L'antiquit classique

Plato's Myth of Er : the Light and the Spindle

Griet Schils

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Schils Griet. Plato's Myth of Er : the Light and the Spindle. In: L'antiquit classique, Tome 62, 1993. pp. 101-114;
doi : 10.3406/antiq.1993.1163
http://www.persee.fr/doc/antiq_0770-2817_1993_num_62_1_1163
Document gnr le 31/03/2016

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Plato's Myth of Er : The Light and the Spindle

Plato's myth of Er, in Book Ten of the Republic, gives us an
account of the journey of souls in the world hereafter, as witnessed by
Er. The judges of the underworld tell Er to report his experiences back to
the living. In the first phase of this journey, immediately after death, the
souls are judged on the basis of their previous lives : the good ones are
sent to heaven, the bad ones to the underworld (614 - 616 ). But this
is not the end of the story. Er also witnesses the return of some souls
from heaven as well as from the underworld. In the second phase of
their wanderings the souls choose a new life in order to be reincarnated
(617 D - 621 D).
The scene I want to focus upon functions as a transition between
the two phases of the process : after their return from heaven and
underworld, on their way to the spot where the choice of a new life will
take place, the souls catch a glimpse of the structure of the universe in a
magnificent cosmic view (616 - 617 D). It is Plato's description of
this view that has kept many a commentator puzzled as to its exact
meaning.
The following suggestions for the visualization of the scene are a
renewed attempt to interpret it as a plausible picture1. Against Adam2,
the authoritative commentary on the issue, I argue, using some
information from Proclus3, which apparently has been ignored up until
now, and some archaeological evidence, that the light and the spindle
can be seen as a coherent image and that we do not necessarily need to
suppose deliberate obscurity on Plato's part. In the hypothesis I would
like to present, the souls are on an intermediate level between heaven and
underworld, somewhere above the surface of the earth, in the middle of
the light. The shaft of the spindle runs through the vertical part of the
1 A. RlVAUD,Le systme astronomique de Platon, in Revue d'Histoire et de
Philosophie, 2, 1 (1928), p. 8-14, develops the highly original, though not entirely
convincing, hypothesis that Plato actually had a planetary model in mind when writing
this scene.
2 J. Adam, The Republic of Plato, edited with Critical Notes, Commentary and
Appendices, (Cambridge-London-New York, 1963) [first edition 1902]. I use his text for
the Greek.
3 Prodi Diadochi in Platonis Rem Publicam Commentarii, ed. G. Kroll, II (Leipzig,
1901); cf. also A.J. FESTUGIRE, Proclus, commentaire sur la Rpublique, tome 3,
dissertations 15-17 (Rp. 10), Paris, 1970.

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G. SCHILS

light, which represents the axis of the universe; and the spindle itself is
attached with its hook to the ends of the ligaments of the light, at the
north pole of the universe. The whorls of the spindle represent either the
upper or the lower hemisphere of the universe, not including the earth.
On the basis of the evidence which I gathered, I would opt for the upper
hemisphere.
In favor of this interpretation is the fact that, after all, the cosmic
view is explicitly meant to be seen by Er and the souls, and there does
seem to be a clear implication that we too, the readers, should be able to
imagine it, to see it with our imaginative eyes. The entire description of
the souls' journey relies heavily on sensible and in particular visible
features. The judges assign to Er the task of being a good witness, that
is of listening and watching attentively (614 D). Even the moral
message of the story is conveyed through visual symbols : after their
respective journey in the underworld and in heaven, the bad souls are
covered with dirt, the good ones are shining and clean (614 D-); indeed
symbols to be read by everybody who wants to see4. The main purpose
of this paper is to prove that the obscurity of the description, which
stands in sharp contrast to its minute detail, is only apparent and not real,
and that it does not render the scene unimaginable.
Before dealing with any particular issue, it might be helpful to take
a look at the structure of the passage as a whole :
1) the light, up to 616 C.
2) the spindle, up to 617 D.
a) general description, up to 616 E.
b) characteristics of the rims of the whorls, up to 617 B.
- width, up to 616 E.
- color, up to 617 A.
- movement, up to 617 .
c) Sirens; Ananke and the Fates, up to 617 D.
I will concentrate on the question of how the light and the spindle
are supposed to fit together (up to 616 E), and thus I will leave out the
details of the whorls as well as the divinities. What needs to be
considered first, is the perspective from which the cosmos is being
observed here, in other words the position of the witnesses (the souls
and Er). Here is how that position is described :
4 O. BRENDEL, Symbolik der Kugel, in Mitteilungen des Deutschen Archologischen
Instituts, Rmische Abteilung, 51 (1936), p. 53 who accepts Adam's interpretation,
renders the paradox of this viewpoint as follows : Stellt man aber die
kunstgeschichtliche Frage nach der Darstellbarkeit dieses Bildes, das in der dichterischen
Schilderung so aussergewhnlich fassbar, detailreich und vollkommen als Beschreibung
einer wahrhaften Vision sich aufbaut, so bleibt allerdings die Antwort aus..

