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A Treatise on the Soul

Tertullian

Chapter 44

About this work

Author: Tertullian

Chapter XLIV.—The Story of Hermotimus, and the Sleeplessness of the Emperor Nero. No Separation of the Soul from the Body Until Death.

With regard to the case of Hermotimus, they say that

‹ Chapter 43 Chapter 45 ›

he

used

to

be

deprived

of

his

soul

in

his

sleep

,

as

if

it

wandered

away

from

his

body

like

a

person

on

a

holiday

trip

.

His

wife

betrayed

the

strange

peculiarity

.

His

enemies

,

finding

him

asleep

,

burnt

his

body

,

as

if

it

were

a

corpse

:

when

his

soul

returned

too

late

,

it

appropriated

(

I

suppose

)

to

itself

the

guilt

of

the

murder

.

However

the

good

citizens

of

Clazomenæ

consoled

poor

Hermotimus

with

a

temple

,

into

which

no

woman

ever

enters

,

because

of

the

infamy

of

this

wife

.

Now

why

this

story

?

In

order

that

,

since

the

vulgar

belief

so

readily

holds

sleep

to

be

the

separation

of

the

soul

from

the

body

,

credulity

should

not

be

encouraged

by

this

case

of

Hermotimus

.

It

must

certainly

have

been

a

much

heavier

sort

of

slumber

:

one

would

presume

it

was

the

nightmare

,

or

perhaps

that

diseased

languor

which

Soranus

suggests

in

opposition

to

the

nightmare

,

or

else

some

such

malady

as

that

which

the

fable

has

fastened

upon

Epimenides

,

who

slept

on

some

fifty

years

or

so

.

Suetonius

,

however

,

informs

us

that

Nero

never

dreamt

,

and

Theopompus

says

the

same

thing

about

Thrasymedes

;

but

Nero

at

the

close

of

his

life

did

with

some

difficulty

dream

after

some

excessive

alarm

.

What

indeed

would

be

said

,

if

the

case

of

Hermotimus

were

believed

to

be

such

that

the

repose

of

his

soul

was

a

state

of

actual

idleness

during

sleep

,

and

a

positive

separation

from

his

body

?

You

may

conjecture

it

to

be

anything

but

such

a

licence

of

the

soul

as

admits

of

flights

away

from

the

body

without

death

,

and

that

by

continual

recurrence

,

as

if

habitual

to

its

state

and

constitution

.

If

indeed

such

a

thing

were

told

me

to

have

happened

at

any

time

to

the

soul

—

resembling

a

total

eclipse

of

the

sun

or

the

moon

—

I

should

verily

suppose

that

the

occurrence

had

been

caused

by

God’s

own

interposition

,

for

it

would

not

be

unreasonable

for

a

man

to

receive

admonition

from

the

Divine

Being

either

in

the

way

of

warning

or

of

alarm

,

as

by

a

flash

of

lightning

,

or

by

a

sudden

stroke

of

death

;

only

it

would

be

much

the

more

natural

conclusion

to

believe

that

this

process

should

be

by

a

dream

,

because

if

it

must

be

supposed

to

be

,

(

as

the

hypothesis

we

are

resisting

assumes

it

to

be

,

)

not

a

dream

,

the

occurrence

ought

rather

to

happen

to

a

man

whilst

he

is

wide

awake

.