[Unlike an article, say, in a print-based encyclopædia, the following blog post claims no expertise regarding Plutarch, ancient Greek religion, theosophy, etc. As such, it is only intended to serve as a pointer to further resources available online.]

Writing a blog entry is probably first and foremost a form of self-indulgence. On Friday evening, I read a few pages written by the English esotericist and female magus Dion Fortune (Deus non fortuna). As if marked by serendipity, this took place after I had looked for more information about the Russian artist, explorer and mystic Nicholas Roerich (whose wife I quoted in a blog entry for January of this year) both online and off line; in turn, this caused me to want to find early references to the astral plane. One such reference (‘History of out-of-body experiences (astral projections)’) was to the famed first century Greek author Plutarch, who for many years had served as a priest to Apollo in Delphi, which was Greece’s main religious centre in antiquity. Unfortunately, Mr Alegretti’s article put me on the wrong track (‘Plutarch tells us of the story of Arisdeu, which took place in the 79th year of the first century. Arisdeu was a dishonest individual…’) because the name of the character mentioned by Plutarch is not ‘Arisdeu’, but first ‘Aridaeus’ (for the bad character) and then ‘Thespesius’ (which means something akin to ‘bestowed by divine grace – because he was able to mend his ways’). I suspect that the source for this confusion is the following quote which comes towards the end of Rosemary Ellen Guiley’s entry on the astral plane on page 21 of her Encyclopedia of Magic and Alchemy, which reads as follows: ‘In the West, Plato held that the soul could leave the body and travel. Socrates, Pliny, and Plotinus gave descriptions of experiences that resemble astral projections; Plotinus wrote of being “lifted out of the body into myself” on many occasions. Plutarch described an astral projection that occurred to Aridanaeus in 79 c.e. Saints and mystics recorded astral projection and astral travel.’ The Greek text is clear: Ἀριδαῖός, or Aridaeus  in the Latinate nominative form, is the name of the protagonist in Plutarch’s story.

Once I was able to find the correct name of the protagonist, it was very easy to retrieve some English language translations of Plutarch’s treatise on divine retribution, better known under its Latin title ‘De sera numinis vindicta’, in his famous work on Morals.

Plutarch’s Morals. Tr. from the Greek by several hands. Cor. and rev. by William W. Goodwin ... With an introduction by Ralph Waldo Emerson, Boston, 1874, prompted me to find out to whom these other hands belonged. A text published even a century and a half earlier did not give me the name of the hands of the first translator:  Plutarch’s Morals; translated from the Greek by Several Hands, 4th ed., Vol. V, London, 1714. Probably the following query https://archive.org/search.php?query=Plutarch%27s+Morals&&and[]=year%3A%221600%22&and[]=year%3A%22-1%22 gave me https://archive.org/details/AncientHistory-WorksInPublicDomainPublishedBefore1923PartThree, which in turn yielded the very first translation into English of Plutarch’s Morals by the Coventry-based physician Philemon Holland (pages 282-284 in the pdf): https://ia902509.us.archive.org/9/items/AncientHistory-WorksInPublicDomainPublishedBefore1923PartThree/ThePhilosophieCommonlieCalledTheMorals-Plutarch1603.pdf. It is this translation I shall be reproducing here – mainly for the fun of performing some philological work [philo + logos, the love of words!!] and also because the text is copy-right free for sure.

Now, why would anybody bother to read a text dating back to 1603 (in its original language)? Intellectual curiosity is my answer and I simply refuse to expand upon this.

As to why the story should matter to the modern reader, the answer is that it is the first account of a near-death experience (fictional maybe, but Plutarch was an important priest, who served Apollo, and was therefore cognisant of secrets ordinarily never disclosed to fellow lay Greek countrymen) that I know of in the English language; plus there are some interesting points made about the soul, reincarnation, the ‘other world’, as well as some particularly vivid descriptions of an imaginary inferno…  

Should seventeenth century English be too off-putting, what about nineteenth century American English (a text that comes with several footnotes, by the hand of a reverend who taught at Harvard, i.e. Andrew Preston Peabody)?

