Review the scenes in Hades in Books 11 and 24 of the Odyssey. What can you learn about Homer's conception of life after death from reading them?
In sharing the perceptions of his fellow Greeks of his time on life and death, Homer expresses their belief on the matter in the Odyssey, that life is the greatest gift man has, and that there is nothing joyful after death. This very idea is expressed earlier in Book 9 of the Iliad by Achilles, “Not worth the value of my life are all the possessions they fable were won for Ilion. . . A man's life cannot come back again." However, another interesting point to make is that Achilles chose a glorious death over a long, dull life, despite his views of life and death. This goes to show how important honor and glory were for a hero of the time and how his heroic deeds and fame would continue to affect people’s lives long after his death.
There are lengthy, detailed rituals associated with someone’s death and burial in Homer’s time, and great importance is given to them. One example is the death of Elpenor, one of Ulysses’ men, who broke his neck after getting drunk and falling off the roof of Circe’s house. While in Hades, Odysseus gets to speak with his spirit,"The first ghost 'that came was that of my comrade Elpenor, for he had not yet been laid beneath the earth. We had left his body unwaked and unburied in Circe's house.” Elpenor asks Odysseus to see to his burial by all means, “Do not go thence leaving me unwaked and unburied behind you, or I may bring heaven's anger upon you; but burn me with whatever armour I have, build a barrow for me on the sea shore, that may tell people in days to come what a poor unlucky fellow I was, and plant over my grave the oar I used to row with when I was yet alive and with my messmates.' This goes along with the events in the Iliad where Achilles seeks revenge for the murder of his friend Patroclus. After killing Hector, Achilles drags his corpse around the camp in honor of Patroclus. For him and his people, mutilating a dead body was an extreme insult brought to the dead man and his pained family, which is also why King Priam ends up begging Achilles for the return of his deceased son’s corpse to his family.
As they reach the dark, sinister Hades, Odysseus and his men are “weeping and in great distress of mind.” Intrigued by comparisons made between scenes described in the Odyssey and What Dreams May Come, I watched the movie and could indeed relate the two. The place the characters were headed to was “enshrouded in mist and darkness,” the dead “came from every quarter and flitted round the trench with a strange kind of screaming sound that made me turn pale with fear,” “The ghosts were screaming round him like scared birds flying all whithers,” and they would “whine and squeal as Mercury the healer of sorrow led them down into the dark abode of death.”
It is interesting to analyze the way Homer looks at death and afterlife in the Odyssey especially when comparing it to today’s perceptions in Christianity. Although Hades is definitely not the equivalent of the Christian hell, nor is there any mentioning of the Elysian Fields nor the Tartarus (the equivalents of Heaven and Hell, respectively) in the Odyssey, those terrifying images of the way to Hell were very well represented in the movie.
Although a precursor of Epicurus, Homer expresses a belief that somewhat seems to be later shared by him, that of no existence of Heaven or Hell, nor of the interference of gods in human life. Although he talks about gods in his works, Homer has often been thought of as one to not believe in gods, or to simply mock them. To him, it is death that gives meaning to life, it is happiness and dear friends at the heart of good living, it is human interactions that fulfill us, as Mercury himself wonders while at Circe’s secluded cave, “who could possibly want to come all this way over the sea where there are no cities full of people to offer me sacrifices or choice hecatombs?” Zeus himself “says that [she is] to let this by man go at once, for it is decreed that he shall not perish here, far from his own people, but shall return to his house and country and see his friends again."
In Hades, the shades of both good people and wrongdoers coexist. Nothing happens in Hades, it is just “limbo” as Elpenor calls it. No life means no joy, and the spirits are starved for a connection with the living, for news from the living world. Achilles expresses this idea very well in Book 11 in his conversation with Ulysses in Hades, “'Say not a word,' he answered, 'in death's favour; I would rather be a paid servant in a poor man's house and be above ground than king of kings among the dead. But give me news about son; is he gone to the wars and will he be a great soldier, or is this not so? Tell me also if you have heard anything about my father Peleus- does he still rule among the Myrmidons, or do they show him no respect throughout Hellas and Phthia now that he is old and his limbs fail him?” That is also why the ghosts of the dead are attracted to the sacrificial blood. For them, it represents the juice of life, their communication channel with the living, from which they try to drain life for themselves, “so many thousands of ghosts came round me and uttered such appalling cries, that [Ulysses] was panic stricken.”
Although Odysseus had travelled to Hades to get advice from the Theban seer Tiresias on his journey back to Ithaca, his encounter with the shades was a painful one, especially in the case of his own mother. After drinking the sacrificial blood, she finally recognized him, and spoke to him about the events in Ithaca and gave him news about his family. His pain only grows harder when he tries to lovingly hug his mother but is unable to, “Then [he] tried to find some way of embracing my mother's ghost. Thrice sprang towards her and tried to clasp her in [his] arms, but each time she flitted from [his] embrace as it were a dream or phantom, and being touched to the quick [he] said to her, 'Mother, why do you not stay still when I would embrace you? If we could throw our arms around one another
we might find sad comfort in the sharing of our sorrows even in the house of Hades.” In reply, she explains that “all people are like this when they are dead. The sinews no longer hold 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,” which gives us more insight on the Greeks’ perception of the human soul and its states throughout a person’s life.
Discovering Homer’s and his fellow Greeks’ ideas of life and death is an amazing journey in itself. They made a priority out of trying to lead a fulfilling life as they feared the “nothing” after death. They praised life and gave great importance to it, as they saw afterlife as a “limbo” state of sorrow and emptiness, dull and action deprived, a realm of purposelessness and mindless wandering.
