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[614c] and that they came to a mysterious region1 where there were two openings side by side in the earth, and above and over against them in the heaven two others, and that judges were sitting2 between these, and that after every judgement they bade the righteous journey to the right and upwards through the heaven with tokens attached3 to them in front of the judgement passed upon them, and the unjust to take the road to the left4 and downward, they too wearing behind signs

1 For the description of the place of judgement cf. also Gorg. 524 A. Cf. Phaedo 107 D, 113 D, where there is no description but simply the statement that the souls are brought to a place and judged. On the topography of the myth in general cf. Bréhier, La Philos. de Plot. pp. 28-29: “Voyez, par exemple, la manière dont Numénius . . . interprète le mythe du Xe livre de Ia République, et comment il précise, avec Ia lourdeur d'un théologien, les traits que la poésie de Platon avait abandonnés à l'imagination du lecteur. Le lieu du jugement devient le centre du monde; le ciel platonicien devient Ia sphère des fixes; le ‘lieu sonterrain’ où sont punies les âmes, ce sont les planètes; la ‘bouche du ciel,’ par laquelle les âmes descendront à la naissance, est le tropique du Cancer; et c'est par le Capricorne qu'elles remontent.”

2 Cf. Gorg. 523 E f., 524 E-525 B, 526 B-C.

3 Gorg. 526 B.

4 Cf. Gorg. 525 A-B, 526 B. For “right” and “left” cf. the story of the last judgement, Matt. xxv. 33-34 and 41.

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