Myth of Er
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The Myth of Er is an analogy used in Plato's Republic. It is mentioned at the end of the last of the ten books in The Republic.
With the analogy, Plato seems to have been attempting to introduce the concept that morally good people should be rewarded after death, and morally bad people should be punished after death. These rewards and punishments are self granted or inflicted.
Within the dialogue Socrates introduces it by telling the interlocutors of the "Myth of Er." In this story, a man named Er dies and sees the judgment of the dead, and the reward of the morally good after a one thousand year journey, and at the same time punishment of the bad. Er is returned to life, to report what he has seen.
At the end of the myth each character chooses a new life for their next life and Odysseus prefers a life of an ordinary citizen.
This section of the Republic is particularly significant in that it is one of the first extant texts to deal with the issue of responsibility and choice concerning personal action, which is become one of the central questions of Western philosophy.
Comparing something to a "Myth of Er" is saying that it began a new series of thought or action where there was none before, and all others can be traced back to it.
See also
| Concepts of Heaven | |
|---|---|
| Christian | Kingdom of Heaven | Empyrean | Eden | Paradise | Pearly gates | New Jerusalem | Celestial Kingdom |
| Islam | Jannah | Houri | Sidrat al-Muntaha |
| Greek mythology | Elysium | Hesperides | Arcadia | The Form of the Good |
| Northern Mythology | Valhalla | Avalon | Annwn | Mag Mell | Tir nan Og |
| Mythology | Tomoanchan | Aaru | Summerland | Myth of Er |
| Fiction | Aman Valinor | Neverland | Divine Comedy | What Dreams May Come | Shangri-La |
| Related concepts | Utopia | Millennialism | Utopianism | Christian anarchism | Golden age | Afterlife |
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