PLATO'S MYTH OF ER : THE LIGHT AND THE SPINDLE

103

,
,

, ... (616 1-5)
When each group had remained on the meadow seven days, they were
required to leave on the eighth and resume their journey. After four days they
arrived at a point where they could see a light straight as a pillar stretching
through heaven and earth...5
The modern hypotheses for the position of the souls fall under
three main categories : 1) far above and outside the universe, 2) below
the surface of the earth and 3) on an intermediate level between heaven
and earth. The last hypothesis does in fact allow for a margin of
movement on the part of the souls, either ascending or descending :
there is, as it were, enough room between heaven and earth for the scene
to take place in this realm.
After descending from heaven and ascending from the
underworld, wherever the judges had sent them, the souls gather in a
meadow, in an intermediate region, above the surface of the earth (614 D
6 - 3, and the beginning of the quoted passage). The meadow itself is
on the same level as the where the preceding
judgement took place :
1) (phase 1, the judgement) ...
, '

, ... (614 C 1-4)6
... journeying to a mysterious place. Here he saw two openings in the earth
next to one another, and directly above each of them two other openings
reaching into heaven. Judges sat between them.
2) (phase 2, the return from heaven and underworld)...
[] ...,
... !

5 The translations are from R. Sterling and W. Scott, Plato, the Republic, a new
Translation (New York - London, 1985). I opted for this translation because it is neutral
about some of the critical issues I want to discuss. Here and there I made some
modifications (in italics).
6 J. ADAM, p. 435, perceives the place of judgement and the meadow as being
located on the real surface of the earth (the Phaedo notion).

104

G. SCHILS
...
... (614 D 6 - 3)
As for the other pair of openings, souls emerged from the earth below...
while those from the one above descended... All those in the constant flow of
arrivals looked as though they had been on a long journey. With delight they
went to rest in the (translation has a) meadow...

3) (phase 2, after seven days on the meadow) 616 1-5, cf.

passage cited supra).
Proponents of the first and second hypothesis outlined above
assume that the travelling souls leave the intermediate level of judgement
place and meadow for a second time. The passage with which we started
(616 1-5), however, does not support these views7. The only word
used to describe the movement of the souls is , which is
completely neutral as to the direction of the movement (as in 621 A 2).
Boeckh8 defended the first hypothesis on the basis of . But
again, there is nothing in this verb which would indicate such a drastic
ascent of the souls as Boeckh needs for his claim. The intermediate level
allows the souls to look down, if, indeed, this is what they are doing.
Adam argues for the second hypothesis, and more precisely for a
position in the center of the earth9. His argument is based on the fact that
a little further in the text the souls are said to be in the middle of the
light (616 C 1), which Adam reads as being the mathematical middle
between the two poles of the universe, its center where the earth is
located. As I will point out, this interpretation is in itself questionable,
and as to the other supporting evidence for the hypothesis, it mainly
amounts to a passage at the end of the myth (621 2-3) :

...
Suddenly they were carried off, each in a different way, up to their births,
like shooting stars.

