How would you express the concept of reincarnation?

Question

How would you express the concept of reincarnation in Latin? I understand that the Romans did not really have this concept, but I would like to know how to express it in Latin. It does not need to be a single word and can be literal or metaphorical. One could say something akin to being born again but seems too literal like one was saying that you were being birthed again. Perhaps it would make more sense to indicate living a second life.

Related question: How would you extend the phrase "memento mori"?

Answer 1

In the City of God, St. Augustine writes:

Mirabilius autem quiddam Marcus Varro ponit in libris, quos conscripsit de gente populi Romani, cuius putavi verba ipsa ponenda. “Genethliaci quidam scripserunt, inquit, esse in renascendis hominibus quam appellant παλιγγενεσίαν Graeci; hac scripserunt confici in annis numero quadringentis quadraginta ut idem corpus et eadem anima quae fuerint coniuncta in homine aliquando eadem rursus redeant in coniunctionem."

(Moreover, in the books which he wrote On the Race of the Roman People Marcus Varro sets down a more marvellous thing. I think his words should be quoted: “Certain astrologers have written that there is a rebirth of men which the Greeks call palingenesia, by which in four hundred forty years the same body and soul which were once joined in a man come back to be joined once more.”) (Translated by William Green)

So, the term used is renascor (rebirth). There is also the word regeneratio which is found in biblical contexts, although I am not certain being born again as in the New Testament (or in the above from Augustine) qualifies as reincarnation because reincarnation I think implies being born again in a different body, not the same body.

Answer 2

Some of the ancient Greeks believed in reincarnation. The pythagoreans were known for it, so they obviously had a Greek word for it. Pomponius Porphyrio, writing in Latin in the second century A.D., uses the word metempsychosis for it, obviously a loan word from the Greek.

It's not exactly an attested classical word, but it was used not too long after the Silver Age. I am surprised that PHI's text search turns up only one hit for it and that Cicero seems never to have discussed it.