batch.motif.greek-plato-republic-jowett-gutenberg-l24483-l24572
---
record_id: batch.motif.greek-plato-republic-jowett-gutenberg-l24483-l24572
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/greek/project-gutenberg/republic-jowett.md
passage_locator:
label: BOOK VII. / BOOK VIII. / BOOK IX. / BOOK X.; lines 24483-24572
start: '24483'
end: '24572'
translation: The Republic
notes: Generated from OpenAI Batch run motif-extraction-2026-04-28-high-priority;
human review required.
canonical_text:
quote: ''
summary: In the reported otherworldly vision, souls choose their next lives, sometimes
unwisely because of habit, suffering, or former experience. Famous souls and animals
select human or animal lives. After choosing, the souls pass through Lachesis,
Clotho, Atropos, and Necessity, travel to the plain of Forgetfulness and the river
of Unmindfulness, drink and forget, then are driven upward to birth. The messenger
does not drink, returns to his body, and wakes on a pyre. The passage closes with
counsel to follow justice, virtue, and the heavenly way through the soul’s long
pilgrimage.
language: English
quote_policy: summarized
literal_observations:
- id: obs:1
text: A prophet tells the souls that even the last chooser can receive a happy existence
if he chooses wisely and lives diligently.
category: speech
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
- id: obs:2
text: The first chooser selects the greatest tyranny and later laments after realizing
that the chosen life includes devouring his own children.
category: sequence
evidence_refs:
- ev:2
- id: obs:3
text: The passage contrasts souls coming from heaven, who often lack trial, with
pilgrims from earth, who have suffered and seen suffering and are less hurried
in choosing.
category: relationship
evidence_refs:
- ev:3
- id: obs:4
text: Souls exchange good and evil destinies through their choices, influenced by
chance lot, inexperience, philosophy, and memories of prior lives.
category: action
evidence_refs:
- ev:3
- ev:4
- id: obs:5
text: 'Several named souls choose animal or human lives: Orpheus a swan, Thamyras
a nightingale, Ajax a lion, Agamemnon an eagle, Atalanta an athlete’s life, Epeus
a woman skilled in arts, Thersites a monkey, and Odysseus a private man’s life.'
category: sequence
evidence_refs:
- ev:5
- ev:6
- id: obs:6
text: Animals, both tame and wild, also change into one another and into corresponding
human natures, with good becoming gentle and evil becoming savage.
category: action
evidence_refs:
- ev:7
- id: obs:7
text: After all souls choose, Lachesis sends with each the genius chosen as guardian
and fulfiller of the chosen life.
category: action
evidence_refs:
- ev:8
- id: obs:8
text: The genius leads each soul to Clotho and Atropos; the destiny is ratified,
its threads are made irreversible, and the souls pass beneath the throne of Necessity.
category: sequence
evidence_refs:
- ev:8
- id: obs:9
text: The souls travel through scorching heat to a barren plain of Forgetfulness
and camp by the river of Unmindfulness, whose water no vessel can hold.
category: setting
evidence_refs:
- ev:9
- id: obs:10
text: All souls are obliged to drink a quantity of the river water; those not saved
by wisdom drink too much, and each forgets all things as he drinks.
category: action
evidence_refs:
- ev:10
- id: obs:11
text: At midnight a thunderstorm and earthquake occur, and the souls are driven
upward in many ways to their birth, compared to shooting stars.
category: sequence
evidence_refs:
- ev:11
- id: obs:12
text: The messenger is prevented from drinking the water and later wakes suddenly
on a pyre, returned to his body by a means he cannot explain.
category: sequence
evidence_refs:
- ev:12
- id: obs:13
text: The concluding counsel says to hold to the heavenly way, follow justice and
virtue, and consider the soul immortal and capable of enduring every sort of good
and evil.
category: speech
evidence_refs:
- ev:13
figures:
- id: fig:1
name_or_label: prophet
description: Speaker who warns the souls that wise choice and diligent living can
lead to a happy existence.
role_refs:
- role:1
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
- id: fig:2
name_or_label: first chooser
description: Soul with the first choice who chooses the greatest tyranny and later
laments the chosen destiny.
role_refs:
- role:2
evidence_refs:
- ev:2
- id: fig:3
name_or_label: souls choosing lives
description: Souls who choose future lives according to lot, prior experience, and
disposition.
role_refs:
- role:2
evidence_refs:
- ev:3
- ev:4
- id: fig:4
name_or_label: Orpheus
description: A soul formerly Orpheus, choosing the life of a swan because of enmity
toward women.
