A influência do mito platônico do Phædo no Asclepius

This study investigates the influence of the Platonic eschatological myth of the Phaedo on the Asclepius, a treatise belonging to the Latin Hermetic tradition. The analysis focuses primarily on chapters 12a, 27, and 28 of the Asclepius, examining conceptions of death, dissolution of the body, judgment of the soul, post mortem punishment, and transmigration. It is argued that Hermetic literature reworks Platonic motifs concerning the destiny of the soul and the geography of the afterlife, especially themes related to Tartarus, Pyriphlegethon, purification of souls, and ascent to higher regions. However, these elements are reinterpreted within the framework of a Hermetic ontology of dissolution and transformation, according to which death does not signify annihilation, but rather the disintegration of the bodily compound. The study also comparatively analyzes the Greek testimonia preserved by John Lydus, the Hermetic fragments transmitted by Stobaeus, and the Latin translation of the Asclepius, highlighting translational adaptations, conceptual reformulations, and doctrinal affinities with Middle Platonism. It concludes that the Asclepius incorporates mythical and philosophical elements from Plato’s Phaedo, yet reorganizes them within a specifically Hermetic soteriology, centered less on punitive eschatology and more on a cosmological dynamic of purification, reintegration, and ontological metamorphosis of the soul.