The Religion and Philosophy of the Veda and Upanishads v2.c41.36

v2.c41.36

The detailed evidence of the arguments adduced is quite insufficient to prove the propositions contended for.² The origin of transmigration in Greece is probably to be traced to Thrace, and it seems to have been spread by the Orphics, whose views in part at least appear to have been brought forward in a rational form by Pythagoras: it cannot be traced, as so often urged, to the personal activity of Pythagoras: it was known by Empedokles and by Pherekydes, and was recognized by Pindar:³ it is most probable that in Thrace it developed itself in connexion with the belief in the temporary embodiment of the divinity in animal form revealed in the Dionysiac rites: the Mainads, the Bakchai, with their close communion with nature, their adoption of animal garb, their tearing of the animal who represented the god, their efforts to produce states of ecstasy, portrayed for us by the master hand of Euripides, suggest the source from which the belief could grow.⁴ The story of the Thracian Zamolxis is clear proof of the belief as existing in Thrace.⁵ There was also no such spirit in Greek religion, as would prevent the ready acceptance of the view. On the contrary, it may be noted that the idea of the transfer of one soul into another body was familiar from such tales as that of Kirke and the comrades of Odysseus, and the daimons of Hesiod suggest a mode of transition. The fact that transmigration appears also among the Druids, and has independently grown up with other peoples is of importance.⁶ The case of Egypt where Herodotos⁷ held that transmigration prevailed is difficult: the view may have been held by a sect there, though its existence is not yet established, but this possibility does not appear to be of fundamental importance. The doctrine much more probably originated in Thrace than at any other point in the Greek area, and its development beyond crude outlines was the work of the Greek religious and philosophical genius, as will be shown below.