‘The story of Thespesius, who—apparently killed, but really in a trance, in consequence of a fall—went into the infernal regions, beheld the punishments there inflicted, and came back to the body and its life, converted from a profligate into a man of pre-eminent virtue and excellence.’

[Ctrl + F  22. A   to jump to the story about Thespesius]   https://www.gutenberg.org/files/58567/58567-h/58567-h.htm

Should you be interested in reading the Greek text with an English translation just next to the original text, then go to: https://archive.org/details/moraliainfiftee07plut/page/268/mode/2up and https://archive.org/details/moraliainfiftee07plut/page/298/mode/2up.

And what about reading the text in Latin published by the Renaissance luminary Erasmus in Basle (incidentally, basileus means royal in Greek) in 1513? Then the passage about Thespesius starts at https://archive.org/details/ita-bnc-mag-00001129-001/page/n170/mode/2up [a pencil mark indicates the beginning on the right hand side] and ends at https://archive.org/details/ita-bnc-mag-00001129-001/page/n180/mode/2up.

Two last remarks: I copied the text reproduced below from the collection of the University of Michigan’s ‘Early English Books Online - Text Creation Partnership’  (https://quod.lib.umich.edu/e/eebo/A09800.0001.001?view=toc), which I read against the scanned version of the original text and to which I made a few corrections (several typos plus the addition of the Greek spirit of vengeance ποινὴ, poinê). Finally, seventeenth century printers seem to have had a more relaxed attitude regarding English spellings than their counterparts of subsequent centuries...

Enjoy and remember to be intellectually inquisitive: the Internet being simply the best tool at the disposal of such minded people.

[Earlier blog entry on a similar subject: ‘Brought back to life by a shaman’: Jean Malaurie’s near-death experience and shamanic rescue.]