7 As noted by Th.L. Heath, Aristarchus of Samos, the Ancient Copernicus. A

History of Greek Astronomy [...], Oxford, 1913, p. 151; cf. also Proclus, 188, 6 - 190,
27.
8 His point of view is discussed by J. ADAM, p. 470-471 .
9 J. ADAM, p. 445; Cf. also J.W. DONALDSON, On Plato's Cosmical Systems as
Exhibited in the Tenth Book of the Republic, in Transactions of the Cambridge
Philosophical Society, 10 (1864), p. 305-316.

PLATO'S MYTH OF ER : THE LIGHT AND THE SPINDLE

105

An intermediate level between heaven and earth, however, would also

allow for a rush upwards, right before reincarnation. I see no reason,
then, why we should rule out the possibility that there is a strong
continuity between the two major parts of the narrative : in this phase of
the story the souls stay on the same level as the one where the previous
judgement took place, somewhere between heaven and earth.
The in passage 616 1-5, as Adam points out,
determines both & and . The souls see a light which
is stretched through heaven and earth, and this might imply that they are
following it with the eye as it stretches downwards from above. It is
important for the rest of my argument that this passage does not a priori
and necessarily fix the gaze of the souls downwards only.
Now that I have defined the position of the souls, we can turn to
the light itself. What is this mysterious light? Its main function is to hold
the universe together ( 616 C 2). It has linear features :
, ...
which represent it as the vertical axis of the universe10, but the
comparison with a rainbow on the other hand seems to indicate that it is
circular :
... (616 5-6).
And then the light is also compared to trireme-girds, an enigmatic
comparison for modern readers, because we still do not know how
exactly those girds function, in spite of some recent hypotheses on the
issue 11
10 The comparison between the axis of the universe and a column goes back to
literary descriptions of Atlas's task, according to H. RICHARDSON, The Myth of Er (Plato,
Republic, 616 B), in Classical Quarterly, 20 (1926), p. 129-131, and E. TlCHE, Atlas als
Personifikation der Weltachse, in Museum Helveticum, 2 (1945), p. 80-81. Mircea Eliade
(The Sacred and the Profane, the Nature of Religion, San Diego-New York -London, 1959,
p. 34-36) shows that the cosmic pillars are a very widely disseminated cosmological
image, found in a variety of periods and cultures.
* * Proclus says the girds are made of wood (200, 25-26), but it is now generally
accepted, however, that the trireme-girds are reinforcing ropes. H. Richardson (n. 10),
p. 115-116, nn.; and J. ADAM, p. 445-446 give a summary of different hypotheses. - Cf.
also F. BREWSTER, The Hypozomata of Ancient Ships, in Harvard Studies in Classical
Philology, 34 (1923), p. 63 ff.; he gives an extensive account of the sources. - For more
recent information on the subject, cf. J. Morrison-R.Williams, Greek Oared Ships, 900322 B.C., Cambridge, 1968; L. CASSON, Ships and Seamanship in the Ancient World,
Princeton, 1971; J. MORRISON-J. Coates, The Athenian Trireme, the History and
Reconstruction of an Ancient Greek Warship, Cambridge-London-New York, 1986. On

106

G. SCHILS
,
, (616 C 2-3)
... for the light was what bound together the rotations of heaven in the
same way that the undergirders support a trireme.

In which direction do the girds run? Are they circular, and do they run
on the outside, around the ship? Are they linear, and do they run across
the ship? Is the word - meant to be taken in its strict sense?
The discussion goes back to Antiquity12.
Adam claims the light to be BOTH circular and linear, and gives the
following drawing13 :

