Metempsychosis
Metempsychosis was the belief that souls transmigrate after death into new bodies — human or animal — central to Orphic and Pythagorean thought.
The Meaning of Metempsychosis
Pythagoras and the Orphic mystery religion taught that the soul (psyche) is immortal and passes through multiple incarnations. The soul's journey was a cycle of purification: virtuous lives led to better rebirths, vicious lives to worse ones. Only through Orphic initiation and ritual purity could the soul escape the cycle entirely and reach the Isles of the Blessed. Plato adopted this framework in the Myth of Er (Republic) and the Phaedrus. The concept influenced Hindu and Buddhist ideas of reincarnation through possible Indo-European cultural exchange.
Symbols
Fun Fact
James Joyce structured Ulysses around metempsychosis — Molly Bloom famously asks "met him pike hoses?" trying to remember the word.
Words We Inherited
English words and phrases that trace back to this myth. See our full guide to English words from Greek mythology.
Explore Further
Psyche
💭 conceptThe breath-soul that animates and survives death
The Greek concept of the soul — originally meaning breath, it evolved to encompass mind, self, and the immortal essence.
Orphic Mysteries
💭 conceptreligion, afterlife
An initiatory religious tradition attributed to the mythical poet Orpheus, teaching reincarnation, ritual purity, and liberation of the soul through sacred texts and ascetic practices.
Pythagoreanism
💭 conceptPhilosophy
A philosophical and religious movement founded by Pythagoras centred on mathematics, harmony, and the soul
Mystery Cults
💭 conceptReligion
Secret religious rites promising initiates spiritual transformation and a blessed afterlife
Palingenesia
💭 conceptphilosophy, religion
Rebirth or regeneration — the renewal of the soul through successive lives or the regeneration of the cosmos at the end of a great cycle.
Lēthē
💭 conceptmythology, philosophy
Forgetfulness or oblivion — the river or force of forgetting in the underworld, and the philosophical problem of how the soul loses or retains its knowledge.
Mnēmosynē
💭 conceptmythology, philosophy
Memory personified — Titaness, mother of the nine Muses, and the principle through which knowledge and identity persist across time and death.
Psyche
💭 conceptLanguage and psychology
An English word meaning the human mind or soul, derived from Psyche, the mortal woman whose love for Eros and trials among the gods became an allegory for the soul's journey
Nous
💭 conceptPhilosophy and Mind
The Greek concept of pure intellect or mind, the highest faculty of the soul and the organizing principle of the cosmos.
Hermeticism
💭 conceptPhilosophy
A syncretic philosophical and spiritual tradition attributed to the legendary sage Hermes Trismegistus
Neoplatonism
💭 conceptPhilosophy
A late antique philosophical system teaching that all reality emanates from a transcendent, ineffable One
Anamnesis
💭 conceptPlato's theory that learning is remembering
Plato's doctrine that the soul possesses innate knowledge from before birth, and that learning is really recollection.