Did the Ancient Greeks Believe in Reincarnation?

Reincarnation was a tradition among the ancient Greeks, similar to other beliefs about the afterlife. Ancient Greek poets and prose writers expressed the view that the souls of the dead would be reborn in new bodies after death. But was the popular attitude toward this belief?

Homeric afterlife and mythology

In Homer’s epics, The Iliad and The Odyssey, we read about the popular perceptions of the afterlife among the ancient Greeks. Homer suggests that, besides their mortal bodies, humans have separate souls. These souls reside in Hades once their bodies perish. In Greek mythology, Hades refers both to the underworld, where souls go after death and to the deity who rules over that realm.

In this underworld, the god Pluto reigns over the dead. According to The Odyssey, great and terrifying rivers flow through the underworld: Styx, the river of hatred, Cocytus, the river of sorrow, Acheron, the river of sadness, and Phlegethon, the river of fire. The ferryman Charon transports the dead across the Acheron to the Acherusian lake at the entrance.

Near the slope and the steel gate stands Aeacus, who is responsible for guard duty. Beside him is a three-headed dog, Cerberus, who guards the gate and allows entry to souls.

After crossing the lake, the dead reach a vast meadow full of asphodel. There they encounter the fountain of Lethe, which erases memory. Its name means “River of Forgetfulness.” Two judges are appointed here: Minos with his golden scepter and Rhadamanthys, both sons of Zeus. In another tradition mentioned by Plato, Rhadamanthys judges those coming from Asia while Aeacus, who is also present, judges those from Europe. Minos handles cases that are particularly severe and require more thorough investigation.

There are many realms within Hades, including the Elysian Fields and Tartarus. The righteous and virtuous are sent to the Elysian Fields, while the unjust face punishments in Tartarus.

A good or a bad afterlife only for the few

Even though this concept became popularized during the Classical period to include even common people, this was not the case in Homer’s time. Homer describes tormented souls lamenting in Cocytus and Phlegethon, but Tartarus and the Elysian Fields do not appear to be intended for ordinary people.

In the epics, Tartarus is the place where Cronus, the Titans, and other entities such as the Furies reside; and Elysium is where heroes, demigods, and immortals dwell. Even in Tartarus, it is only a select few demigods like Tantalus, Sisyphus, and Ixion who suffer punishments. This is why, in the Odyssey, Odysseus wonders why he sees so few souls in Tartarus and not wretched men like Thersites.

Common folk who led average lives drink from the waters of Lethe. Once they drink from this water, they lose their memories and consciousness, ending up in an impersonal, shadowy existence. They wander through the meadow of asphodels without their bodies, having become mere shadows, and eventually fade away like smoke (as was the case with Patroclus in the Iliad).

In other words, in the Mycenaean and Homeric world, there is little room for the survival of one’s personality after death. There is also no mention of reincarnation. The only exceptions are figures like Tiresias, whose consciousness endures post-mortem, as well as heroes and demigods who have earned immortality. Afterlife happiness is not certain even for heroic souls, as Homer has Achilles remark that he would rather be a slave among the living than a king among the dead.

Palingenesia: ancient Greek totemic reincarnation

The notion of personal survival and reincarnation after death was absent in the pre-Classical period of ancient Greece. There was however, a tradition that included some form of genealogical survival.

According to Jane Harrison, it was a common belief that gods and demons presided over the lives of the ancient Greeks. From the city to the tribe to the family, all parts of Greek social life shared in the providence of demons. Demons endowed their charges with aerial elements and fiery spirits, and these, when connected with the life-giving element of blood, provided life. Thus, through the bloodline, the spirit of the group was believed to endure.

As Harrison explains: “The myths of the heroes of Athens, from Cecrops to Theseus, portray them as kings, that is, as functionaries, and, in primitive times, these functionaries assume a snake form. The daimon-functionary represents the permanent life of the group. The individual dies, but the group and its incarnation—the king—survive. Le roi est mort, vive le roi. From these two facts, of group permanency and individual death, arose the notion of reincarnation, or palingenesia.”

Ancient traditions about palingenesia

Harrison adds that this concept explains the Anthesteria, an ancient Athenian festival in which women invoked the ghosts of the dead.

Proclus also expresses a similar organic perspective on reincarnation:

“Cities, families, and clans are unified living entities with distinct lives of their own. Each city and family is guarded by a patron deity and a family god, respectively, and there is a shared cycle for both the city and family that binds their lives and customs. Thus, the life of a city or family functions as a single whole, which is why the sins of ancestors can bring punishment upon descendants, with descendants bearing the penalty that the entire family must endure. Because souls undergo reincarnations, the soul of a descendant may be the soul of an ancestor, being punished for sins committed in a previous life.”

Orphic and Eleusinian tradition

Such views, according to Proclus, were first expressed by Orpheus. According to a fragment of a poem attributed to Orpheus, he is quoted as saying: “The same fathers and sons in households, as well as graceful wives, mothers, and daughters, become each other through births.”