Fig. 1 . Girds.
As to the apparent circular features, Jowett and Campbell14 note
that the comparison with the rainbow might only apply to the intensity
and not to the shape of the light :
\ , ... (616
6)
And if this is the case, then there is no explicit evidence left in the text, if we leave aside the enigmatic , - indicating that Plato
envisaged the light as being circular.
Whatever the answer to the problem of the girds is, we still can
imagine a plausible picture of the combination of light and spindle. On
page 170-172 this book claims that the rope ran from stern to stem and back again within
the hull. There is no need to assume, however, that the spindle necessarily must be
attached to the braces, which regulate the tension of the rope, in the middle of the
.
12 Cf. A.J. FestugiRE, p. 141, n. 2 : Numenius of Apamea adhered to the
hypothesis of the Milky Way; Theon of Smyrna probably to the one of the axis of the
universe.
13 J. Adam, p. 443.
14 Plato's Republic. The Greek Text Edited with Notes and Essays [...], Ill (Oxford,
1894), p. 473.

PLATO'S MYTH OF ER : THE LIGHT AND THE SPINDLE

107

the basis of the comparison with a column ( ), which we can

reasonably assume to be standing upright, I consider as given that the
light is located in the vertical plane.
If we move on to the next component of the picture, then we notice
that the spindle of Necessity is attached to the light :
' ,.., (616 C 4)
The spindle of Necessity was firmly fastened to the (translation has these)
ends...
About which ends is this passage talking? Most probably the ends
of the ligaments of which the light consists15 :
(sic Adam)

(616 6 - C 1)
Another day's journey brought them to the center of the light/There they
saw the ends of the bindings [of the light] stretched from heaven...
If we are to visualize the picture as a whole, we must understand
where the ends of the ligaments are situated. First of all, there is a
striking parallel between this passage about the ends of the ligaments and
the first definition of the position of the souls :
1) / / /
, ... (616 4-5)
2) / / /
(616B7-C1)
If we want to maintain any consistency in our interpretation at all,
given the parallel, then we have to assume that just as needs to
be connected with both and , so also
supposedly determines both and 16.
Adam's interpretation assumes that 1) refers
to the mathematical middle between the two poles of the universe, that 2)
it applies to both the position of the souls and to the ends of the
ligaments; following from 1 and 2 that a) the souls are in the center of
the universe, which is the center of the earth, and b) the spindle as well
15 can refer to the light ( ) or to the sky ( ); cf. J. ADAM,
p. 445; Th.L. Heath (n. 7), p. 148.
16 Cf. J. Adam, p. 441, 447-448.

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G. SCHILS

is in the center of the universe, attached to the ends of the ligaments.

Obviously earth and spindle cannot both be in the center of the universe,
and thus, according to Adam, light and spindle become incompatible; the
narrative simply switches from one point, the light, to the next one, the
spindle, without concern for a coherent image.
Again, I think that such a theory does the storyteller wrong. There
is more than one way to solve what I call Adam's paradox. Interesting in
this context is Proclus' suggestion (188, 13; 200, 20)17 : the souls are
in the midst of the light - which is not the mathematical middle between
the two poles - on a level above the surface of the earth. They see the
ends of the ligaments stretched () from the sky (
). In other words they see the ends, according to Proclus,
hanging down from the northern pole of the universe. I could add, in
order to stay consistent with my reading of 616 B, that
does refer also to the ends of the ligaments, but only in the sense
that they are hanging down along the midst of the light.
This is how the spindle itself is described :
' , '

, ,
,
, ,
,
,
'
.
, ,
,
.
(616C4-616E3).
The spindle of Necessity was firmly fastened to these ends so that it was
the axis for all heavenly orbits. Its shaft and its hook were made of a diamondhard substance. The whorl (here that weighted it at the bottom has been
deleted from the translation because it is not in the Greek) was made of the
same substance as the spindle alloyed with others. Its shape was like the
whorls we use, but from Er's description we must understand it to look like
one great empty whorl completely scooped out and containing another smaller
whorl closely fitting inside it - just like bowls that fit inside each other. In the
same way a third, a fourth, and four others nested inside. There were thus eight
17 J.W. DONALDSON (n. 9), p. 307, already suggested this interpretation, without
reference to Proclus however.

