1. Homer, Iliad, 16.851-16.854, 22.355-22.360 (8th cent. BCE - 7th cent. BCE)
| 16.851. /and of men Euphorbus, while thou art the third in my slaying. And another thing will I tell thee, and do thou lay it to heart: verily thou shalt not thyself be long in life, but even now doth death stand hard by thee, and mighty fate, that thou be slain beneath the hands of Achilles, the peerless son of Aeacus. 16.852. /and of men Euphorbus, while thou art the third in my slaying. And another thing will I tell thee, and do thou lay it to heart: verily thou shalt not thyself be long in life, but even now doth death stand hard by thee, and mighty fate, that thou be slain beneath the hands of Achilles, the peerless son of Aeacus. 16.853. /and of men Euphorbus, while thou art the third in my slaying. And another thing will I tell thee, and do thou lay it to heart: verily thou shalt not thyself be long in life, but even now doth death stand hard by thee, and mighty fate, that thou be slain beneath the hands of Achilles, the peerless son of Aeacus. 16.854. /and of men Euphorbus, while thou art the third in my slaying. And another thing will I tell thee, and do thou lay it to heart: verily thou shalt not thyself be long in life, but even now doth death stand hard by thee, and mighty fate, that thou be slain beneath the hands of Achilles, the peerless son of Aeacus. 22.355. /Then even in dying spake unto him Hector of the flashing helm:Verily I know thee well, and forbode what shall be, neither was it to be that I should persuade thee; of a truth the heart in thy breast is of iron. Bethink thee now lest haply I bring the wrath of the gods upon thee on the day when Paris and Phoebus Apollo shall slay thee 22.356. /Then even in dying spake unto him Hector of the flashing helm:Verily I know thee well, and forbode what shall be, neither was it to be that I should persuade thee; of a truth the heart in thy breast is of iron. Bethink thee now lest haply I bring the wrath of the gods upon thee on the day when Paris and Phoebus Apollo shall slay thee 22.357. /Then even in dying spake unto him Hector of the flashing helm:Verily I know thee well, and forbode what shall be, neither was it to be that I should persuade thee; of a truth the heart in thy breast is of iron. Bethink thee now lest haply I bring the wrath of the gods upon thee on the day when Paris and Phoebus Apollo shall slay thee 22.358. /Then even in dying spake unto him Hector of the flashing helm:Verily I know thee well, and forbode what shall be, neither was it to be that I should persuade thee; of a truth the heart in thy breast is of iron. Bethink thee now lest haply I bring the wrath of the gods upon thee on the day when Paris and Phoebus Apollo shall slay thee 22.359. /Then even in dying spake unto him Hector of the flashing helm:Verily I know thee well, and forbode what shall be, neither was it to be that I should persuade thee; of a truth the heart in thy breast is of iron. Bethink thee now lest haply I bring the wrath of the gods upon thee on the day when Paris and Phoebus Apollo shall slay thee 22.360. /valorous though thou art, at the Scaean gate. Even as he thus spake the end of death enfolded him and his soul fleeting from his limbs was gone to Hades, bewailing her fate, leaving manliness and youth. And to him even in his death spake goodly Achilles: |
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2. Xenophanes, Fragments, None (6th cent. BCE - 5th cent. BCE)
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3. Xenophanes, Fragments, None (6th cent. BCE - 5th cent. BCE)
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4. Xenophanes, Fragments, None (6th cent. BCE - 5th cent. BCE)
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5. Plato, Phaedo, None (5th cent. BCE - 4th cent. BCE)
| 61d. And as he spoke he put his feet down on the ground and remained sitting in this way through the rest of the conversation.Then Cebes asked him: What do you mean by this, Socrates, that it is not permitted to take one’s life, but that the philosopher would desire to follow after the dying? How is this, Cebes? Have you and Simmias, who are pupils of Philolaus, not heard about such things? Nothing definite, Socrates. I myself speak of them only from hearsay; but I have no objection to telling what I have heard. And indeed it is perhaps especially fitting |
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6. Plato, Phaedrus, None (5th cent. BCE - 4th cent. BCE)
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7. Plato, Republic, None (5th cent. BCE - 4th cent. BCE)
| 487a. Nay, most necessary, he said. Is there any fault, then, that you can find with a pursuit which a man could not properly practise unless he were by nature of good memory, quick apprehension, magnificent, gracious, friendly and akin to truth, justice, bravery and sobriety? Momus himself, he said, could not find fault with such a combination. Well, then, said I, when men of this sort are perfected by education and maturity of age, would you not entrust the state solely to them? |
