Combining Philosophers

Ideas for Herodotus, Pherecydes and JP Burgess / G Rosen

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2 ideas

29. Religion / D. Religious Issues / 2. Immortality / a. Immortality
The Egyptians were the first to say the soul is immortal and reincarnated [Herodotus]
     Full Idea: The Egyptians were the first to claim that the soul of a human being is immortal, and that each time the body dies the soul enters another creature just as it is being born.
     From: Herodotus (The Histories [c.435 BCE], 2.123.2)
Pherecydes was the first to say that the soul is eternal [Pherecydes, by Cicero]
     Full Idea: As far as the literature tells us, Pherecydes of Syros was the first who pronounced the souls of men to be eternal.
     From: report of Pherecydes (fragments/reports [c.600 BCE]) by M. Tullius Cicero - Tusculan Disputations I.xvi.38
     A reaction: Presumably before that it was the physical person who arrived in the Underworld. The Hindu tradition seems to require the soul to be very long-lived, if not eternal. Why did Pherecydes come up with this idea?