ieving
that it is of Chaldean and religious origin. I heartily agree with the
conclusions recently formulated by Bousset, (_Goettingische gelehrte
Anzeigen_, 1905, pp. 707 ff.). We can go farther: Whatever roots it may
have had in the speculations of ancient Greece (Aristoph., _Pax_, 832,
Plato, _Tim._, 42B, cf. Haussoullier, _Rev. de philol._, 1909, pp. 1 ff.),
whatever traces of it may be found in other nations (Dieterich,
_Mithrasliturgie_, pp. 182 ff.; _Nekyia_, p. 24, note; Rohde, _Psyche_, II,
p. 131, n. 3), the idea itself of the soul rising to the divine stars after
death certainly developed under the influence of the sidereal worship of
the Semites to a point where it dominated all other eschatological
theories. The belief in the eternity of souls is the corollary to the
belief in the eternity of the celestial gods (p. 129). We cannot give the
history of this conception here, and we shall limit ourselves to brief
observations. The first account of this system ever given at Rome is found
in "Scipio's Dream" (c. 3); it probably dates back to Posidonius of Apamea
(cf. Wendland, _Die hellenistisch-roemische Kultur_, p. 85, 166, n. 3, 168,
n. 1), and is completely impregnated with mysticism and astrolatry. The
same idea is found a little later in the astrologer Manilius (I, 758; IV,
404, etc.). The shape which it assumed in Josephus (_Bell. Judaic._, V, 1,
5, Sec. 47) is also much more religious than philosophical and is strikingly
similar to a dogma of Islam (happiness in store for those dying in battle;
a Syrian [_ibid._, Sec. 54] risks his life that his soul may go to heaven).
This recalls the inscription of Antiochus of Commagene (Michel, _Recueil_,
No. 735, l. 40):

[Greek: Soma pros ouranious Dios Oromasdou thronous theophile psuchen
propempsan eis ton apeiron aiona koimesetai].

It must be said that this sidereal immortality was not originally common to
all men; it was reserved "omnibus qui patriam conservaverint adiuverint,
auxerint" (_Somn. Scip._ c. 3, c. 8; cf. _Manil._, I, 758; Lucan, _Phars._,
IX, 1 ff.; Wendland, _op. cit._, p. 85 n. 2), and this also is in
conformity with the oldest Oriental traditions. The rites first used to
assure immortality to kings and to make them the equals of the gods were
extended little by little as a kind of privilege, to the important {255}
persons of the state, and only very much later were they applied to all who
died.

Regarding the diffusion of this belief from the