CLAS 110 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Sarpedon, Krater, Laodamia
Week 3
● Death and the Underworld -- Demeter and Hades
○ Questions
■ What does the myth of Hades reveal about Greek thoughts/fears about
death? The Afterlife?
■ How is the Underworld
○ Hades (Pluto) -- Latin: Pluto
■ Son of Cronos and Rhea
■ Offspring: None
■ Attributes: scepter, throne, cornucopia
■ Epithets
■ Rituals/Sanctuaries
● No formal
● Caves
● Funerary Rites for the deceased
■ Got the job of ruling the underworld by losing the lottery with his brothers
○ Miasma: impurity, can make others and their descendants impure
○ House of Atreus
■ Tantalus -- kills son Pelops and feeds him to the gods. Punished in Hades
■ Atreus and Thyestes -- brothers
● Atreus kills the sons of Thyestes and feeds them to him in a stew
■ Miasma of this action punishes not Atreus but the future generations of
the Atreus Household
○ How does one’s actions determine one’s afterlife?
■ Hades does not judge the souls of the dead. Does not punish. Is not
interested.
● All treated with equal detachment
■ Does not demand death. Does not cause death.
■ Oversees the realm of the dead
● “Owns” the dead souls -- rich (pluto) with souls
● Thanatus (death) and Hypnus (sleep)
○ Greek notion of the Underworld
■ Where? No good answers but commonly believed to be below
● This is why the underworld and Hades are commonly connected
to the success of agriculture since the nutrients for plants comes
from the ground below our feet
■ Geographic Features
● Rivers
○ Styx (hated)
○ Lethe (forgetfulness)
○ Acheron (sorrows)
○ Pyriphlegethon (fiery)
○ Cocytus (wailing)
Document Summary
Death and the underworld -- demeter and hades. Got the job of ruling the underworld by losing the lottery with his brothers. Miasma: impurity, can make others and their descendants impure. Tantalus -- kills son pelops and feeds him to the gods. Atreus kills the sons of thyestes and feeds them to him in a stew. Miasma of this action punishes not atreus but the future generations of the atreus household. Hades does not judge the souls of the dead. Owns the dead souls -- rich (pluto) with souls. No good answers but commonly believed to be below. This is why the underworld and hades are commonly connected to the success of agriculture since the nutrients for plants comes from the ground below our feet. Placement here does not necessarily mean you did bad in your living life. Underworld is place where the souls live .