Now when I had finished this speech, I held my peace; and with that Olympicus smiled and said: Wee would not have you to thinke (quoth he) that we commend you, as having sufficiently proved your discourse by demonstration, lest we might seeme to have forgotten or to neglect the tale or narration which you promised  to relate unto us: Mary then will we give our sentence and opinion thereof, when we shall likewise have heard the same. Thus therfore I began againe to enter into speech, and follow my intended purpose. There was one Thespesius, of the city of Soli in Cilicia, a great friend and familiar of Protogenes, who sometime here conversed with us, who having led his youthful daies very loosely, within a small time had wasted and consumed all his goods, whereby he was fallen for a certaine space to extreme want and necessitie, which brought him also to a leud life, insomuch as he proved a very badde man; and repenting his former follies and dispense, began to make shifts, and seeke all meanes to recover his state againe; much like unto those loose and lascivious persons, who making no account of their lawfull and espoused wives, nor caring at all for them whiles they have them; afterwards, when they have cast them off, and put them away, seeing them wedded unto others, sollicite them to yeeld their bodies, & give the attempt to force and corrupt them most wickedly: Thus he forbare no leud, indirect, and shamefull practises, so they turned to his gaine and profit, and within a little while, he gat together not great store of goods, but procured to himselfe a bad name of wicked dealing, much shame, and infamie: But the thing that made him famous, and so much spoken of; was the answer delivered unto him from the oracle of Amphilochus, for thither had he sent, as it should seeme, to know whether he should live the rest of his life better than he had done before? Now the oracle returned this answer: That it would be better with him after he was dead; which in some sort hapned unto him not long after: For being fallen from an high place with his head forward, without any limme broken, or wound made; onely with the fall, the breath went out of his body, and there hee lay for dead; and three daies after, preparation being made for his funerals, caried foorth he was to be buried; but behold all on a sudden, he revived, and quickly came to himselfe againe; whereupon there ensued such a change and alteration in his life, that it was wonderfull; for by the report and testimonie of all the people of Cicilia, they never knew man of a better conscience in all his affaires and dealings, whiles he did negotiate and dwell among them; none more devout and religious to God-ward, none more fast and sure to his friends, none bitterer to his enemies; insomuch, as they who were most inward with him, and had kept his company familiarly a long time, were very desirous & earnest with him, to know the cause of so strange and sudden alteration; as being [WORDS MISSSING] that so great amendment of life (so loose & dissolute as it was before) could not come by meere chaunce and casualtie, (as in truth it did,) according as himselfe made relation unto the said Protogenes, and other such familiar friends of his; men of good woorth & reputation; for thus he reported unto them & said: That when the spirit was out of his bodie,he fared at the first (as he thought himselfe) like unto a pilot, flung out of his ship, and plunged into the bottome of the sea; so woonderfully was he astonished at this chaunge; but afterwards when as by little & little he was raised up againe and recovered, so that he was ware that he drew his breath fully, and at libertie, he looked round about him, for his soule seemed as if it had beene one eie fully open; but he beheld nothing that he was woont to view, onely he thought that he saw planets and other starres of an huge bignesse, distant an infinit way a sunder, and yet for multitude innumerable, casting from them a woonderfull light, with a colour admirable, and the same glittering and shining most resplendent, with a power and force incredible, in such sort, as the said soule being gently and easily caried, as in a chariot, with this splendor and radiant light, as it were upon the sea in a calme, went quickly whether soever she would; but letting passe a great number of things woorthy there to be seene; he said that he beheld how the soules of those that were departed this life, as they rose up and ascended, resembled certaine small firie bubbles, and the aire gave way and place unto them as they mounted on high; but anon when these bubbles by little and little brast in sunder, the soules came foorth of them, and appeered in the forme and shape of men and women, very light and nimble, as discharged from all poise to beare them downe: howbeit, they did not move and bestir themselves all alike