A road to wisdom: the case of revenants in Plutarch

Abstract

One of the most enduring topics in ancient Greek religion, as well as in modern culture, is that of death. However, the testimonies of those who claimed to have crossed the threshold of the afterlife and come back are few and far between, despite scholarly efforts to collate them by J.Z. Smith (2005), D.Ø. Endsjø (2009), M. Lacore (2009), and more recently J. Granger Cook (2016). Moreover, information regarding how this experience changed the lives of the revenants is very scarce. In this regard, Plutarch is one of the best authors of the Imperial ages for preserving well known testimonies - like those of Thespesius and Timarchus – and others not so well known, like that of Antyllus. Therefore, the following pages will try to deal with the topic of alleged near-death experiences in Antiquity, firstly by analysing all Plutarch’s background and texts on the subject, and secondly by contextualizing Plutarch’s sources within other works of his era.