Reincarnation, Ancestrality, and Initiations: The Vision of the Soul in Ancient Rome
Reincarnation, Ancestrality, and Initiations: The Vision of the Soul in Ancient Rome
by Hasan Andrea Abou Saida
Reincarnation is an ancient belief found in numerous spiritual and religious traditions, from the Vedic philosophies of India to the religion of Egypt, and even to Pythagorean thought in Greece. According to this idea, the soul, after the death of the physical body, is reincarnated into a new body—whether human or animal—thus continuing a cycle of successive lives. This process repeats until the soul attains a state of purity or enlightenment, which brings the cycle of rebirths to an end.
In ancient Rome, the official religion was polytheistic, centered on the worship of gods and ancestors. While traditional Roman religion did not explicitly include a doctrine of reincarnation, the idea was not entirely foreign to the Romans, largely due to the influence of foreign philosophies and religions. The impact of Greek culture on Rome was profound, and the concept of reincarnation reached Roman thought through Greek philosophy. Cicero, one of Rome’s most renowned orators and philosophers, discussed the transmigration of the soul in several of his works, though he was not an ardent supporter of the doctrine.
“Men come into the world with a store of thoughts and knowledge that they have not acquired in this life, but have brought with them from their previous life. It is as if their souls carry traces of past experiences.”
— Cicero, On Old Age (De Senectute)
In the same treatise, Cicero explores the idea that the soul must undergo transmigration to atone for previous faults and purify itself from past sins.
“The ancient seers and interpreters of the secrets of the heavens, such as oracles and prophets, spoke of a destiny of the soul that transmigrates and reincarnates, based on a tradition they believed had a foundation in truth. They held that souls, after death, pass from one body to another, accumulating experiences and knowledge.”
— Cicero, On Old Age (De Senectute)
“Men are born to suffer and to pay for certain sins committed; for this reason they are subjected to many tribulations and sorrows.”
— Cicero, On Old Age (De Senectute)
Pythagoreanism, founded by Pythagoras, taught that the soul was immortal and reincarnated into various bodies until it achieved a state of purification. This belief was linked to the doctrine of anamnesis, according to which learning was a process of recalling knowledge acquired in previous lives.
“Those who had adopted the views of Pythagoras and Plato recognized two deaths: that of the body and that of the soul. The first occurred when the soul left the body; but the soul died when it went to be distributed among the limbs of the body it was to animate. To depart from the sublime source was, for the soul, to lose life; to return to it was to be reborn. With the first death, the soul freed itself from captivity to enjoy the true treasures of nature and the freedom that is its own; with the other, on the contrary, which we call life, the soul is deprived of the light of its immortality and plunged into the darkness of a kind of death.”
— Macrobius, Commentary on the Dream of Scipio (Commentarii in Somnium Scipionis)
Roman poets such as Virgil and Ovid embraced the idea of the soul’s reincarnation.
In Book VI of Virgil’s Aeneid, Aeneas descends into the Underworld and meets the shade of his father Anchises, who explains the birth and purification of souls, and their preparation for a new incarnation after drinking from the waters of Lethe, the river of forgetfulness:
“Souls to whom fate gives other bodies, to whom it is forbidden to pass the Lethe before forgetting their former sufferings, and before coming to the dark dwellings.”
— Aeneid, VI
Anchises then adds:
“Thus, whoever you see here now bearing a face, returns above to the light, and lives another life; but first Lethe must wash away all memory of the past.”
— Aeneid, VI
Ovid, in his poem Metamorphoses, explores in detail the concept of the transmigration of souls.
The theme of metempsychosis is explicitly addressed in Book XV, where Pythagoras, the renowned Greek philosopher, presents his ideas on change and the continuity of the soul, asserting that souls never die but move from one body to another, and that death is simply a change of form.
“Nothing in the universe perishes; believe me, but everything changes, and death, which is called the destruction of life, is nothing but a change of dwelling.”
— Metamorphoses, XV
In this context, Ovid attributes to Pythagoras the idea that all things are in a state of continuous flux, and that souls migrate from one body to another, directly reflecting the doctrine of metempsychosis. Pythagoras urges respect for all living creatures, since the soul that once inhabited a human body might now reside in an animal.