and after one sort; for some leaped with a wonderful agilitie, and mounted directly and plumbe upright; others turned round about together like unto bobins or spindles, one while up and another while downe, so as their motion was mixt and confused, and so linked together, that unneth for a good while and with much adoe, they could be staied and severed asunder. As for these soules and spirits, many of them he knew not (as hee said) who they were; but taking knowledge of two or three among them who had bene of his olde acquaintance, hee pressed forward to approch neere and to speake unto them: but they neither heard him speake, nor in deed were in their right senses; but being after a sort astonied and beside themselves, refused once to be either seene or felt, wandering and flying to and fro apart at the first; but afterwards, encountring and meeting with a number of others disposed like unto themselves, they closed and clung unto them, and thus lincked and coupled together, they mooved here and there disorderly without discretion, and were carried every way to no purpose, uttering I wot not what voices, after a maner of yelling or a blacke-sanctus, not significant nor distinct, but as if they were cries mingled with lamentable plaints and dreadfull feare. Yet there were others to be seene aloft in the upmost region of the aire, jocund, gay and pleasant, so kinde also an courteous, that often times they would seeme to approch neere one unto another, turning away from those other that were tumultuous and disorderly; and as it should seeme, they shewed some discontentment, when they were enlarged and hudled close together; but well appaied and much pleased, when they were enlarged and severed at their liberty. Among these (by his owne saying) he had a sight of a soule belonging to a kinsman and familiar friend of his, & yet he knew him not certeinly, for that he died whiles himselfe was a very childe; howbeit, the said soule comming toward him, saluted him in these tearmes: God save you Thespesius: whereat he marvelled much, and said unto him: I am not Thespesius, but my name is Aridaeus: True in deed (quoth the other) before-time you were so called, but from hencefoorth *Thespesius [margin note: * That is to say, Divine] shall be your name; for dead you are not yet, but by the providence of God and permission of Destinie, you are hither come, with the intellectuall part of the soule; and as for all the rest, you have left it behinde, sticking fast as an anchor to your bodie: and that you may now know this and evermore heereafter, take this for a certeine rule and token: That the spirits of those who are departed and dead indeed, yeeld no shadow from them; they neither wincke nor yet open their eies. Thespesius hearing these words, began to plucke up his spirits so much the more, for to consider and discourse with himselfe: looking therefore every way about him, he might perceive that there accompanied him a certeine shadowy and darke lineature, whereas the other soules shone round about, and were cleere and transparent within forth, howbeit, not all alike; for some yeelded from them pure colour, uniforme and equall, as doth the full moone when she is at the cleerest; others had (as it were) scales or cicatrices, dispersed here and there by certeine distant spaces betweene; some againe, were wonderfull hideous and strange to see unto, all to be specked with blacke spots, like to serpents skinnes; and others had light scarifications and obscure risings upon their visage. Now this kinsman of Thespesius (for there is no danger at all to tearme soules by the names which men had whiles they were living) discoursed severally of ech thing, saying: That Adrastia [more common spelling: ‘Adrasteia’] the daughter of Jupiter and Necessitie, was placed highest and above the rest, to punish and to be revenged of all sorts of crimes and hainous sinnes; and that of wicked and sinfull wretches, there was not one (great or small) who either by force or cunning could ever save himselfe and escape punishment: but one kinde of paine and punishment (for three sorts there be in all) belonged to this gaoler or executioner, and another to that; for there is one which is quicke and speedie, called ποινὴ, that is, Penaltie, and this taketh in hand the execution and chastisement of those, who immediatly in this life (whiles they are in their bodies) be punished by the bodie, after a milde and gentle maner, leaving unpunished many light faults, which require onely some petie purgation; but such as require more ado to have their vices and sinnes cured, God committeth them to be punished after death to a second tormentresse, named Dice, that is to say, Revenge; mary those who are so laden with sinnes, that they be altogether incurable, when Dice hath given over and thrust them from her, the third ministresse of