt a
principal one, for lying frequently follows upon debt, but
money-lenders tell more lies, for they make fraudulent
entries in their account-books, writing down that they
have given so-and-so so much, when they have really given
less. And the only excuse for their lying is covetousness,
not necessity, not utter poverty, but insatiable greediness,
the outcome of which is without enjoyment and useless to
^ See Homer, " Odyssey," xi. 578, 579, and context.
AGAINST BORROWING MONEY. 369
themselves, and fatal to their victims. For neither do
they farm the fields which they rob their debtors of, nor
do they inhabit their houses when they have thrust them
out, nor use their tables or apparel, but first one is ruined,
and then a second is hunted down, for whom the first one
serves as a decoy. For the bane spreads and grows like a
fire, to the destruction and ruin of all who fall into their
clutches, for it consumes one after another ; and the
money-lender, who fans and feeds this flame to ensnare
many, gets no more advantage from it but that some time
after he can take his account-book and read how many he
has sold up, how many turned out of house and home, and
track the sources of his wealth, which is ever growing into
a larger pile.
§ VI. And do not think I say this as an enemy proclaim-
ing war against the money-lenders,
" For never did they lift my cows or horses," ^
but merely to prove to those who too readily borrow money
what disgrace and servitude it brings with it, and what
extreme folly and weakness it is. Have you anything ?
do not borrow, for you are not in a necessitous condition.
Have you nothing ? do not borrow, for you will never be
able to pay back. Let us cpnsider either case separately.
Cato said to a certain old man who was a wicked fellow,
*' My good sir, why do you add the shame that comes from
wickedness to old age, that has so many troubles of its
own ? " So too do you, since poverty has so many troubles
of its own, not add the terrible distress that comes from
borrowing money and from debt ; and do not take away
from poverty its only advantage over wealth, its freedom