'Elysium' Overview of the God Hades • Hades 'The Invisible

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'Elysium' Overview of the God Hades • Hades 'The Invisible Death and the Underworld: A Passion for life Ch. 12, pp.292-323 Listening to: Bear's Den, 'Elysium' Overview of the god Hades • Hades 'the invisible' • Brother of Zeus and Poseidon • also known as Pluto - ‘Enricher', 'rich’ (=Roman DIS) euphemistic names p.153 and p.293 • married to Persephone (=Roman Proserpina) How to get there from here: Underworld geography: River Styx, connected to all the earth's rivers and hollow passages Hermes psychopompus barathron (not discussed in Powell; this is the Greek word for 'hole in the ground that might go all the way down to the underworld') this is what the view from inside a barathron looking out would be: (Dodwell 1821 Katabathron of Lake Copais) Death, afterlife, anxiety about burial p.294 correct burial necessary for Patroclus to enter the underworld p. 294 For the ghosts keep me away, the phantoms of men done with their sufferings, and they will not allow me to join them on the other side of the river, and useless I wander through the wide-gated house of Hades' (Homer, Iliad 23) Minos: king of Crete > judge in the Underworld Tartaros: Extreme punishment for extreme individuals pp.305-6 Tantalus (‘tantalize’): "he stood in a swampy lake, whose water reached up to his chin. Strain as he might in his thirst, he never could drink of the water...." Sisyphus "pushing his boulder before him, straining with every limb to shoulder it over the crest of the hill. But just as it tottered, mocking gravity pushed it back, back again to the plain." Elysiusm /Elysian Fields: extreme rewards for extreme individuals "There at last you will find the most blessed fate for a mortal. Snow never falls, nor destructive storms or violent cloudbursts, for the ocean constantly sends the whistling breezes of Zephyr to brace and refresh the spirits, however fevered, of mortals" Homer, Odyssey 4 aeneas also sees his father anchises in the Elysian fields. Travellers to the underworld : Odysseus p. 299 f. 'we finally reached the deep tided current of Ocean, [and came] the land and city where dwell the Cimmerians, shrouded in mist. ... I promised a ram, the best of the rams in my flock for Tiresias all by himself all by himself. So I promised the crowds of the dead.' Elpenor: "do not leave me unwept and unburied .... lay me to rest with my weapons' p. 301 Anticlea: "My son, how is it you come to this echoing gloom? No echoing task for the living to find what is here in the darkness! Great rivers and horrible torrents swirl between in the journey, and chiefly the Ocean itself, which no one can ever pass over on foot, but must make his voyage on the deck of a well built ship ...fight your way back to the light, to tell your wife your adventures" p. 303 Achilles: "Better to serve as a hireling to another, a man who is landless and hungry himself, than to be ruler of all the shriveled-up dead." Orpheus and Eurydice 'running from you in terror and splashing her way through a stream, the poor girl, fated to perish, failed to see that a monstrous viper lurked in the long thick grass on the bank just over the river.' '[when Orpheus went to the underworld to get her back] his song fetched even the phantoms from the lowest circles of hell..." [he tries to bring her back up to the world of the living ... ] "But just as she came within reach of the fresh sweet wind of the heaven -- madness seized the incautious lover --- forgiveable yes, but only if death knew how to forgive." [he turns to check on her and she is drawn back to the underworld] women of Thrace, angry that Orpheus ignored them, tore Orpheus to pieces. ideas about reincarnation (transfer of souls to new bodies) or about the persistence of identity after death 1. Philosophical mode : Plato's Myth of Er, from his Republic 2. Ritual mode a. Orphism -rituals that taught people how to remember to be themselves when they entered the underworld: don't drink from the water of forgetfulness, instead drink from the spring of memory. golden 'passports to the underworld' bearing the instructions are buried with the person. b. Pythagoreanism -similar to or overlapping with Orphism, rituals that invloved understanding how souls enter and leave our bodies. Emphasis on not eating animals because they have souls. c. Bacchic cult -some worship of Dionysus was just about drinking, but some invovled going through experiences that tested one's ability to have a near death experience (e.g. go into a cave) and return as oneself. BY the Tiber river in Rome, women worshipping Dionysus plunged torches into the water and (because they had been coated with special water resistant flammable pitch) the torches came out still burning. This all gets connected with the idea that Dionysus went to the underworld to bring back his mother Semele. 3. Historical mode: Aeneas sees all of the souls of future Romans in Elysium p. 319 souls still enjoy, music, dance, chariots, etc. 'why such a mad desire for light?' (aeneid 6, not quoted in Powell) Greek and Roman stories of the underworld celebrate the pleasures and challenges of the here and now. a few sample questions 1. a sinner who suffers a similar punishment to that of Prometheus is: a) Ixion b) Sisyphus c) Tityus d) the Titans (this question- #1- won't appear on the exam) 2.Which of the following was NOT a feature of mystery cults? a) a preoccupation with the afterlife b) the revelation of secret objects c) rituals of initiation d) human sacrifice 3. Dante’s guide in the Underworld is: a) Vergil b) the Pythia c) Hermes d) the Sibyl 4. according to Vergil, aeneas' guide in on his visit to the underworld was a) Tiresias b) the Pythia c) Cassandra d) Hermes e) the Sibyl 5. Which of the following is NOT a chthonian deity? a) Hecate b) Charon c) athena d) the Furies 6. What are the Danaids condemned to do for eternity in the Underworld? a) to be tortured on wheels b) to fill leaky jars c) to push boulders uphill d) to crave food 7. according to Vergil, in order to make his journey to the Underworld, aeneas first had to obtain: a) magic sandals b) divine armor c) a cloak of invisibility d) the Golden Bough 8. 'From trees that arched up over his head drooped fruit of the richest and ripest; clusters of juicy fat pears, pomegranates, sweet fruited quinces, ripe olives, delectable figs. But whenever he tried to reach them, to pull them down with his hands, a gust of wind would blow them away to the shadowing clouds.' Which inhabitant of the underworld is being described? a) Tantalus b) Sisyphus c) Tityos d) Prometheus e) Ixion 9. The name ‘Pluto’ can be explained etymologically as a Greek word meaning a) Hateful b) Enricher c) Invisible d) Watch-dog scroll down for answers to sample questions 1. a 2. d 3. a 4. e 5. c 6.b 7.d 8.a 9.b .
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