CMLT316 Chapter Notes - Chapter 15 : Tisiphone, Aeacus, Cocytus
3 Jun 2018
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CH 15: Views of the Afterlife - The Realm of Hades
Three major authors provide a complete summary of the philosophical and religious beliefs
about the afterlife
● Homer, Odyssey, Book 11
● Plato, Republic, The myth of Er
● Vergil, Aeneid, Book 6
Homer, Odyssey
● To reach the entrance to the underworld, Odysseus and his men had to go to teh
farthest realm of the ocean
● Odysseus dug a pit and around it poured libations to the dead
○ Then he cut the throats of sacrificed animals so that their blood would run into
the pit where a multitude of the souls of the dead swarmed up
● Odysseus ordered his men to flay and burn the slaughtered animals to pray to Hades,
the king and queen of the Underworld
● Odysseus drew his sword and took his post at the pit of blood and did not allow the
spirits to drink the blood before he had spoken to Tiresias
Elpenor and Tiresias
● The soul of Odysseus’ comrade Elpenor came up first
● Elpenor had died after a fall from the roof of Circe’s palace but was not buried
● Odysseus promised to fulfill Elpenor’s directions for a proper burial
● Odysseus conversed with Tiresias
○ He explained that only the souls whom Odysseus allowed to drink of the blood
could converse with him
Odysseus Meets His Mother Anticlea
● Odysseus’ meeting with his mother Anticlea is of the greatest importance
○ He learns about the mystery of existence
● The hero who conquers death expereices the afterlife and returns to this world knowing
with certainty the ultimate truth about life and death
● This is what Anticlea reveals to her son:
○ This is the doom of mortals when they die, for no longer do sinews hold bones
and flesh together, but the mighty power of blazing fire consumes all, as soon as
the life breath leaves our white bones and flesh, and the soul like a dream flutters
and flies away,
Many other souls come up, including a parade of beautiful heroines. Odysseus
sees a group of illustrious heroes, among whom is Achilles. Their interview has
become most famous because of Achilles’ disparaging remarks about death are
thought to mirror Greek humanistic attitudes (see MLS, Chapter 6): he would
prefer to be the slave of a poor man than to rule over all the dead. Odysseus also
saw a group of sinners being punished, for example, Tantalus and Sisyphus, who
will be identified below.
The Homeric Underworld
● The Homeric picture of the underworld is not clearly defined
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● The heroes seem to form a special group in a meadow of asphodel
● These souls are vague spirits with all the passions they had while alive
● The group of great mythological sinners identified may occupy a special hell
● This is the afterlife as imagined in the eighth and seventh centuries BC
Plato’s Myth of Er
● A man named ER died in war and after 12 days his body was uncorrupted and he
returned to life, sent as a messenger from the other world to describe all he had seen
● Divine place where there were two openings in the earth; opposite were two other
openings in the upper region of the sky
○ In the space between these four openings were judges who passed sentences
○ They ordered the just to go to the right through one of the openings upward into
the sky, but they sent the unjust to the left through one of the downward
openings
● Er also saw from the remaining two openings some souls coming up out of the earth,
covered with dust and dirt, and others descending from the sky, pure and shining
The Sinners
● The first from out of the earth wept as they recounted their torments, which lasted one
thousand years
● Those who were really wicked were never allowed to return out of the earth
The Virtuous
● The second group descended from the opening in the sky
● Told of the great happiness they had felt and the sights of beauty
● Completed their cycle of one thousand years
The Choosing of a New Life
● All souls proceeded on another journey to arrive at a special place that provided a
cosmic view of the universe
○ Controlled by the spindle of Necessity and her daughters, the three Fates
○ Where the Sirens’ song echoed the harmony of the spheres
● In this place, each soul had to pick a lot and choose form examples of lives before
beginning the next cycle of mortality
● In front of these souls were placed the examples of every kind of life possible for human
beings and for all living creatures
● All-important was the choice that a soul would make; it must have learned from its
experiences in life and in death to know the difference between the good life and the
wicked, and always choose the better rather than the worse
● This is the crucial choice for a human being always, whether living or dead, and the
choice is the individual’s own; god is blameless
Rebirth and Reincarnation
● When all the souls had chose their lives each was given a divine guardian spirit
● They came to the river of “forgetfulness” where it was necessary that they drink a certain
amount
● As they drank, they became forgetful of everything and fell asleep
● In the middle of the night they were suddenly carried upward to be reborn
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find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Ch 15: views of the afterlife - the realm of hades. Three major authors provide a complete summary of the philosophical and religious beliefs about the afterlife. To reach the entrance to the underworld, odysseus and his men had to go to teh farthest realm of the ocean. Odysseus dug a pit and around it poured libations to the dead. Then he cut the throats of sacrificed animals so that their blood would run into the pit where a multitude of the souls of the dead swarmed up. Odysseus ordered his men to flay and burn the slaughtered animals to pray to hades, the king and queen of the underworld. Odysseus drew his sword and took his post at the pit of blood and did not allow the spirits to drink the blood before he had spoken to tiresias. The soul of odysseus" comrade elpenor came up first.
