from Robert Lamberton, 

HOMER THE THEOLOGIAN

                                            Homer
 

. . . the evidence for Numenius's contribution to the exegesis of Homer 
comes exclusively from the Neoplatonists who used his interpretations, 
combined with others from sources that are sometimes revealed, 
sometimes not, to elaborate upon the meaning of various
texts. Porphyry's essay on the cave of the nymphs is the most important
source (frs.30-33), followed by Macrobius's commentary on Scipio's
dream in Cicero's Republic (fr. 34) and finally by Proclus's commentary on
Plato's Republic (fr. 35)· If we include Numenius himself, this chain ex-
tends from the time of Marcus Aurelius (or perhaps earlier) very nearly
to that of Justinian, and the suggestion is very strong that Numenius's
comparison and reconciliation of the views expressed by Homer and
Plato on the fate of souls became an established (though not universally
applauded) part of many later Platonists' understanding both of Plato's
myth of Er (and with it even the parallel myth from the end of the Re-
public of Cicero) and of Homer's fiction.
 

Although Porphyry's version is more attractive in that it integrates
Numenius's explication of the myth into a broader examination of the
Homeric passage, it is Proclus who appears to give the most complete
account of what Numenius himself actually wrote on the subject.
Furthermore, his overall tone of disapproval suggests that he is going
through Numenius's exegesis point by point in order to give an account
of its extravagances. The text is corrupt and the following translation
avoids both the reconstruction offered by Buffiere and that of Fes-
tugiere in favor of a direct translation of the received text. . . .

Proclus is discussing the problem of locating the place of judgment
described in the myth of Er in the Republic of Plato:

Numenius says that this place is the center of the entire cosmos, and
likewise of the earth, because it is at once in the middle of heaven and
in the middle of the earth. There the judges sit and send off some
souls to heaven, some to the region beneath the earth and to the
rivers there. By "heaven" he means the sphere of the fixed stars, and
he says there are two holes in this, Capricorn and Cancer, the one a
path down into genesis, the other a path of ascent, and the rivers
under the earth he calls the planets, for he associates the rivers and
even Tartarus with these, and introduces a further enormous fantasy
with leapings of souls from the tropics to the solstices and returns
from these back to the tropics--leapings that are all his own and that
he transfers to these matters, stitching the Platonic utterances together 
with astrological concerns and these with the mysteries. He
invokes the poem of Homer as a witness to the two chasms--not
only when it calls 

       the one from the north a path for man to descend [Od. 13.110]

since Cancer brings to completion by advancing into Capricorn,"
[and says]

       the other, toward the south [is divine] [Od. 13.111, part],

through which it is impossible for men to [enter], for that path belongs 
exclusively to immortals [= paraphrase of Od. 13.111-112], since
Capricorn, as it draws the souls upward, undoes their life in the hu-
man realm and accepts only the immortal and the divine--but also
when it sings of

         the gates of the sun and the people of dreams [Od. 24.12]

calling the two tropical signs the "gates of the sun" and the Milky Way
the "people of dreams," as he claims. For he also says that Pythagoras
in his obscure language called the Milky Way "Hades" and "a place of
souls," for souls are crowded together there, whence among some
peoples they pour libations of milk to the gods that cleanse souls, and
when souls have just fallen into genesis milk is their first food. Fur
thermore, he claims that Plato, as mentioned, is describing the gates
in speaking of the two "chasms" and that in describing the light that
he rails the "bond of heaven" he is really referring to the Milky Way,
into which souls ascend in twelve days from the place of the judges,
for that place was in the center and, starting from there, the dodecad
is completed in heaven. This consists of the center, the earth, water,
air, the seven planets, and the fixed sphere itself. He claims the signs
of the Tropics, the double chasms and the two gates are different only
in name, and again that the Milky Way, the "light like a rainbow" and
the "people of dreams" are all one--for the poet elsewhere compares
disembodied souls to dreams. . . . But how could one accept the con-
flicts between this and what Plato himself has said? [Proclus goes on to
reject several points, including the conflation of the rivers of the underworld
with the planetary spheres.] Moreover, [Numenius] fills the Milky Way
uniquely with souls that have gone up from here to heaven. [Plato]
says that the fortunate souls do not go down to the underground
place. while [Numenius] is forced to take them there first, if indeed it
is necessary for every soul to go before the judges, and then to make
them go to the heavenly place, where in fact the souls have their
heavenly life."

                                    (Robert Lamberton, Homer the Theologian, 66-68)