These are the words of the melic poet Pindar
1 regarding the righteous in the
other world :
For them doth the strength of the sun shine below, While night
all the earth doth overstrow.
[p. 205] In meadows of roses their suburbs lie, Roses all tinged
with a crimson dye. They are shaded by trees that incense bear, And trees
with golden fruit so fair. Some with horses and sports of might, Others in
music and draughts delight. Happiness there grows ever apace, Perfumes are
wafted o'er the loved place, As the incense they strew where the gods'
altars are And the fire that consumes it is seen from afar.
And a little
farther on, in another lament for the dead, speaking of the soul, he says
2
:
In happy fate they all 3 Were freed by death from labour's thrall. Man's
body follows at the beck of death O'ermastering. Alive is left The image of
the stature that he gained, Since this alone is from the gods obtained. It
sleeps while limbs move to and fro, But, while we sleep, in dreams doth show
The choice we cannot disregard Between the pleasant and the hard.
