Plutarch, in his work “On the Delays of Divine Vengeance” (Moralia 590-92), tells of one Aridaius, who falls from a height and is “dead” for three days. He miraculously revives at the time of his own funeral. He experiences a total change in his way of life and relates to his friends how his soul was carried into the heavenly regions. Led by a guide, he is shown the various fates of the souls of the dead and told that he is no longer to be known as Aridaius but as Thespesius—meaning “wondrous one.”
