Body and Soul in Ancient Philosophy

Stoics on souls and demons: Reconstructing Stoic demonology 369
also that he cannot be taken to be the cause of their badness. These are
relevant conclusions when it comes to assessing the relation between
god and demons – a subject to which we shall return later on.
However this may be, it is important to realise that the process of a
soul’s gaining or losing rationality (and, hence, gaining or losing virtue)
has a physical side as well. As we know from other sources that inform
us on Stoic psychology (especially the fragments from Chrysippus On
Emotions quoted by Galen), such changes in our rational attitude correspond
at the physical level with either a strengthening or a loosening of
the soul’s internal cohesive tension (tonos). 33 This idea of a greater or
lesser psychic tonos also appears to play a role in how the early Stoics
conceived of the possibility of a survival of the soul after death,
which is the subject to which we shall now turn.
4. HÞroes as surviving human souls
In our sources on Stoic demonology external demons crop up as well. A
first category is constituted by human souls surviving after death. As we
shall see later on, the early Stoics as a rule seem to have referred to this
species of demons as hÞroes. The first text to consider in this connection
is Sextus, M. IX, 71 –74 (SVF II, 812). In the course of his survey of
arguments pro and contra the existence of gods in the ninth book of
Against the Mathematicians (the first book Against the Physicists), Sextus
objects to the (Stoic) view that the early poets and philosophers are relevant
and even important witnesses concerning the divine existence. He
claims that one should in that case also take over the evidently false beliefs
of the poets concerning what goes on in Hades. He then counters
his own objection – on the Stoics’ behalf – by claiming that there are
philosophical reasons to reject these stories about souls moving down
to Hades:
But, [retort the Stoics,] whereas the myth does thus contain within itself its
own refutation, the conception of god is not of this kind, nor does it introduce
inconsistency, but it is evidently in accordance with facts. Nor, indeed,
is it possible to suppose that souls move downwards; for since they
are of fine particles and no less of a fiery than of a vaporous nature, they
rather soar lightly to the upper regions. Also, they persist as they are in them-
33 See Galen, De plac. Hipp. et Plat. IV, 5, 5 (SVF III, 473) and Tieleman 2003,
102 – 114.