 For Plutarch, the proximity of soul as such to body in its operations as living body is evidence for the superiority of the intellect. Inspired by passages in Plato such as Phaedrus 247c and Timaeus 30b, 90a, Plutarch argues that intellect is as superior to soul as soul is to body (De facie 943A). In his view, the intelligent part of the human soul is not subject to corruption (De genio Socratis 591D-F) and Plutarch identifies it with one's true self. He argues that one's self is neither that in virtue of which we sense nor that in virtue of which we desire, but rather that in virtue of which we reason and think (De facie 944F–945A; cf. Timaeus 90a-d). Plutarch actually goes so far as to distinguish two kinds of death, first when intellect leaves soul and body, second when soul leaves body (De facie 943A–B; see Donini 1988b, 140–143, Brenk 1994, 15). The separation of intellect from soul and body happens “by love for the image of the sun…for which all nature strives” (De facie 944E). The ascent to the sun as the goal of intellect symbolizes the human being's imitation of, and assimilation to, the divine, and is a frequent theme in Plutarch (De Iside 372D-E, De E 393D–F, De sera 556D; see Brenk 1994, 10–14, Becchi 1997). This is illustrated in the myth presented in On Delays in Divine Punishment of a certain Aridaeus, who like Er in the Republic, died but has come back to life to narrate his experience after death. The death of Aridaeus amounts to the fall of the intelligent part of his soul (to phronoun; De sera 563E–F, 566A), through which humans partake of the divine (564C), with the soul remaining behind (allê psychê) as an anchor in the body (564C; cf. 560C-D). The latter is the non-rational part of the soul, which is such because it is bound to the body (sômatoeidês; 566A) and inclines the entire soul toward earthly concerns, preventing the soul from going very far away (566D). This is very similar to what Plotinus maintains later in Enn. IV.8.8.1. However, in his On the Soul that is only fragmentarily preserved, Plutarch speaks of the separation of soul from body and recounts the story of a certain Antyllos who had died and then his soul had been released again (fr. 176 Sandbach). In this context Plutarch claims that the doctrine of the incorruptibility of the soul is an ancient one (fr. 177 Sandbach), a claim which may well be a criticism of the Epicurean doctrine of the mortality of soul (cf. Non posse suaviter vivi 1103F; see Bonazzi 2010, 78–83). Inspired by the Phaedo, Plutarch argues that the very task of philosophy is to prepare us for the separation from the body, which amounts to a life without bodily needs that he considers as the “true life”, which in his view the Epicureans ignore (Non posse suaviter vivi 1105C–E). After death, Plutarch claims, souls go through the process of reincarnation, which, as in Plato, is a form of punishment for wicked souls (De sera 567D-F). While all intellects live eternally, those of noble souls become divine (daimones) and operate as guardians of humans (De genio Socratis 593D-594A; see further Dillon 1977, 219–224). Such evidence suggests that for Plutarch both intellect and soul are immortal though in a different way, a doctrine we find also later in Porphyry (fr. 453 Smith).