With him likewise the best principle originated of a guardian attention
to the concerns of men, and which ought to be pre-assumed by those who
intend to learn the truth about other things. For he reminded many of
his familiars, by most clear and evident indications, of the former life
which their soul lived, before it was bound to this body, and
demonstrated by indubitable arguments, that he had been Euphorbus the
son of Panthus, who conquered Patroclus. And he especially praised the
following funeral Homeric verses pertaining to himself, sung them most
elegantly to the lyre, and frequently repeated them.
“The shining circlets of his golden hair,
Which ev’n the Graces might be proud to wear,
Instarr’d with gems and gold, bestrow the shore
With dust dishonor’d, and deform’d with gore.
As the young olive in some sylvan scene,
Crown’d by fresh fountains with eternal green,
Lifts the gay head, in snowy flowrets fair,
And plays and dances to the gentle air;
When lo! a whirlwind from high heav’n invades
The tender plant, and withers all its shades;
It lies uprooted from its genial bed,
A lovely ruin now defac’d and dead.
Thus young, thus beautiful, Euphorbus lay,
While the fierce Spartan tore his arms away.”[16]
But what is related about the shield of this Phrygian Euphorbus, being
dedicated among other Trojan spoils to Argive Juno, we shall omit, as
being of a very popular nature. That, however, which he wished to
indicate through all these particulars is this, that he knew the former
lives which he had lived, and that from hence he commenced his
providential attention to others, reminding them of their former life.