PLATO'S MYTH OF ER : THE LIGHT AND THE SPINDLE

109

whorls in all set within one another, showing their rims as circles from above
(when seen from above in the translation); forming a continuous surface of
one whorl around the shaft^ (instead of but from beneath it looked like a
single whorl clasping the shaft), which was driven through the middle of the
eighth.
Onians19 describes a spinning technique in which one holds the
distaff (the spool with the wool) in the left hand, while the right hand
spins the thread, wound around another spool (the spindle). The spindle
hangs down, and is attached to the thread with a hook, to prevent the
thread from unwinding again. The spindle itself is steadied with weights
or whorls to keep it in balance.
The usual Greek term for the spindle is ,
usually stands for the distaff. The () is the hook of the
spindle. In Plato's myth only one spool appears, the spindle, called
, which allows him to use the term for the shaft of
the spindle, in an uncommon usage.
The whorl of the spindle in the myth has a peculiar structure : it
consists of eight whorls fitting into each other. What is the exact form of
these whorls? Jowett and Campbell presented the two main
hypotheses20 : the shape is either cylindrical or spherical. In the case of
the spherical shape, we have to imagine hemispheres, because we need a
cross-section to get such a thing as rims. Both hypotheses have their
defenders, although the hypothesis of the hemispheres is the most
widely accepted, and is also stated by Proclus21.
An important factor in the debate is the astronomical knowledge of
Plato. Which theory of the universe did he have in mind when he was
writing the myth? Did Plato know the concept of celestial spheres?
Answers to this kind of questions are always difficult, because
intellectual history is hard to date22. But in the context of the myth the
question does not even seem relevant, although the matter has been
rather widely discussed : the characteristics of the celestial bodies, such
1 8 Here I prefer the translation of A. Bloom (New York-London, 1968).
19 On the Knees of the Gods, in Classical Review, 38 (1924), p. 3.
20 (n. 14), p. 474.
21 The discussion includes the question of the form of the (616 D). The main
defenders of the cylindrical shape are : P. Couvreur, Un passage de Platon mal interprt
(Rpublique 10, 616 - 617 ), in Revue de Philologie, 19 (1985), p. 11-19; J.
Morrison, Parmenides and Er, in Journal of Hellenic Studies, 75 (1955), p. 59-68.
22 But given that Eudoxus was a contemporary of Plato and that spheres play such a
predominant role in his astronomical theory, the hypothesis of a spherical shape seems
the most likely one. Cf. O. NEUGEBAUER, A History of Ancient Mathematical Astronomy,
2, in Studies in the History of Mathematics and Physical Sciences, I (Berlin, 1975),
p. 677.

110

G. SCHILS

as diameter, color and speed, are ascribed to the rims of the whorls23,
the flat surface of the cross-section.
The same observation also answers another of Adam's24 problems
with the representation of the scene as a whole : we may be able to
imagine the planets as being attached ro rims, but how can this apply
to the sphere of fixed stars? This problem disappears if we realize that
the rims merely represent the respective layers of the hemisphere in
which the celestial bodies are situated. Even for the planets it would not
make much sense to attach them to rims in the horizontal plane of a
cross-section : it is an easily observable phenomenon that the planets
from our perspective move along the diagonal of the ecliptic. For the
reason, then, that the text mainly deals with a cross-section we need not
go into the details of the debate on the shape of the whorls.
On the basis of the Timaeus (38 D), we can assume that the eight
rims represent from the outer to the inner : 1. fixed stars, 2. Saturn, 3.
Jupiter, 4. Mars, 5. Mercury, 6. Venus, 7. Sun, 8. Moon25. The crosssection probably does not include the level of the earth, since there is no
corresponding ninth rim for our planet included in the description of the
spindle. Thus, no matter what shape we attribute to the whorl, in both
cases we have to ask ourselves if the cross-section is situated above or
beneath earth level.
Plato tells us that the spindle resembles those we use in our
world. It seems appropriate then to look for archaeological evidence of

Fig. 2.
23 The or . Proclus uses a similar argument, although for another
reason : even if the souls cannot see the spheres, because they can only see a crosssection, the whorls of the myth are spherical (189, 13-17). Thus used, the argument
becomes a fallacy.
24 p. 449.
25 J. Adam, p. 448-449.