role_refs:
- role:2
evidence_refs:
- ev:5
- id: fig:5
name_or_label: Thamyras
description: A soul choosing the life of a nightingale.
role_refs:
- role:2
evidence_refs:
- ev:5
- id: fig:6
name_or_label: Ajax son of Telamon
description: A soul choosing the life of a lion while remembering injustice in the
judgment about the arms.
role_refs:
- role:2
evidence_refs:
- ev:5
- id: fig:7
name_or_label: Agamemnon
description: A soul choosing the life of an eagle because he hated human nature
by reason of his sufferings.
role_refs:
- role:2
evidence_refs:
- ev:5
- id: fig:8
name_or_label: Atalanta
description: A soul tempted by the fame of an athlete and choosing accordingly.
role_refs:
- role:2
evidence_refs:
- ev:6
- id: fig:9
name_or_label: Epeus son of Panopeus
description: A soul passing into the nature of a woman cunning in the arts.
role_refs:
- role:2
evidence_refs:
- ev:6
- id: fig:10
name_or_label: Thersites
description: A soul putting on the form of a monkey.
role_refs:
- role:2
evidence_refs:
- ev:6
- id: fig:11
name_or_label: Odysseus
description: A soul with the last lot who searches for and chooses the life of a
private man without cares.
role_refs:
- role:2
evidence_refs:
- ev:6
- id: fig:12
name_or_label: tame and wild animals
description: Animals who change into one another and into corresponding human natures.
role_refs:
- role:2
evidence_refs:
- ev:7
- id: fig:13
name_or_label: Lachesis
description: Figure to whom the souls go after choosing, and who sends each chosen
genius with its soul.
role_refs:
- role:3
evidence_refs:
- ev:8
- id: fig:14
name_or_label: chosen genius
description: Guardian of a soul’s life and fulfiller of the soul’s choice.
role_refs:
- role:4
evidence_refs:
- ev:8
- id: fig:15
name_or_label: Clotho
description: Figure whose hand impels the revolution of the spindle, ratifying each
destiny.
role_refs:
- role:3
evidence_refs:
- ev:8
- id: fig:16
name_or_label: Atropos
description: Figure who spins the threads and makes the destinies irreversible.
role_refs:
- role:3
evidence_refs:
- ev:8
- id: fig:17
name_or_label: Necessity
description: Figure associated with a throne beneath which the souls pass after
destiny is made irreversible.
role_refs:
- role:5
evidence_refs:
- ev:8
- id: fig:18
name_or_label: messenger from the other world
description: Reporter of the otherworldly events who is prevented from drinking,
returns to the body, and wakes on a pyre.
role_refs:
- role:6
- role:7
evidence_refs:
- ev:12
- id: fig:19
name_or_label: Glaucon
description: Addressee of the concluding statement that the tale has been saved
and can save its hearers if they obey the word spoken.
role_refs:
- role:8
evidence_refs:
- ev:13
roles:
- id: role:1
label: otherworldly announcer
assigned_to:
- fig:1
basis: The prophet states the conditions and warning for the choice of lives.
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
- id: role:2
label: chooser of a future life
assigned_to:
- fig:2
- fig:3
- fig:4
- fig:5
- fig:6
- fig:7
- fig:8
- fig:9
- fig:10
- fig:11
- fig:12
basis: These figures select or change into future lives, forms, or natures.
evidence_refs:
- ev:2
- ev:5
- ev:6
- ev:7
- id: role:3
label: ratifier of destiny
assigned_to:
- fig:13
- fig:15
- fig:16
basis: Lachesis assigns the chosen genius, Clotho ratifies destiny through the spindle,
and Atropos makes the threads irreversible.
evidence_refs:
- ev:8
- id: role:4
label: guardian and fulfiller of chosen life
assigned_to:
- fig:14
basis: The genius is explicitly sent as guardian and fulfiller of the life chosen
by the soul.
evidence_refs:
- ev:8
- id: role:5
label: necessitating power
assigned_to:
- fig:17
basis: The souls pass beneath the throne of Necessity after their destinies become
irreversible.
evidence_refs:
- ev:8
- id: role:6
label: returned otherworld witness
assigned_to:
- fig:18
basis: The messenger reports the otherworldly journey and later wakes on the pyre
after returning to the body.
