Hermotimus, or, as Plutarch names him, Hermodorus of Clazomene, is
said to have possessed, like Epimenides, the marvellous power of
quitting his body, and returning to it again, as often, and for as
long a time as he pleased. In these absences his unembodied spirit
would visit what places he thought proper, observe every thing that
was going on, and, when he returned to his fleshy tabernacle, make a
minute relation of what he had seen. Hermotimus had enemies, who, one
time when his body had lain unanimated unusually long, beguiled his
wife, made her believe that he was certainly dead, and that it was
disrespectful and indecent to keep him so long in that state. The
woman therefore placed her husband on the funeral pyre, and consumed
him to ashes; so that, continues the philosopher, when the soul of
Hermotimus came back again, it no longer found its customary
receptacle to retire into. [92] Certainly this kind of treatment
appeared to furnish an infallible criterion, whether the seeming
absences of the soul of this miraculous man were pretended or real.