Last to come forth, the soul of the wily Odysseus, the man of many twists and turns, Zeus’ equal in his mind’s resource, sought out the life of a private man with no cares, which he found easily because overlooked by everyone else. One by one we fall from heaven, Down into the depths of past. Riddles frequently rhyme, but this is not a requirement. On the other hand, the souls that had known the terrors of the underworld often chose a better, more virtuous station, but on no other grounds than harsh experience. Riddle Riddles are little poems or phrases that pose a question that needs answering. Although he had been virtuous in his previous life, his virtue had arisen from habit rather than philosophy, and so his judgement was poor.
Not having known the terrors of the underworld, the first soul hastily chose the life of a dictator, only to discover that he was fated, among other evils, to devour his own children. At this axle of the world, the souls came forth one by one to choose their next life from a scattering of human and animal lives. The souls spent seven days in the meadow, and then travelled for five more days to the Spindle of Necessity, a shaft of intensely bright light that extends into the heavens and holds together the universe.
