"Ἐν δὲ [τε] τεθνειοῖσιν ὁμηγύρι [έσ] γε πέλουσιν
δοιαί· τῶν ἑτέρη μὲν ἐπιχθονίη πεφόρηται,
ἡ δ' ἑτέρη τείρεσσι σὺν αἰθερίοισι χορεύει,
ἠς στρατιῆς εἶς εἰμί, λαχὼν θεὸν ἡγεμονῆα."
It is the same term that Julian used (Césars, p. 336 C) in speaking of Mithra, the guide of souls: ἡγεμόνα θεόν. Cf. also infra, n. [66] and ch. VIII, n. [24].
[64]. The Babylonian origin of the doctrine that the souls returned to heaven by crossing the seven planetary spheres, has been maintained by Anz (Zur Frage nach dem Ursprung des Gnostizismus, 1897; cf. Mon. myst. Mithra, I. pp. 38 ff., p. 309; Bousset, Die Himmelsreise der Seele [Archiv für Religionsw., IV], 1901, pp. 160 ff.) and "Gnosis" in Pauly-Wissowa, Realencyclopädie, col. 1520. It has since been denied by Reitzenstein (Poimandres, p. 79; cf. Kroll, Berl. philol. Wochensch.,
1906, p. 486). But although it may have been given its precise shape and been transformed by the Greeks and even by the Egyptians, I persist in believing that it is of Chaldean and religious origin. I heartily agree with the conclusions recently formulated by Bousset, (Göttingische gelehrte Anzeigen, 1905, pp. 707 ff.). We can go farther: Whatever roots it may have had in the speculations of ancient Greece (Aristoph., Pax, 832, Plato, Tim., 42B, cf. Haussoullier, Rev. de philol., 1909, pp. 1 ff.), whatever traces of it may be found in other nations (Dieterich, Mithrasliturgie, pp. 182 ff.; Nekyia, p. 24, note; Rohde, Psyche, II, p. 131, n. 3), the idea itself of the soul rising to the divine stars after death certainly developed under the influence of the sidereal worship of the Semites to a point where it dominated all other eschatological theories. The belief in the eternity of souls is the corollary to the belief in the eternity of the celestial gods (p. 129). We cannot give the history of this conception here, and we shall limit ourselves to brief observations. The first account of this system ever given at Rome is found in "Scipio's Dream" (c. 3); it probably dates back to Posidonius of Apamea (cf. Wendland, Die hellenistisch-römische Kultur, p. 85, 166, n. 3, 168, n. 1), and is completely impregnated with mysticism and astrolatry. The same idea is found a little later in the astrologer Manilius (I, 758; IV, 404, etc.). The shape which it assumed in Josephus (Bell. Judaic., V, 1, 5, § 47) is also much more religious than philosophical and is strikingly similar to a dogma of Islam (happiness in store for those dying in battle; a Syrian [ibid., § 54] risks his life that his soul may go to heaven). This recalls the inscription of Antiochus of Commagene (Michel, Recueil, No. 735, l. 40):
Σῶμα πρὸς οὐρανίους Διὸς Ὠρομάσδου θρόνους θεοφιλῆ ψυχὴν προπέμψαν εἰς τὸν ἄπειρον αἰῶνα κοιμήσεται.
It must be said that this sidereal immortality was not originally common to all men; it was reserved "omnibus qui patriam conservaverint adiuverint, auxerint" (Somn. Scip. c. 3, c. 8; cf. Manil., I, 758; Lucan, Phars., IX, 1 ff.; Wendland, op. cit., p. 85 n. 2), and this also is in conformity with the oldest Oriental traditions. The rites first used to assure immortality to kings and to make them the equals of the gods were extended little by little as a kind of privilege, to the important
persons of the state, and only very much later were they applied to all who died.