Myth Topic 11
Myths of Death
Greeks—Bleak
conception of the afterlife
Accounts of the underworld: Homer's Odyssey (Book 11)
Vergil's Aeneid (Book 6)
Hades—“the unseen one”
Pluto—“the
enricher” (Romans:
also “Dis / Dives” rich”)
realm:
Orcus
Kidnaps and marries his
niece Persephone
daughter
of Demeter
connection
of death and fertility
Conception of soul as breath
psyche – anima – spiritus
Ghosts / shades –usually in Hades
unless
something goes wrong
improper
burial
Good ghosts—protective spirits
Most, however, are angry and jealous of
the living
Erinyes—Furies
retribution
Customs designed to appease the dead
bury with
possessions
nobody
has benefited from the death
Gloomy clothing
Public weeping—pulling of hair
Impressive
tombs—mausoleums/pyramids
Illiad
23.60-119
Patroclus’
spirit comes to Achilles, begging for burial
Hermes –psychopompos
Epicurus (341-270
BC) denied that soul survives death
Homer’s Odyssey Book 11
Odysseus’
–Journey to death’s realm
Odysseus narrates
this story at a banquet
Instructed by
Circe to seek ghost of Tiresias
Set sail for the
shore of Ocean
Ritual to lure
the dead (shamanistic)
pit:
honey and milk; sweet wine; water and barley
kill
some sheep
promise
of more sacrifice when he gets home
A Terrible crowd
gathers
his
sword offers some protection
First—Elpenor
one
of his men; dies by accident at Circe's
please
go back and get my body!
A grave on the
coast; a reminder to men
His mother – Anticlea;
but
first speak to Tiresias
The
prophet/soothsayer of Thebes
(advisor to Cadmus, Pentheus,
Oedipus, Creon)
How to break his
curse (be forgiven by Poseidon) and return home
Odysseus Meets:
His Mother Anticlea
He tries three
times to embrace her
she
explains why it doesn't work
the
soul is separate from the body
Best of ...
Women of Myth
“Wives and
Daughters of the heroes of old”
Antiope
(Amphion and Zethus’ mom)
Alcmene
(Heracles’ mom)
Epicaste
(Oedipus’ mom; usually called Jocasta)
Leda (Castor and Polydeuces/Pollux mom)
Ariadne
“I could not tell
you all I saw…”
Odysseus’ hosts, Arete and Alcinous, urge him on
Heroes of Troy
Bitter
Agamemnon--“don't trust your wife!” (Clytemnestra)
Achilles –
Odysseus flatters him and is chided
he
wants to know about his son
Ajax – refuses to
speak
The shades in Hades are obsessed with the living
Lines 596 ff.:
The Interior of Hades
Description of
Hades proper
Minos the Judge
Those in Torment
Tityos
raped
Leto
vulture
eating his liver
Tantalus
tested
gods (father of Pelops)
trickster
Tricked death
A fixed list: nobody is added
this
is for really famous people; not ordinary dead
Meets the ghost
of Heracles
Other possibility
of afterlife mentioned in Homer
—Elysium (Elysian
Fields)
for
Menelaus, Odyssey, 4.590-599
See also Odyssey 24.1-212
the
ghosts of the suitors are “welcomed” to Hades
ORPHEUS and Eurydice
Thracian prince
On wedding day, bee-keeper Aristaeus attempts to rape her
she
dies while running away, bitten by a snake
Orpheus uses his
awesome singing
charms
Hades and Persephone
the
whole underworld stops to listen
as
long as you don't look back
Story was very
popular in Hellenistic and Roman times
from
Ovid's Metamorphoses
Bk
X:1-85 Orpheus and Eurydice
Bk
XI:1-66 The death of Orpheus
(he invents male homosexuality?)
the
Bacchae tear him to shreds
from
Vergil's Georgics
(ACM 430-432)
Orpheus' singing
brings all to a complete stop
animals,
everyone; shades; oak trees
Orphism
starting
in 6th c BC
Offer ordinary Greeks
comfortable life after death
Allegedly based
on teaching of Orpheus
offers
own cosmogony and anthropogony:
Zeus created
humans from the ashes of the destroyed Titans
thus
humans have an evil nature
but
Titans ate Dionysus, so humans divine spark inside
External—Titanic
Internal –
Dionysian
“the body is a tomb”
dualism
Taught metampsychosis
– reincarnation of the soul
accepted
by Plato and Vergil
Soul and Body
transmitted
to Fathers of the Church by Plato
(and Neo-Platonists; 3rd c Plotinus)
Plato
– Myth of Er (from The Republic)
ACM 367–72
Plato is hostile
to myths, except the ones he makes up
On the importance
of Justice:
justice
can also occur after death,
punishment
and reward
Er
– a man who had a near-death experience
the
dead face judges
Er
is to be a witness for the living
Unjust pay the
penalty 10x for each transgression
injustice
to each individual
“He said some
thing about the stillborn and those who had lived only a short time, but
they’re not worth recounting.”
“Incurably wicked
people” are sent to Tartaros
The Spindle of
Necessity
The Fates
Choose your daimon / guardian
spirit
Difficult to
foretell result
tyrant
may eat his children
Famous choices
·
Orpheus: swan (he hates girls)
·
Ajax: lion
·
Odysseus: “the life of a private individual
who does his own work”
Cross the Plain
of Forgetfulness
drink
from the River on Unheeding
clean
soul carried back to earth
Vergil,
Aeneid,
Latin/Roman
70-19 BCE
Aeneas: Trojan
price, survivor of Troy, son of Aphrodite/Venus
Sets out to found
New Troy (=Rome)
incorporates
Greek and Roman ideas
based
much on Homer
Aeneid
Books 1-6 like Odyssey
Books 7–12 like Iliad
from
Book 6, ACM 421-430
Aeneas must seek
out his dead father—Anchises
is
lead by the Sibyl of Cumae
The entrance is
in Italy
Much more
elaborate ceremony
much
more elaborate geography
Must cross the
River Acheron with the help of Charon
one
of Aeneas men (Palinurus) begs to be buried
specific
details about the fate of the unburied
Aeneas and Sibyl
almost swamp the boat
give
him some drugs
Clearer division
of dead:
Those who died too soon (“limbo”):
infants
wrongly
convicted
guiltless
suicides
Fields of Mourning
died
for love including Dido
warriors
Greeks (Danaans) cower at sight of Aeneas
Mets Deiphobus, mutilated by Helen
Tartarus
Aeneas can’t go
there, by the Sibyl can describe it
Wicked are forced
to confess
Eternal
punishment
Famous sufferers:
dishonor
the gods
impiety
Monsters
Tityos
Pirithous
General
Categories:
Hate brothers or
parents
miserly
slain
in adultery
breakers
of oaths
traitors
incests
“Learn
righteousness—be you warned—and do not scorn the gods!”
“I could never
name all the crimes and punishments”
(better call Dante)
Elysium / Blessed Groves
those
who died in battle, sages and poets
part
of underworld, not upper world as in Homer
based
in great part on Plato
Meets his father
taking
an account of his family
the
cycle of life
reincarnation
culminating
in Julius Caesar and
Octavian
(Augustus) Caesar