In sharing the perceptions of his fellow Greeks of his time on life and death, Homer expresses their belief on the matter in the Odyssey, that life is the greatest gift man has, and that there is nothing joyful after death. This very idea is expressed earlier in Book 9 of the Iliad by Achilles, “Not worth the value of my life are all the possessions they fable were won for Ilion. . . A man's life cannot come back again." However, another interesting point to make is that Achilles chose a glorious death over a long, dull life, despite his views of life and death. This goes to show how important honor and glory were for a hero of the time and how his heroic deeds and fame would continue to affect people’s lives long after his death.
There are lengthy, detailed rituals associated with someone’s death and burial in Homer’s time, and great importance is given to them. One example is the death of Elpenor, one of Ulysses’ men, who broke his neck after getting drunk and falling off the roof of Circe’s house. While in Hades, Odysseus gets to speak with his spirit,"The first ghost 'that came was that of my comrade Elpenor, for he had not yet been laid beneath the earth. We had left his body unwaked and unburied in Circe's house.” Elpenor asks Odysseus to see to his burial by all means, “Do not go thence leaving me unwaked and unburied behind you, or I may bring heaven's anger upon you; but burn me with whatever armour I have, build a barrow for me on the sea shore, that may tell people in days to come what a poor unlucky fellow I was, and plant over my grave the oar I used to row with when I was yet alive and with my messmates.' This goes along with the events in the Iliad where Achilles seeks revenge for the murder of his friend Patroclus. After killing Hector, Achilles drags his corpse around the camp in honor of Patroclus. For him and his people, mutilating a dead body was an extreme insult brought to the dead man and his pained family, which is also why King Priam ends up begging Achilles for the return of his deceased son’s corpse to his family.
As they reach the dark, sinister Hades, Odysseus and his men are “weeping and in great distress of mind.” Intrigued by comparisons made between scenes described in the Odyssey and What Dreams May Come, I watched the movie and could indeed relate the two. The place the characters were headed to was “enshrouded in mist and darkness,” the dead “came from every quarter and flitted round the trench with a strange kind of screaming sound that made me turn pale with fear,” “The ghosts were screaming round him like scared birds flying all whithers,” and they would “whine and squeal as Mercury the healer of sorrow led them down into the dark abode of death.”
It is interesting to analyze the way Homer looks at death and afterlife in the Odyssey especially when comparing it to today’s perceptions in Christianity. Although Hades is definitely not the equivalent of the Christian hell, nor is there any mentioning of the Elysian Fields nor the Tartarus (the equivalents of Heaven and Hell, respectively) in the Odyssey, those terrifying images of the way to Hell were very well represented in the movie.
Although a precursor of Epicurus, Homer expresses a belief that somewhat seems to be later shared by him, that of no existence of Heaven or Hell, nor of the interference of gods in human life. Although he talks about gods in his works, Homer has often been thought of as one to not believe in gods, or to simply mock them. To him, it is death that gives meaning to life, it is happiness and dear friends at the heart of good living, it is human interactions that fulfill us, as Mercury himself wonders while at Circe’s secluded cave, “who could possibly want to come all this way over the sea where there are no cities full of people to offer me sacrifices or choice hecatombs?” Zeus himself “says that [she is] to let this by man go at once, for it is decreed that he shall not perish here, far from his own people, but shall return to his house and country and see his friends again."
In Hades, the shades of both good people and wrongdoers coexist. Nothing happens in Hades, it is just “limbo” as Elpenor calls it. No life means no joy, and the spirits are starved for a connection with the living, for news from the living world. Achilles expresses this idea very well in Book 11 in his conversation with Ulysses in Hades, “'Say not a word,' he answered, 'in death's favour; I would rather be a paid servant in a poor man's house and be above ground than king of kings among the dead. But give me news about son; is he gone to the wars and will he be a great soldier, or is this not so? Tell me also if you have heard anything about my father Peleus- does he still rule among the Myrmidons, or do they show him no respect throughout Hellas and Phthia now that he is old and his limbs fail him?” That is also why the ghosts of the dead are attracted to the sacrificial blood. For them, it represents the juice of life, their communication channel with the living, from which they try to drain life for themselves, “so many thousands of ghosts came round me and uttered such appalling cries, that [Ulysses] was panic stricken.”
Although Odysseus had travelled to Hades to get advice from the Theban seer Tiresias on his journey back to Ithaca, his encounter with the shades was a painful one, especially in the case of his own mother. After drinking the sacrificial blood, she finally recognized him, and spoke to him about the events in Ithaca and gave him news about his family. His pain only grows harder when he tries to lovingly hug his mother but is unable to, “Then [he] tried to find some way of embracing my mother's ghost. Thrice sprang towards her and tried to clasp her in [his] arms, but each time she flitted from [his] embrace as it were a dream or phantom, and being touched to the quick [he] said to her, 'Mother, why do you not stay still when I would embrace you? If we could throw our arms around one another
we might find sad comfort in the sharing of our sorrows even in the house of Hades.” In reply, she explains that “all people are like this when they are dead. The sinews no longer hold 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,” which gives us more insight on the Greeks’ perception of the human soul and its states throughout a person’s life.
Discovering Homer’s and his fellow Greeks’ ideas of life and death is an amazing journey in itself. They made a priority out of trying to lead a fulfilling life as they feared the “nothing” after death. They praised life and gave great importance to it, as they saw afterlife as a “limbo” state of sorrow and emptiness, dull and action deprived, a realm of purposelessness and mindless wandering.
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