Alongside Pythagoreanism, Orphism—a Greek school of thought—shared a similar view of the transmigration of the soul. The Bacchic Mysteries, a Roman form of the Orphic mysteries, held the belief that the soul, having fallen into the material world, had to pass through several reincarnations before returning to the divine. This idea, centered on the purification of the soul, resonated with some Romans, especially within the rites of the Bacchic Mysteries, celebrated in honor of Bacchus (Dionysus in Greece), the god of wine and ecstasy.
Apuleius, a Roman writer and philosopher of Berber origin, was a fervent supporter of mystery rites and esoteric teachings concerning the transmigration of the soul. A follower of Platonism, Apuleius delves into the concept of reincarnation in his De Deo Socratis, exploring the “genius” or “daimon” as an intermediary between the divine and the human. In this work, the soul is portrayed as an entity aspiring to return to its divine origin, yet hindered by earthly contaminations.
In his novel The Metamorphoses (also known as The Golden Ass), Apuleius deeply explores the theme of transformation, using it as a powerful metaphor for the transmigration of the soul. The protagonist, Lucius, is transformed into a donkey due to a mistake during a spell, and through a series of adventures filled with suffering and learning, he desperately seeks to return to his human form. This journey culminates in the intervention of the goddess Isis, who enables him to regain his human appearance—an event that can be interpreted as a true spiritual rebirth.
“For we are born twice: once at the beginning, when we come forth from the womb and see the day, and again when, in the wisdom of the mysteries, we receive the truth that leads us to the light of eternal life. This second birth does not occur by itself, but through a divine intervention which, by mystery, lifts us from the mire and makes us partakers of the divinity itself.”
— Apuleius, The Metamorphoses, Book XI
This description of the “second birth” highlights a theme dear to ancient philosophical and religious tradition: the journey of the soul which, through trials and purifications, ascends to return to its divine nature. The expansion of the Roman Empire brought the Romans into contact with many different cultures, including those of Egypt and the East, where beliefs such as reincarnation were deeply rooted. The Egyptians, for instance, had a complex conception of life after death, which included the idea that the soul could return to life in various forms. Although the Egyptian emphasis was more on resurrection than on reincarnation in the strict sense, the Egyptian concept of the transmigration of the soul certainly influenced the Romans—especially through the cult of Isis, which became extremely popular in Rome.
Eastern influence also manifested itself through Mithraism, a mystery religion of Persian origin that spread widely among Roman soldiers. Although Mithraism did not explicitly promote reincarnation, its cyclical view of time and existence could easily have prepared the ground for a greater acceptance of such ideas among its followers.
In Roman religion, ancestor worship was central. The spirits of the dead, the Manes, were believed to influence the living and were honored with rites, libations, and festivals such as the Parentalia (February 18–21). During these days, it was thought the dead could walk among the living, showing that the worlds of the living and the dead were closely intertwined.
If neglected, a soul might become restless or malevolent—an idea that parallels reincarnation in its belief in the soul’s continued journey. Most souls descended to Pluto’s underworld, but those still bound by earthly ties could be sent back to the world of the living, much like the purgatorial process described by Dante.
Domestic religion focused on the Lares, guardian spirits of the household and deified ancestors. As Apuleius notes, the soul itself is a daemon: men become Lares if virtuous, ghosts if wicked, and Manes if their nature remains uncertain.
In conclusion, the Roman vision of the soul was a complex interplay of ancestral reverence, philosophical influences, and mystery cults. While the official religion did not explicitly embrace reincarnation, ideas from Pythagoreanism, Orphism, and Eastern traditions permeated Roman thought, blending with deeply rooted beliefs in the continued presence and influence of the dead. Through the veneration of the Manes, Lares, and protective spirits, the Romans maintained a living connection with their ancestors, seeing the soul as an eternal force—capable of transformation, purification, and eventual return to the divine. This worldview reflects a civilization that, while pragmatic in politics and daily life, embraced profound metaphysical concepts about the continuity of existence beyond death.
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