Adrastia, which of all other is most cruell, and named Erinnys runneth after, chasing and pursuing them as they wander and runne up and downe; these (I say) she courseth and hunteth with great miserie and much dolor, untill such time as she have overtaken them all and plunged them into a bottomlesse pit of darkenesse inenarrable and invisible. Now of these three sorts of punishments, the first which is executed by Paene, in this life resembleth that which is used in some barbarous nations: for in Persia, when any are by order of law and judicially to be punished, they take from them their copped caps or high pointed turbants, and other robes, which they plucke and pull haire by haire, yea, and whip them before their faces, and they themselves shedding teares and weeping, crie out piteously and beseech the officers to cease and give over; semblably, the punishments inflicted in this life in bodie or goods, are not exceeding sharpe nor come very nere to the quick, neither do they pierce & reach unto the vice and sinne it selfe, but the most part of them are imposed according to a bare opinion onely, and the judgement of outward naturall sense. But if it chance (quoth he) that any one escape hither unpunished, and who hath not bene well purged there before, him Dice taketh in hand all bare and naked as he is, with his soule discovered and open, as having nothing to hide, palliate and maske his wickednesse, but lying bare and exposed to the view thorowout, and on every side, she presenteth and sheweth him first to his parents, good and honest persons (if haply they were such) declaring how abominable he is, how dextenerate and unwoorthy of his parentage; but if they also were wicked, both he and they susteine so much more grievous punishment whiles he is tormented in seeing them, and they likewise in beholding him how he is punished a long time, even untill every one of his crimes and sinnes be dispatched and rid away with most dolourous and painfull torments, surpassing in sharpnesse and greatnesse, all corporall griefs, by how much a true vision indeed is more powerfull and effectuall than a vaine dreame or fantasticall illusion: whereupon, the wales, marks, scarres and cicatrices of sinne and vice remaine to be seene, in some more, in others lesse. But observe well (quoth he) and consider the divers colours of these soules of all sorts; for this blackish and foule duskish hew, is properly the tincture of avarice and niggardise; that which is deepe red and fierie, betokeneth cruelty and malice; whereas, if it stand much upon blew, it is a signe that there, intemperance and loosenesse in the use of pleasures, hath remained a long time, and will be hardly scowred off, for that it is a vile vice: but the violet colour and sweetish withall, proceedeth from envie, a venimous and poisoned colour, resembling the inke that commeth from the cuttle fish, for in life, vice when the saile is altered and changed by passions, and withall doth turne the body, putteth foorth sundry colours: but heere it is a signe that the purification of the soule is fully finished, when as all these tincttures are done away quite, whereby the soule may appeare in her native hew, all fresh, neat, cleare and lightsome: for so long as any one of these colours remaineth, there will be evermore some recidivation and returne of passions and affections, bringing certaine tremblings, beatings as it were of the pulse, and a panting in some but weake and feeble, which quickly staieth, and is soone extinguished; and in other more strong, quicke, and vehement: Now of these soules, some there be which after they have beene well and throughly chastised, and that sundry times, recover in the end a decent habitude and disposition; but others againe are such, as the vehemence of their ignoraunce, and the flattering shew of pleasures and lustfull desire, transporteth them into the bodies of brute beasts; for the feeblenesse and defect of their understanding, and their sloth and slacknesse to contemplate and discourse by reason, maketh them to incline and creepe to the active part of generation; but then they find and perceive them selves destitute of a lascivious organ or instrument, whereby they may be able to execute and have the fruition of their appetite, and therefore desire by the meanes of the bodie to enjoy the same: forasmuch as, here there is nothing at all but a bare shadow, and as one would say, a vaine dreame of pleasure, which never commeth to perfection and fulnesse. When hee had thus said, he brought and lead me away, most swiftly, an infinit way; howbeit, with ease, and gently, upon the raies of the light, as if they had beene wings, unto a certaine place, where there was a huge wide chinke, tending downward still, and thither being come, he perceived that he was forlorne and forsaken of that powerfull spirit that conducted and