Editing Metempsychosis (section)

== Platonic philosophy ==
The weight and importance of metempsychosis in the Western tradition are from its adoption by [[Plato]].<ref>{{cite book | title=Republic, Book 10, section 620 | last=Plato | url=https://scaife.perseus.org/reader/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0059.tlg030.perseus-grc2:10.620/}}</ref> In the [[Eschatology|eschatological]] myth that closes the ''[[Republic (Plato)|Republic]]'', he tells how Er, the son of Armenius, miraculously returned to life on the twelfth day after death and recounted the secrets of the other world. After death, he said, he went with others to the place of Judgment and saw the souls returning from heaven, and proceeded with them to a place where they chose new lives, human and animal. He saw the soul of Orpheus changing into a swan, [[Thamyras]] becoming a nightingale, musical birds choosing to be men, and [[Atalanta]] choosing the honours of an athlete. Men were seen passing into animals and wild and tame animals changing into each other. After their choice, the souls drank of [[Lethe]] and then shot away like stars to their birth. There are myths and theories to the same effect in other dialogues, including the [[Phaedrus (dialogue)|''Phaedrus'']], ''[[Meno]]'', ''[[Phaedo]]'', [[Timaeus (dialogue)|''Timaeus'']], and [[Laws (dialogue)|''Laws'']].{{Citation needed|date=February 2009}} In Plato's view the number of souls was fixed; souls are never created or destroyed but only transmigrate from one body to another.<ref>"That is the conclusion, I said; and if a true conclusion, then the souls must always be the same, for if none be destroyed they will not diminish in number." Republic X, 611. The Republic of Plato By Plato, Benjamin Jowett Edition: 3 Published by Clarendon Press, 1888.</ref>