Orpheus, however, claims that he was the first among the ancient Greeks to argue for a more personal survival and reincarnation of one’s soul. Plato, Isocrates, Diodorus Siculus, and other ancient Greek sources attribute the rites of Eleusis to Orpheus, even though his disciple Museaus, as well as Cecrops, also received credit for establishing them.

The Eleusinian initiates would learn about the “truth of reincarnation” through the myth of the Rape of Persephone by Hades.

The myth of Persephone

According to the myth, Demeter, the goddess of seeds and the flora of the earth, had a daughter, Persephone. She was a goddess who was always close to flowers, giving them beauty as she flew from one to another, like a butterfly. Her beauty surpassed all others in this world and gave life to all flora.

Hades fell in love with her, as he could never exist without her. One day, as she bent down to pick a beautiful flower, the earth opened up, and Hades emerged in his horse-drawn chariot. She cried out, but he carried her off into the depths of the earth.

Great sorrow fell upon her mother, who cried out seeking her lost daughter. Seeds and flora would no longer flourish upon the earth. Flowers and trees withered away. Winter, with its snow and ice, covered the surface of all lands. Hearing the cries and anguish of her mother, Persephone wanted to escape Hades and return to her.

She managed to escape Hades and return to the earth, finding Demeter. Her mother hugged her with all the love and affection a mother could have for her daughter. Tears of happiness fell upon the earth. The sun rose again, warmth returned, and the earth flourished once more. But Hades still yearned for her and wanted her back. She pleaded with her mother, arguing that the dead also needed the beauty of her flourishing to exist.

Zeus makes a deal with Hades—the myth is an allegory for reincarnation

Hades decided to make a deal with Persephone’s father, Zeus. Persephone would spend six months with her mother on earth. The other six months she would go to the underworld with him. However, he couldn’t do this by force. It would only work if she fell in love with him.

He appeared to her again in the form of a young, beautiful man and offered her a fruit: a pomegranate. Once she ate it, she fell deeply in love with him and decided to follow him. Thus, for six months, Persephone would be close to her mother, and for the other six months, she would be with Hades among the dead. The first six months were called spring and summer, and the other six, autumn and winter.

Her abduction is an allegory of the cycle of nature. The descent of the maiden into the underworld each autumn is equated with the absence of fruits, which return in the spring with her ascent. However, since animals and humans also have a cycle of life, this also implies their return to life after death.

According to Pythagoras, a proponent of reincarnation, human life is divided into seasons: spring represents childhood, summer represents young adulthood, autumn represents middle age, and winter represents old age. It follows that after winter, old age and death, spring returns, and so does life.

The myth represents reincarnation

This perspective of the myth represents reincarnation as the ancient Greeks perceived it in the organic sense. But it also illustrates it in the individual sense. Since life has its spring (birth and youth) and reaches its winter (elderly years and death), it follows that it will return to a new spring (birth) again.

The Eleusinian mysteries would suggest that, apart from the mortal, perishable parts of our souls, humans carry immortal souls that come from Persephone, and that we live in this world as we would in Hades. In this way, our immortal souls are imprisoned in this world and will live many lives until they are free again.

Pythagoras also shared this view. He believed that our bodies are the tombs of our souls and need to be freed from the cycle of reincarnation.

The Orphic tablet showing how the Orphics prepared for the afterlife

In an Orphic tablet, we read how the Orphics prepared the dead for the trial of the afterlife. In the Petelia Golden Tablet, we find the following:

“You will find a spring on your left in Hades’ halls, and by it the cypress with its luminous sheen. Do not go near this spring or drink its water. You will find another, cold water flowing from Memory’s lake; its guardians stand before it.

Say: ‘I am a child of Earth and starry Heaven, but descended from Heaven; you yourselves know this. I am parched with thirst and dying: quickly, give me the cool water flowing from Memory’s lake.’ And they will give you water from the sacred spring, and then you will join the heroes at their rites. This is the … of Memory: On the point of death, write this, the darkness folding you within it.”

In the beginning, the rites of Eleusis (like the Orphic mysteries) were reserved only for the priests of Demeter. However, with the conquest of Eleusis in the 7th century by the Athenians, the rites became more popular. Along with them the idea of personal reincarnation also became common.

It became so popular that poets like Pindar would write that the souls would be free from reincarnation. This would happen after they had remained free from faults for three consecutive lifetimes.

Socrates and Plato try to revive the tradition of reincarnation

The idea of reincarnation has very ancient roots in Greek tradition. The common view perceived it in a more impersonal way, while esoteric mysteries provided the grounds for a more personal survival of the soul after death.

Until the archaic period, this perception was more “elitist,” in that survival was only for a few initiates. The opening of the Eleusinian mysteries and the Orphic rites made the idea of personal survival after death more popular. At the same time, during the 5th century, various philosophical traditions tended to be critical of that view. Among them were the views of Democritus and the Sophists.

It is this tradition that Plato and Socrates try to re-establish. Plato would have Socrates, before his final hours, attempt to demonstrate to his friends that the soul does not perish but returns to new bodies. However, Cebes, in his reply to Socrates, would claim that very few people would believe his words. This demonstrates that, at this time in ancient Athens, the idea of reincarnation had fallen into discredit among many people.