ous dedication of unusual solemnity, by which the members (“the Pure as they called themselves) were made worthy of the favor of the goddesses” (Rohde 222). The only way to please the goddesses and to keep the soul pure was through proper worship where traditional rituals took place to pass “redemption” over the soul. The ultimate goal was to achieve the blessings of the goddesses and to become liberated from the human body. “According to Orphic doctrine man’s duty is to free himself from the chains of the body in which the soul lies fast bound like the prisoner in his cell” (Rohde 342). If when death occurs, the soul is pure, the “releasing gods” may bless the soul and grant it salvation. However, if the soul is not deemed pure and good, it will be condemned to return again to the realm of earth in another human or animal.Just like many mysteries before them, the Pythagoreans were completely devoted to the soul and its immortality. This belief was something of paramount importance because Pythagoras implied more than the “mere survival” of the soul after death. “Pythagorean beliefs about the soul stand as the movement’s specific contributions to the development of religious thought; Pythagoras and his followers, whether original or not, were the first in the Greek world to articulate fully and successfully to advance the understanding of a self beyond the empirical personality” (Encyclopedia of Religion Vol. #12 pg. 114). As the Pythagoreans believed that “All is number”, they also believed the soul to be a harmony and that the great cosmic harmony with the soul is the ultimate destiny of existence. Alcmaeon, a Pythagorean, makes a statement that generalizes the Pythagoreans’ view on the immortality of the soul: “He says that the soul is immortal because it resembles the immortal beings in that it is always in motion; fo...