PLATO'S MYTH OF ER : THE LIGHT AND THE SPINDLE

111

an actual spindle. In his commentary, Adam includes a rather obscure

example of a spindle, which even lacks a hook26.
If this is the kind of spindle Plato had in mind, then the whorls
would represent the lower hemisphere, beneath earth level. Proclus,
however, does not seem to agree that Plato's spindle looks like this; he
turns the whorl upside down, its convex plane facing the hook, thus
showing us the upper hemisphere. He echoes Plato's claim that this
structure resembles the spindles of our world27.

Fig. 3.
How are we to interpret this enigmatic description? Is Proclus
forcing his reading on Plato, to preserve his notion of the CELESTIAL
spheres? There is no immediate conflict between Proclus' view and the
data of the text, which are ambiguous :
1) , ... (616 )2**.
2)
(617 5)2^.
Atop each of the rims stood a Siren being carried in its (the translation has
a) circle...
could imply that the view is unfolding itself above the
head of the souls, although it seems harder to imagine Sirens mounting
the upper hemisphere instead of the lower. It has already been pointed
26 p. 444, 447. Cf. H. BLMNER, Technologie und Terminologie der Gewerbe und
Knste bei Griechen und Rmern, I (Berlin, 1912), fig. 46 : Spindel aus Knochen und
Stein im rmisch-germanischen Zentralmuseum in Mainz, nach Zeichnung.. Adam uses
Blmner's illustration.
27 213-17 end : (= )
,
, ...
28 Cf. Proclus, 215, 5-10 and also 189, 10-15.
29 Cf. Proclus, 236, 24.

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G. SCHILS

out that the of 616 4 does not need to limit the viewpoint of
the souls. If we can interpret the light as an axis, probably the souls are
able to see the hook of the spindle from below, through the tunnel of
light.
What can the archaeological evidence tell us? Blinkenberg30
mentions that spindle whorls which look precisely as Proclus describes
them - a hemispherical whorl with the convex plane facing the hook did exist in Egypt and on Cyprus. In fact, Ohnefalsch-Richter31 reported
in 1891 that spindles of this type were still being used on Cyprus.
Although I did not find an example of the late fifth or fourth century
B.C., there is a continuity for these spindles from ca. 2000 B.C. (with
the mural painting of Beni Hasan32) up to the Roman period33. And
Forbes34 too seems to consider this kind of spindle as nothing unusual.
The main question here, then, is whether we can accept a crosscultural reference, - a possibility which does not seem entirely unlikely
to me - or whether a comparison with an object of such daily use as a
spindle really should draw only on what was common in Athens of
Plato's time.
The arguments for a cross-cultural reference are first of all Er's
nationality : he is not an Athenian, but comes from the Eastern
Mediterranean, more precisely from Pamphylia, which is right across
from Cyprus. Plato might have chosen to add another exotic touch to
his story. And the knowledge of this type of spindle can be conceived of
as travelling through numerous contacts with the Eastern Mediterranean
and Egypt35.
30 C. BLINKENBERG and K.F. Kinch, Lindos, fouilles de l'acropole 1902-1914, 1 : Les
petits objets. Texte, Berlin, 1931, p. 132-133.
3 1 Parallelen in den Gebruchen der alten und der jetzigen Bevlkerung von Cypern,
in Zeitschrift fr Ethnologie, 23 (1891), 2, p. 40.
32 Vol. IV : Zoological and other Details (Archaeological Survey of Egypt, ed. F. Ll.
Griffith, London, 1900), pi. xv.
33 W.M. Flinders Ptrie, Tools and Weapons (British School of Archaeology in
Egypt and Egyptian Research Account, 22 year, 1916- London, 1917), p. 53-54,
pi. lxvi; J. GARDNER WILKINSON, The Manners and Customs of the Ancient Egyptians, II
(London, 1878), p. 172.
34 Studies in Ancient Technology, IV (Leiden, 1956), p. 152 : The spindle is
usually weighted with a whorl, which may be at either end; cf. also p. 153, fig. 11.
35 If we take a closer look at the preceding narrative tradition, then it is worth
noticing that in Homer apparently no distaffs are used; the unspun yarn, when the spinner
is sitting... could instead quite well be passed from the knees or a basket () over
the raised left arm, or even wound round the arm, as Onians (n. 19) puts it. Hence there
would be only one spool used in the process of spinning, the spindle. Interesting for our
argument is the following passage from the Odyssey ( 131-135) :
' '