evidence_refs:
- ev:12
- id: role:7
label: one exempted from forgetfulness-drinking
assigned_to:
- fig:18
basis: He is hindered from drinking the water of the river before returning.
evidence_refs:
- ev:12
- id: role:8
label: addressee
assigned_to:
- fig:19
basis: The speaker addresses Glaucon directly in the concluding moral exhortation.
evidence_refs:
- ev:13
symbols:
- id: sym:1
label: chosen lot and life
literal_form: lot and selected future existence
associated_figures:
- fig:2
- fig:3
- fig:4
- fig:5
- fig:6
- fig:7
- fig:8
- fig:9
- fig:10
- fig:11
taxonomy_refs: []
evidence_refs:
- ev:2
- ev:4
- ev:5
- ev:6
- id: sym:2
label: animal forms
literal_form: swan, nightingale, lion, eagle, monkey, and other animal natures
associated_figures:
- fig:4
- fig:5
- fig:6
- fig:7
- fig:10
- fig:12
taxonomy_refs: []
evidence_refs:
- ev:5
- ev:6
- ev:7
- id: sym:3
label: spindle and threads
literal_form: spindle, revolution, and destiny threads spun by Clotho and Atropos
associated_figures:
- fig:15
- fig:16
taxonomy_refs: []
evidence_refs:
- ev:8
- id: sym:4
label: throne of Necessity
literal_form: throne beneath which the souls pass
associated_figures:
- fig:17
- fig:3
taxonomy_refs: []
evidence_refs:
- ev:8
- id: sym:5
label: plain of Forgetfulness
literal_form: barren waste destitute of trees and verdure
associated_figures:
- fig:3
taxonomy_refs: []
evidence_refs:
- ev:9
- id: sym:6
label: river of Unmindfulness
literal_form: river whose water no vessel can hold
associated_figures:
- fig:3
- fig:18
taxonomy_refs:
- water
evidence_refs:
- ev:9
- ev:10
- ev:12
- id: sym:7
label: forgetting drink
literal_form: water that souls must drink, causing them to forget all things
associated_figures:
- fig:3
taxonomy_refs:
- water
evidence_refs:
- ev:10
- id: sym:8
label: upward birth like shooting stars
literal_form: souls driven upward to birth like stars shooting
associated_figures:
- fig:3
taxonomy_refs: []
evidence_refs:
- ev:11
- id: sym:9
label: pyre
literal_form: pyre on which the returned messenger wakes
associated_figures:
- fig:18
taxonomy_refs: []
evidence_refs:
- ev:12
- id: sym:10
label: heavenly way
literal_form: heavenly way followed with justice and virtue
associated_figures: []
taxonomy_refs: []
evidence_refs:
- ev:13
scenes:
- id: scene:1
label: warning before the choice of lives
summary: The prophet announces that wise choice and diligent living can make even
the last choice happy, and warns against carelessness and despair.
figure_refs:
- fig:1
- fig:3
symbol_refs:
- sym:1
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
- id: scene:2
label: misguided selection of tyranny
summary: The first chooser selects the greatest tyranny, later perceives its evils,
laments, and blames chance and the gods rather than himself.
figure_refs:
- fig:2
symbol_refs:
- sym:1
evidence_refs:
- ev:2
- id: scene:3
label: souls choose lives from memory and experience
summary: The souls choose future lives, often based on previous experience; named
heroic and poetic souls select animal, human, or private lives.
figure_refs:
- fig:3
- fig:4
- fig:5
- fig:6
- fig:7
- fig:8
- fig:9
- fig:10
- fig:11
- fig:12
symbol_refs:
- sym:1
- sym:2
evidence_refs:
- ev:3
- ev:4
- ev:5
- ev:6
- ev:7
- id: scene:4
label: ratification of destiny
summary: After the choices, Lachesis sends each chosen genius; Clotho ratifies each
destiny with the spindle, Atropos makes the threads irreversible, and the souls
pass beneath Necessity’s throne.
figure_refs:
- fig:3
- fig:13
- fig:14
- fig:15
- fig:16
- fig:17
symbol_refs:
- sym:3
- sym:4
evidence_refs:
- ev:8
- id: scene:5
label: forgetfulness before rebirth
summary: The souls travel to the plain of Forgetfulness and the river of Unmindfulness,
drink, forget all things, and are driven upward to birth after a storm and earthquake.
