CONTENTS
PREFACE. P. [xi].
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION. General view of the subject, [1]—The ancient beliefs: after life in the tomb, [3]—in the nether world, [4]—Philosophical criticism, [5]—Academic and Peripatetic schools, [6]—Epicureans, [7]—Stoics, [12]—Scepticism at the end of the Republic, [16]—Earthly immortality, [19]—Rebirth of Pythagorism, [20]—Its teaching, [24]—Posidonius, [27]—Cicero, [31]—Diffusion of the mysteries, [33]—Hermetic writings and Chaldean oracles, [38]—Plutarch, [39]—The second and third centuries, [39]—Neo-Platonism, [40]—Conclusion, [43].
I. AFTER LIFE IN THE TOMB. Survival of primitive beliefs, [44]—After life of the body, [45]—The tomb “eternal house,” [48]—Food for the dead, [50]—Sacrifices, [51]—Funeral meals, [52]—Gardens, [56]—Connection of the dead with the living, [57]—The aerial souls, [59]—Beneficent, [60]—or Malevolent, [63]—Souls of the unburied, [64]—Become ghosts, [67].
II. THE NETHER WORLD. Belief in the nether world, [70]—After life prolongation of earthly life, [72]—Greek doctrines introduced into Italy, [73]—Philosophical criticism, [76]—Hades transported to this life, [78]—Distinction of “soul” and shade, [79]—Hades is the lower hemisphere, [79]—Hades in the air, [81]—Scepticism, [83]—Persistence of old tradition in literature and art, [84]—Ancient beliefs maintained in the people, [86]—Neo-Platonists, [87]—Persian dualism, [89].
III. CELESTIAL IMMORTALITY. Widespread beliefs that souls rise to the stars, [91]—Unknown in ancient Greece, [94]—Pythagorism, [95]—Lunar immortality, [96]—Solar immortality, [100]—Combination of both, [102]—Stellar immortality, [103]—Combined with the other doctrines: three stages, [106]—Passage through the planetary spheres, [107]—Souls rise above the stars, [108].
IV. THE WINNING OF IMMORTALITY. Ancient conception of immortality, [110]—Eminent men gods on earth, [111]—Immortality of the few, [114]—Mysteries claim to procure “deification,” [116]—Lustrations, [118]—Unctions, [119]—Ritual banquets, [120]—The gnosis, [121]—Identification with a particular god, [122]—Illumination by the astral divinities, [123]—Philosophy also leads to union with God, [124].
V. UNTIMELY DEATH. Children not admitted to the Elysian Fields, [128]—Those who die violent deaths, [129]—Influence of astrology, [131]—Pythagorism, [132]—Magic, [134]—Philosophical reaction, [136]—Children initiated, [138]—Their souls rise to heaven, [139]—Different categories of biothanati, [141]—Soldiers slain in battle, [142]—Suicides, [143]—Executed criminals, [145]—Persistence of ancient beliefs, [146].
VI. THE JOURNEY TO THE BEYOND. Journey to the nether world, [148]—The Pythagorean Y, [150]—The two roads, [152]—How the dead reach heaven, [153]—On foot, by means of a ladder, [153]—In a boat, [154]—On horseback, [155]—In a chariot, [156]—As a bird, [157]—Carried by an eagle, [158]—Solar attraction, [160]—Physical theory, [161]—The air peopled with demons, [162]—The gates of the planetary spheres, [162]—Guide of the souls, [163]—Physical character of the dead, [164]—The shade and the soul, [167]—Distinction of soul and reason, [168]—Neo-Platonic “vehicle,” [169].
VII. THE SUFFERINGS OF HELL AND METEMPSYCHOSIS. Origin in Homer, [170]—Orphic theology, [171]—Resemblance to penal law, [172]—Apocryphal gospel of Peter, [173]—Oriental influence, [174]—Fire of hell, [175]—Metempsychosis, its animistic basis, [177]—Origin in Greece, [177]—Souls passing continuously through different kinds of beings, [179]—Reincarnation a punishment, [180]—“Palingenesis” or uncontinuous reincarnation, [182]—Transmigration from man to man, [183]—Purification of the soul in the air, [184]—by water and fire, [185]—Purgatory in the atmosphere, [186]—The purified spirit remains in heaven, [187].
VIII. THE FELICITY OF THE BLESSED. Rest in the tomb, [190]—in the nether world, [193]—in the light of heaven, [193]—Persistence of these ideas among the Christians, [196]—Repast of the dead, [199]—Repast in the nether world, [201]—The funeral banquet and the sacred meal of the mysteries, [203]—Banquet in heaven, [205]—Persistence in Christianity, [206]—The sight of the god, [207]—In the astral cults, [208]—Communion of man with the stars, [209]—Immortality a contemplation of the astral gods, [210]—Astral mysticism, [211]—Ecstasy of the Neo-Platonists, [212]—Last conception of eternal bliss, [213].
INDEX. P. [215].