brought him thither; where he saw that other soules also were in the same case; for being gathered and flocked together like a sort of birds, they flie downward round about this gaping chawne, but enter into it directly they durst not; now the said chinke resembled for al the world within, the caves of Bacchus, so tapissed and adorned they were with the verdure of great leaves and branches, together with all varietie of gaie flowers, from whence arose and breathed foorth a sweet and milde exhalation, which yeelded a delectable and pleasant favour, woonderfull odoriferous, with a most temperate aire, which no lesse affected them that smelled thereof, than the sent of wine contenteth those who love to drinke: in such sort as the soules feeding and feasting themselves with these fragrant odors, were very cheerefull, jocund, and merrie; so as round about the said place, there was nothing but pastime, joy, solace, mirth, laughing and singing, much after the manner of men that rejoice one with another, and take all the pleasure and delight that possibly they can. And he said moreover, that Bacchus by that way mounted up into the societie of the gods, and afterwards conducted Semele; and withall, that it was called, theplace of Lethe, that is to saie, Oblivion: Whereupon he would not let Thespesius, though he were exceeding desirous, to stay there, but drew him away perforce; instructing him thus much; and giving him to understand, that reason and the intelligible part of the minde is dissolved, and as it were melted and moistened by this pleasure; but the unreasonable part which savoreth of the bodie, being watered and incarnate therewith, reviveth the memorie of the bodie; and upon this remembrance, there groweth and ariseth a lust and concupiscence, which haleth and draweth unto generation (for so he called it) to wit, a consent of the soule thereto, weighed downe and aggravated with overmuch moisture: Having therefore traversed another way as long as the other, he was ware that he saw a mightie standing boll, into which divers rivers seemed to fall and discharge themselves, whereof one was whiter than the some of the sea, or driven snow, another of purple hue or scarlet colour, like to that which appeereth in the raine bow; as for others, they seemed a farre off to have every one of them their distinct lustre, and severall tincture: But when they approched neere unto them, the foresaid boll, after that the aire about was discussed and vanished awaie, and the different colours of those rivers no more seene, left the more flourishing colour, except onely the white: Then he saw there three Dæmons or Angels, sitting together in triangular forme, medling and mixing the rivers together, with certaine measures. And this guid of Thespecius soule said morever, that Orpheus came so farre when he went after his wife; but for that he kept not well in minde, that which he there saw, he had sowen one false tale among men; to wit: That the oracle at Delphi was common to Apollo, and the Night, (for there was no commerce or fellowship at all betweene the night and Apollo) But this oracle (quoth he) is common to the moone and the night, which hath no determinate and certaine place upon the earth, but is alwaies errant and wandring among men, by dreames and apparitions; which is the reason that dreames compounded and mingled as you see, of falshood and truth, of varietie and simplicity, are spread and scattered over the world. But as touching the oracle of Apollo, neither have you seene it (quoth he) nor ever shalbe able to see; for the terrene substance or earthly part of the soule, is not permitted to arise & mount up on high, but bendeth downward, being fastened unto the bodie: And with that he approched at once neerer, endevoring to shew him the shining light of the threefeet of three-footed stoole, which (as he said) from the bosome of the goddesse Thenis, reached as farre as to the mount Pernasus: And having a great desire to see the same, yet he could not, his eies were so dazeled with the brightnesse thereof; howbeit, as he passed by, a loud and shrill voice he heard of a woman, who, among other things delivered in metre, uttered also as it should seeme by way of prophesie, the very time of his death: And the Dæmon said, it was the voice of Sibylla; for she being caried round in the globe and face of the moone, did foretell and sing what was to come; but being desirous to heare more, he was repelled and driven by the violence of the moone as it were with certaine whirle-puffes, cleane a contrarie way; so he could heare and understand but few things, and those very short; namely the accident about the hill *Vesuvius [margin note: Or Lesbius], and how Dicæarchia should be consumed and burnt by casuall fire, as also a clause or peece of a verse, as touching the emperour who then reigned, to this effect:

