Term 2 - Lec 8 (Underworld) Flashcards
What is Archaic Greek Eschatology? (How is life and death presented in Homeric epics and Theogany?)
- Underworld = final home of all mortals = devoid of light/joy/hope + no escape
- LIFE IS EXTREMELY PRECIOUS
- Therefore, it’s the mark of a hero to risk life in battle
- hero’s rewards = timé during life and kleos after death (kleos outlives the hero; a form of immortality)
- for others, children are also form of immortality
Characteristics of the Underworld + Important Characters
- entrances at extreme, inaccessible regions of the world
- souls must cross over a river (i.e. Styx, Acheron)
- Charon = the ferry man
- Hermes = psychopomp (takes dead souls to cross that final body)
- Cerberus = many-headed dog, guards the gates
What is Elysium?
= a paradise; full of light + music
- soul must be allowed to go there by Zeus
- rare
What is Tartarus? Name 4 examples of individuals sent to Tartarus
= the “cellar of Hades” (even further down)
- home of those singled out for the most horrible punishments
- i.e. Tityus, Tantalus, Sisyphus, Ixion
- ironic that most of these sinners are children of the divine or of Zeus (being sent to Tartarus reflects their mortal component)
Who was Tityus?
= son of Zeus
- tried to rape Leto and was therefore killed her children (Artemis and Apollo)
- Punishment = tied to the ground while 2 vultures devour his liver (this was thought to the be “seat of passions”)
Who was Tantalus?
= son of Zeus
- dined with the Gods + stole their divine food
- tried to feed his son Pelops to the gods
(Demeter accidentally eats the shoulder because she’s consumed by grief over her daughter; shows the importance of dining in the ordering of society)
- Punishment = ‘tantalized’ by food/water just out of his reach
Who was Sisyphus?
= son of Aeolus (minor god)
- a trickster –> ties up Thanatos (Death), everyone stops dying
- Ares releases Thanatos and Sisypus “dies” but he tricks Hades
(tells his wife not to perform funeral rites that allow him to make the transition and Hades allows him to return home to reprimand his wife but Sisyphus instead stays and dies later of old age)
- the ultimate sinner because violates the natural limit of one’s life
- Punishment = roll a rock repeatedly up a hill (a meaningless task for his life_
Who was Ixion?
= first to kill his own kin
- engaged in a marriage contract and promised bride-gifts to his father-in-law
- invited father-in-law to come and collect them but instead prepared a pit of fire and killed him
- therefore, violation of kinship + deception of hospitality
- no god could purify him, Zeus performed the purification out of pity and invited him as a guest among the gods
- Ixion tries raping Hera
(but Hera was replaced by a cloud imitation instead so Ixion has sex with a cloud –> gives birth to race of Centaurs)
- Punishment = tied to a wheel which rolls all over the world as warning to others to behave proper
What are later representations of the underworld?
- myths started reflecting idea of maybe something better than death
- arrangement of Hades becomes more complex, different regions of souls with different degrees of virtue
- different mystery religions (Eleusinian Mysteries, Orphic cult, Dionysiac Mysteries) –> offered initiates hope for a blessed afterlife
