Judges in Hades from Homer to Plato

Abstract

Chapter 8 explores the origins of the concept of post-mortem judgement in the Greek world, which Benarbé argues attains a position of prominence originally in the dialogues of Plato. Although not without precedent entirely in the earlier literary tradition, and continually presented as a traditional idea by Socrates himself, Benarbé demonstrates that references to post-mortem judgement before Plato are infrequent, inconsistent, and inconspicuous. Benarbé provides considerable illumination to this topic through firstly collating the fragmentary claims concerning post-mortem judgement before Plato, secondly noting the different, and often conflicting ways in which such material is deployed throughout the dialogues; and thirdly demonstrating how the theme is adapted to suit the dialectic requirements of the particular dialogues.