PLATO'S MYTH OF ER : THE LIGHT AND THE SPINDLE

1 13

While it is true that the spindle with its whorl and hook at the
bottom is the common type in Attic vase paintings36, there are clues in
the story, - such as the fact that after all we can expect the heavenly
bodies in heaven, above us, - which would direct Plato's reader on his
less familiar path. The least one could say is that Proclus's interpretation
is technically possible.
The following drawing is the summary of the argumentation I have
developed. It is mainly meant to prove that even at this point of the
investigation it is possible to get a coherent picture of the cosmic
description in the myth; a picture that combines all elements of the
structure. The drawing shows a cross-section in the vertical plane. The
souls are in region between heaven and earth, on the same level as the
judges, Ananke and the Fates. We could imagine the souls' journey as a
linear progress from the place of judgement to the thrones of Ananke and
the Fates, and finally to the plane of Oblivion :
1. judges

2. heaven
2. underworld

3. meadow 4. Ananke/Fates 5. Lethe

The spindle is with its hook attached to the ends of the ligaments at
the north pole. The shaft of the spindle runs through the vertical part of
the light, which Plato compares to a column. As to the question whether
the whorls represent the lower or the upper hemisphere, I opted for
Proclus' suggestion of the upper one.

, ' .
'
'
.
The golden spool and silver basket were given to Helen in Egypt, and this in itself is
exactly the sort of connection which is needed for the argument of this paper. Onians
claims that the debated in Homer's passage is a spindle, and not a distaff, in
spite of the usual application of the term : While, therefore, it is quite possible to spin
without a distaff [as the Egyptians did], it is utterly impossible to do so without a spindle,
wheels and machines of later invention of course not being relevant. In Plato's myth, we
see being used for the shaft of th spindle.
36 Cf. for example H. BLMNER (n. 26), p. 132-134; D. von Bothmer, The Amasis
Painter and his World, New York, London, 1985, p. 185; CVA, Copenhague 4, pi. 154155; Brit. Mus. 5, pi. 82, 3; Brit. Mus. 6, pi. 89, 7; Berlin 3, pi. 136, 4; Athens Nat.
Mus. 1, pi. 6, 1.

114

G. SCHILS

nds of ligai

whorls
shaft

upper hemisphei

ligaments
lower hemisphere

hook

Fig. 4.
The line of our considerations has been complicated, and left many
questions unanswered. Are we asking too much of a myth? A
contemporary reader would have found it much easier to understand
Plato's cosmic scene : he would have known what trireme girds are, he
would have known where the natural pause in a Greek sentence, read
aloud, should be. We have to dig for information that was evident at one
time. This article is an invitation to treat images as images; to recreate the
picture in a story with our imaginative eye. This is our way of following
Er on his journey, to hear what he has heard, and to see what he has
seen37.
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Griet SCHILS

37 This paper started, several years ago, as a project under the supervision of Carlos
Steel. I have also benefitted from the patience, kind cooperation and advice of, among
others, Bernard C. Fenik, Stella G. Miller, John R.F. Ferrari, Jock W. Anderson and Luc
Brisson. Eventual errors and weaknesses, of course, remain entirely mine. Michael J.
Lennon helped me with the editing. Meanwhile M. Bernai has published his Black Athena.
The Afroasiatic Roots of Classical Civilization, vol. I (New Jersey, 1987), vol. II (1991).