CLASSICS 2B03 Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: Proserpina, Rhadamanthus, Sisyphus
3 Dec 2014
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Greeks had varied views of the afterlife: no firm sense of it. Odysseus must ravel to underworld to consult ghost of teiresias (cp 44) Here perimedes and eurylochus held the victims, while i drew my sword and dug the trench a cubit each way. Ghosts must drink blood from trench in order to speak with odysseus. Teiresias, and his mother: my son, she answered, most ill-fated of all mankind, it is not persephone that is beguiling you, but all people are like this when they are dead. The sinews no longer thold the flesh and bones together; these perish in the fierceness of consuming fire as soon as life has left the body, and the soul flits away as though it were a dream. Now, however, go back to the light of day as soon as you can. Odysseus sees many famous heroes and firneds: female ghosts first (alcmena, leda, jocasta)