figure_refs:
- fig:3
symbol_refs:
- sym:5
- sym:6
- sym:7
- sym:8
evidence_refs:
- ev:9
- ev:10
- ev:11
- id: scene:6
label: return of the messenger
summary: The messenger is prevented from drinking the water, cannot explain how
he returned to the body, and wakes suddenly on a pyre.
figure_refs:
- fig:18
symbol_refs:
- sym:6
- sym:9
evidence_refs:
- ev:12
- id: scene:7
label: ethical conclusion from the tale
summary: The speaker tells Glaucon that the saved tale can save its hearers, and
counsels adherence to justice, virtue, the heavenly way, and belief in the immortal
soul’s long pilgrimage.
figure_refs:
- fig:19
symbol_refs:
- sym:10
evidence_refs:
- ev:13
candidate_motifs:
- id: motif:1
label: afterlife journey with return to life
taxonomy_refs:
- afterlife_journey_map
- return
basis: The report maps a post-mortem passage through choice, destiny, forgetfulness,
rebirth, and the messenger’s return to his body.
evidence_refs:
- ev:8
- ev:9
- ev:10
- ev:11
- ev:12
confidence: high
cautions: The passage gives an eschatological route but not every phase of a complete
underworld geography.
- id: motif:2
label: choice of reincarnated lives
taxonomy_refs:
- death_rebirth
basis: Souls choose new human or animal lives and are later driven upward to birth.
evidence_refs:
- ev:4
- ev:5
- ev:6
- ev:7
- ev:11
confidence: high
cautions: The available taxonomy does not include a precise metempsychosis category;
death_rebirth is an approximate family label.
- id: motif:3
label: animal-human transformation across lives
taxonomy_refs:
- shapeshifter
basis: Human souls choose animal lives, and animals change into one another and
into corresponding human natures.
evidence_refs:
- ev:5
- ev:6
- ev:7
confidence: medium
cautions: The passage describes transmigration between lives rather than voluntary
shape-changing within one life.
- id: motif:4
label: forgetting drink before rebirth
taxonomy_refs:
- water
basis: Souls must drink water from the river of Unmindfulness, and as each drinks
he forgets all things before birth.
evidence_refs:
- ev:9
- ev:10
- ev:11
confidence: high
cautions: The taxonomy reference is symbolic rather than a named motif family.
- id: motif:5
label: cosmic ratification of destiny by divine figures
taxonomy_refs:
- divine_judgment
basis: The souls’ chosen destinies are ratified by Clotho, made irreversible by
Atropos, and sealed under Necessity after Lachesis assigns the guardian genius.
evidence_refs:
- ev:8
confidence: medium
cautions: The passage emphasizes choice and necessity more than judgment by a deity;
divine_judgment is only a broad fit.
- id: motif:6
label: wisdom preserves the soul from excess forgetfulness
taxonomy_refs:
- wisdom
basis: Those not saved by wisdom drink more than necessary from the river, while
the conclusion counsels justice, virtue, and the heavenly way.
evidence_refs:
- ev:10
- ev:13
confidence: high
cautions: The passage presents wisdom ethically and philosophically, not as a separate
mythic personification.
- id: motif:7
label: upward ascent to birth
taxonomy_refs:
- ascent
basis: After drinking and sleeping, souls are driven upward in all manner of ways
to their birth, compared to shooting stars.
evidence_refs:
- ev:11
confidence: medium
cautions: This is ascent into rebirth, not necessarily ascent to a divine realm.
- id: motif:8
label: revival on the funeral pyre
taxonomy_refs:
- resurrection
- return
basis: The messenger, who has not drunk the water, returns to his body and wakes
on a pyre.
evidence_refs:
- ev:12
confidence: medium
cautions: The passage does not detail bodily death or the mechanics of revival,
only the waking on the pyre after return.
comparison_claims: []
evidence:
- id: ev:1
type: summary
locator: 24483-24491
quote_or_summary: The prophet announces that the last chooser may still obtain a
happy existence if wise and diligent, and warns the first not to be careless or
the last to despair.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/greek/project-gutenberg/republic-jowett.md
rights_note: Public domain source; summarized.
- id: ev:2
type: summary
locator: 24491-24504
quote_or_summary: The first chooser selects the greatest tyranny without reflection,
later sees that it includes evils such as devouring his own children, beats his
breast, laments, and blames chance and the gods.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/greek/project-gutenberg/republic-jowett.md
rights_note: Public domain source; summarized.