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8. Plato, Theaetetus, None (5th cent. BCE - 4th cent. BCE)
| 194d. THEAET. Most emphatically. |
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9. Aristotle, Metaphysics, None (4th cent. BCE - 4th cent. BCE)
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10. Diodorus Siculus, Historical Library, 10.6.1 (1st cent. BCE - 1st cent. BCE)
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11. Diogenes Laertius, Lives of The Philosophers, 8.5, 8.36 (3rd cent. CE - 3rd cent. CE)
| 8.5. When Euphorbus died, his soul passed into Hermotimus, and he also, wishing to authenticate the story, went up to the temple of Apollo at Branchidae, where he identified the shield which Menelaus, on his voyage home from Troy, had dedicated to Apollo, so he said: the shield being now so rotten through and through that the ivory facing only was left. When Hermotimus died, he became Pyrrhus, a fisherman of Delos, and again he remembered everything, how he was first Aethalides, then Euphorbus, then Hermotimus, and then Pyrrhus. But when Pyrrhus died, he became Pythagoras, and still remembered all the facts mentioned. 8.36. This is what Alexander says that he found in the Pythagorean memoirs. What follows is Aristotle's.But Pythagoras's great dignity not even Timon overlooked, who, although he digs at him in his Silli, speaks ofPythagoras, inclined to witching works and ways,Man-snarer, fond of noble periphrase.Xenophanes confirms the statement about his having been different people at different times in the elegiacs beginning:Now other thoughts, another path, I show.What he says of him is as follows:They say that, passing a belaboured whelp,He, full of pity, spake these words of dole:Stay, smite not ! 'Tis a friend, a human soul;I knew him straight whenas I heard him yelp ! |
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12. Iamblichus, Life of Pythagoras, 143, 164, 63, 14 (3rd cent. CE - 4th cent. CE)
| 14. With him likewise the best principle originated of a guardian attention to the concerns of men, and which ought to be pre-assumed by those who intend to learn the truth about other things. For he reminded many of his familiars, by most clear and evident indications, of the former life which their 42soul lived, before it was bound to this body, and demonstrated by indubitable arguments, that he had been Euphorbus the son of Panthus, who conquered Patroclus. And he especially praised the following funeral Homeric verses pertaining to himself, sung them most elegantly to the lyre, and frequently repeated them.“The shining circlets of his golden hair,Which ev’n the Graces might be proud to wear,Instarr’d with gems and gold, bestrow the shoreWith dust dishonor’d, and deform’d with gore.As the young olive in some sylvan scene,Crown’d by fresh fountains with eternal green,Lifts the gay head, in snowy flowrets fair,And plays and dances to the gentle air;When lo! a whirlwind from high heav’n invadesThe tender plant, and withers all its shades;It lies uprooted from its genial bed,A lovely ruin now defac’d and dead.Thus young, thus beautiful, Euphorbus lay,While the fierce Spartan tore his arms away.”[16]But what is related about the shield of this Phrygian Euphorbus, being dedicated among other Trojan spoils to Argive Juno, we shall omit, as being of a very popular nature. That, however, which he wished to indicate through all these particulars is this, that he knew the former lives which he had lived, and that from hence he commenced his providential attention to others, reminding them of their former life. |
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13. Porphyry, Life of Plotinus, 12 (3rd cent. CE - 4th cent. CE)
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14. Porphyry, Life of Pythagoras, 26 (3rd cent. CE - 4th cent. CE)
| 26. Many of his associates he reminded of the lives lived by their souls before it was bound to the body, and by irrefutable arguments demonstrated that he had bean Euphorbus, the son of Panthus. He specially praised the following verses about himself, and sang them to the lyre most elegantly: "The shining circlets of his golden hair; Which even the Graces might be proud to wear,Instarred with gems and gold, bestrew the shore,With dust dishonored, and deformed with gore.As the young olive, in some sylvan scene, Crowned by fresh fountains with celestial green, Lifts the gay head, in snowy flowerets fair, And plays and dances to the gentle air,When lo, a whirlwind from high heaven invades, The tender plant, and withers all its shades;It lies uprooted from its genial head, A lovely ruin now defaced and dead. Thus young, thus beautiful, Euphorbus lay, While the fierce Spartan tore his arms away." (Pope, Homer's Iliad, Book 17). SPAN |
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