Plato’s Remythologizing of the Afterlife: Souls’ Voyage and Consciousness in the Myth of Er
APEIRON: a journal for ancient philosophy and science April 1, 2026 Claudia Zatta
Abstract This essay examines how Plato’s myth of Er responds to the Homeric vision of the afterlife with a focus on the concept of the soul’s consciousness. Engaging with Socrates’ critique of traditional poetry in Books 3 and 10, it offers a philosophical interpretation of Er’s account, highlighting the continuity of the soul between its embodied and disembodied states. In this framework,...