- id: ev:3
type: summary
locator: 24504-24516
quote_or_summary: Many souls from heaven lack trial, while pilgrims from earth have
suffered and seen suffering; because of inexperience and chance lot, many souls
exchange good and evil destinies.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/greek/project-gutenberg/republic-jowett.md
rights_note: Public domain source; summarized.
- id: ev:4
type: summary
locator: 24516-24525
quote_or_summary: A person devoted to sound philosophy may have a happier journey
to another life and return; the choices of souls are often based on experiences
from previous lives.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/greek/project-gutenberg/republic-jowett.md
rights_note: Public domain source; summarized.
- id: ev:5
type: summary
locator: 24525-24541
quote_or_summary: The souls of Orpheus, Thamyras, Ajax, and Agamemnon choose the
lives of a swan, nightingale, lion, and eagle respectively, with prior resentments
and sufferings affecting their choices.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/greek/project-gutenberg/republic-jowett.md
rights_note: Public domain source; summarized.
- id: ev:6
type: summary
locator: 24541-24557
quote_or_summary: Atalanta chooses under the attraction of athletic fame; Epeus
passes into the nature of a woman skilled in arts; Thersites puts on a monkey’s
form; Odysseus, last to choose, seeks and gladly chooses a private man’s life
without cares.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/greek/project-gutenberg/republic-jowett.md
rights_note: Public domain source; summarized.
- id: ev:7
type: summary
locator: 24557-24563
quote_or_summary: Men pass into animals, and tame and wild animals change into one
another and into corresponding human natures, with good becoming gentle and evil
becoming savage.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/greek/project-gutenberg/republic-jowett.md
rights_note: Public domain source; summarized.
- id: ev:8
type: summary
locator: 24564-24572
quote_or_summary: After all souls choose, Lachesis sends each chosen genius as guardian
and fulfiller; the genius leads the soul to Clotho and Atropos, where destiny
is ratified and made irreversible, and the souls pass beneath Necessity’s throne.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/greek/project-gutenberg/republic-jowett.md
rights_note: Public domain source; summarized.
- id: ev:9
type: summary
locator: 24572-24580
quote_or_summary: The souls march in scorching heat to the barren plain of Forgetfulness,
without trees or verdure, and camp by the river of Unmindfulness, whose water
no vessel can hold.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/greek/project-gutenberg/republic-jowett.md
rights_note: Public domain source; summarized.
- id: ev:10
type: summary
locator: 24580-24586
quote_or_summary: All souls must drink a certain quantity from the river; those
not saved by wisdom drink too much, and each forgets all things as he drinks.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/greek/project-gutenberg/republic-jowett.md
rights_note: Public domain source; summarized.
- id: ev:11
type: summary
locator: 24586-24593
quote_or_summary: After rest, at midnight a thunderstorm and earthquake occur, and
the souls are driven upward in many ways to their birth, like shooting stars.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/greek/project-gutenberg/republic-jowett.md
rights_note: Public domain source; summarized.
- id: ev:12
type: summary
locator: 24593-24600
quote_or_summary: The reporting messenger is hindered from drinking the water and
cannot tell how he returned to the body; in the morning he wakes suddenly lying
on the pyre.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/greek/project-gutenberg/republic-jowett.md
rights_note: Public domain source; summarized.
- id: ev:13
type: summary
locator: 24601-24616
quote_or_summary: The speaker tells Glaucon that the saved tale can save them, counsels
holding to the heavenly way and following justice and virtue, and describes the
soul as immortal through a thousand-year pilgrimage.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/greek/project-gutenberg/republic-jowett.md
rights_note: Public domain source; summarized.
confidence:
extraction: high
motif_candidates: medium
comparison_claims: high
notes: Passage content is explicit and public domain. Motif taxonomy assignments
are cautious where available categories only approximate the passage’s metempsychosis
and fate imagery. No comparison claims were added because the passage itself does
not make an explicit cross-textual comparison.
reviewer_status:
status: needs_review
reviewer: ''
reviewed_at: ''
notes: Machine-generated draft from OpenAI Batch; not human-reviewed.
extracted_by: openai_batch:gpt-5.5
extracted_at: '2026-04-28'
notes: |-
Line locators in evidence are approximate subdivisions within the supplied line range because only the full passage text was provided.
batch_run_id=motif-extraction-2026-04-28-high-priority
custom_id=motif_extract:greek-plato-republic-jowett-gutenberg__l24483-l24572
passage_sha256=72493c3bb8a2a35d050fbf94ad46e919339a1a3187756d8d9dda098d10598fa8