The Afterlife in the Classical and Italian Traditi

I would like to go back to Friday’s dialogue between Abby and Sophie. They discussed the Dante’s Devine Comedy and how he addresses that there are no classes amongst the shades. Instead, each individual soul has the same power as another, with each shade serving God. I wanted to compare this with this weeks reading, Phaedo, in which Socrates gives a detail description of the afterlife, and the different rivers that serve as the destination of a soul’s fate. While I was reading Socrates’ description, I couldn’t help but think these souls were infact, anything but a “democracy.” On page 194, part b, Socrates describes the souls who are guilty of sins that are curable. He writes how they “come past the Acherusian Lake, there they cry aloud and call upon those whom they have killed or violently abused, and calling, beg, and entreat for leave to pass from the stream in the lake,and be received by them. If they prevail, they come out and there is an end of their distress; but if not, they are swept away once more” I believe this quote directly contradicts with Dante’s Devine Comedy. Here, the fate of this “curable souls” is in the hands of other souls. They must ask for forgiveness from the souls they have afflicted and only from the power of these souls, can the “curable” souls be saved.