Agracious prince he is, but yet must die,

And empire leave by force of maladie.

After this they passed on forward to see the paines and torments of those who were punished; and there at first they beheld all things most piteous and horrible to see to; for Thespesius who doubted nothing lesse, mette in that place with many of his friends, kinsfolke, and familiar companions, who were in torment, and suffering dolorous paines, and infamous punishment, they moned themselves, lamenting, calling and crying unto him; at the last he had a sight of his owne father, rising out of a deepe pit, full he was of pricks, gashes, and wounds, and stretching foorth his hands unto him, was (mauger his heart) forced to breake silence, yea and compelled by those who had the charge and superintendence of the said punishments, to confesse with a loud and audible voice, that he had beene a wicked murderer of certaine strangers, and guests whom he had lodged in his house; for perceiving that they had silver and gold about them, he had wrought their death by the meanes of poison: and albeit he had not beene detected thereof in his life time, whiles he was upon the earth, yet here was he convicted and had susteined already part of his punishment, and expected to endure the rest afterwards. Now Thespesius durst not make sute nor intercede for his father, so affrighted he was and astonied; but desirous to withdraw himselfe and be gone, he lost the sight of that courteous and kind guide of his, which all this while had conducted him, and he saw him no more: but hee might perceive other horrible and hideous spirits, who enforced and constrained him to passe farther, as if it were necessarie that he should traverse still more ground: so he saw those who were notorious malefactours, in the view of every man (or who in this world had bene chastised) how their shadow was here tormented with lesse paine, and nothing like to others, as having bene feeble and imperfect in the reasonlesse part of the soule, and therefore subject to passions and affections; but such as were disguised and cloaked with an outward apparence and reputation of vertue abroad, and yet had lived covertly and secretly at home in wickednesse, certeine that were about them, forced some of them to turne the inside outward, and with much paine and griefe to lay themselves open, to bend and bow, and discover their hypocritall hearts within, even against their owne nature, like unto the scolopenders of the sea, when they have swallowed downe an hooke, are wont to turne themselves outward: but others they flaied and displaied, discovering plainly and openly, how faulty, perverse and vicious they had bene within, as whose principall part of the reasonable soule, vice had possessed. He said moreover, that he saw other souls wound and enterlaced one within another, two, three and more togither, like to vipers and other serpents, and these not forgetting their olde grudge and malicious ranker one against another, or upon remembrance of losses and wrongs susteined by others, fell to gnawing and devouring ech other. Also, that there were three parallel lakes ranged in equall distance one from the other; the one seething and boiling with golde, another of lead exceeding cold, and a third, most rough, consisting of yron: and that there were certeine spirits called Dæmons, which had the overlooking and charge of them; and these, like unto mettall-founders or smithes, with certeine instruments either plunged in, or els drew out, soules. As for those who were given to filthie lucre, and by reason of insatiable avarice, committed wicked parts, those they let downe into the lake of melted golde, and when they were once set on a light fire, and made transparent by the strength of those flames within the said lake, then plunged they were into the other of lead; where after they were congealed and hardened in maner of haile, they transported them anew into the third lake of yron, where they became exceeding blacke and horrible, and being crackt and broken, by reason of their drinesse and hardnesse, they changed their forme, and then at last (by his saying) they were throwen againe into the foresaid lake of gold, suffering by the meanes of these changes and mutations, intolerable paines. But those soules (quoth he) who made the greatest moane unto him, and seemed most miserably (of all others) to be tormented, were they, who thinking they were escaped and past their punishment, as who had suffered sufficiently for their deserts at the hands of vengeance, were taken againe, and put to fresh torments; and those they were, for whose sinnes their children and others of their posteritie suffered punishment: for whensoever one of the soules of these children or nephewes in lineall descent, either met with them, or were brought unto them, the same fell into a fit of anger, crying out upon them, shewing the marks of the torments and paines that it susteined, reproching and hitting them in the teeth therefore; but the other making haste to flie and hide themselves, yet were not able so to doe; for incontinently the tormentors followed after and pursued them, who brought them backe againe to their punishment, crying out, and lamenting for nothing so much, as that they did foresee the torment which they were to suffer, as having experience thereof alreadie. Furthermore, he said that he saw some, and those in number many, either children or nephewes, hanging together fast, like bees or bats, murmuring and grumbling for anger, when they remembred and called to minde what sorrowes and calamities they susteined for their sake. But the last thing that he saw, were the soules of such as entred into a second life and new nativitie, as being turned and transformed forcibly into other creatures of all sorts, by certeine workemen appointed therefore, who with tooles for the purpose and many a stroake, forged and framed some of their parts new, bent and wrested others, tooke away and abolished a third sort; and all, that they might sort and be sutable to other conditions and lives: among which he espied the soule of Nero afflicted already grievously enough otherwise, with many calamities, pierced thorow every part with spikes and nailes red hote with fire: and when the artisans aforesaid tooke it hand to transforme it into the shape of a viper, of which kind (as Pindarus saith) the yong ones gnaweth thorow the bowels of the dam to come into the world, and to deuoure it, he said that all on a sudden there shone forth a great light, out of which there was heard a voice giving commandement that they should metamorphoze and transfigure it into the forme of another kinde of beast, more tame and gentle, forging a water creature of it, chanting about standing lakes and marishes; for that he had bene in some sort punished already for the sinnes which hee had committed, and besides, some good turne is due unto him from the gods, in that of all his subjects, he had exempted from taxe, tallage and tribute, the best nation and most beloved of the gods, to wit, the Greeks. Thuse farre foorth, he said, he was onely a spectatour of these matters; but when he was upon his returne, he abid all the paines in the world, for very feare that he had; for there was a certaine woman, for visage and stately bignesse, admirable, who tooke holde on him, and said: Come hither, that thou maiest keepe in memorie all that thou hast seene, the better: wherewith she put forth unto him a little rod or wand all sierie, such as painters or enamellers use, but there was another that staied her; and then he might perceive himselfe to be blowen by a strong and violent winde with a trunke or pipe, so that in the turning of an hand he was within his owne bodie againe, and so began to looke up with his eies in maner, out of his grave and sepulchre.

This entry was published on the seventh day of June 2021.