The Search for Immortality in Archaic Greek Myth
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The Search for Immortality in Archaic Greek Myth Diana Helen Burton PhD University College, University of London 1996 ProQuest Number: 10106847 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. uest. ProQuest 10106847 Published by ProQuest LLC(2016). Copyright of the Dissertation is held by the Author. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. ProQuest LLC 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 Abstract This thesis considers the development of the ideology of death articulated in myth and of theories concerning the possibility, in both mythical and 'secular' contexts, of attaining some form of immortality. It covers the archaic period, beginning after Homer and ending with Pindar, and examines an amalgam of (primarily) literary and iconographical evidence. However, this study will also take into account anthropological, archaeological, philosophical and other evidence, as well as related theories from other cultures, where such evidence sheds light on a particular problem. The Homeric epics admit almost no possibility of immortality for mortals, and the possibility of retaining any significant consciousness of 'self' or personal identity after death and integration into the underworld is tailored to the poems rather than representative of any unified theory or belief. The poems of the Epic Cycle, while lacking Homer's strict emphasis on human mortality, nonetheless show little evidence of the range and diversity of types of immortality which develops in the archaic period. In the context of this development I discuss ways of defining death, such as the personification of Thanatos, forms of the 'good death', and definitions of mortality in terms of time and mutability vs. timelessness and stasis. Immortality is defined by the variants often associated with it (eg. agelessness, invulnerability) and their opposites. Mythical depictions of immortality show that the process of attaining it depends on materials which are themselves unattainable in most cases. A form of immortality, however, can be sought in fame, as the epinicians show. Interwoven with theories of immortality is a nexus of mythmaking about an afterlife in which a significant consciousness of self and personal identity is retained, in the introduction and/or alteration of myths concerning Hades, Elysion, and the White Isle, and the mystery cults. C ontents Abstract .......................................................................................................................... 2 C ontents........................................................................................................................3 List of illustrations......................................................................................................5 Note on conventions................................................................................................. 9 Acknowledgements .................................................................................................... 10 Introduction................................................................................................................. 11 Defining myth ................................................................................................. 13 Myth and folktale ............................................................................................ 16 Cultural comparisons....................................................................................21 Chapter 1 Heroes and epics......................................................................................24 1.1 Death: the I lia d ........................................................................................24 1.2 The gods: the Iliad.................................................................................... 31 1.3 Immortality: the Odyssey ....................................................................... 38 1.4 Memnon and the Epic Cycle.................................................................. 43 Chapter 2 Escaping death..........................................................................................57 2.1 Sisyphos and Thanatos...........................................................................57 2.2 Sisyphos again.......................................................................................... 63 2.3 Death and tim e.........................................................................................68 Chapter 3 Defining immortality............................................................................. 79 3.1 Defining immortality ..............................................................................79 3.2 Limited forms of immortality............................................................... 82 i. Ageing and agelessness: Tithonos............................................. 82 ii. Shared immortality: The Dioskouroi ....................................... 86 iii. Invulnerability ............................................................................. 90 3.3 Geryon and the G eryoneis....................................................................94 3.4 Geryon and Hum baba ............................................................................109 Chapter 4 How to become immortal..................................................................... 113 4.1 Introduction: those who seek, those who are sought after ............. 113 4.2 The iconography of immortality.......................................................... 121 4.3 Eat me, drink me, wear me: pharmaka, herbs, nektar and ambrosia ..................................................................................................... 126 4.4 Fire, water, lightning................... 131 4.5 Herakles fights death ............................................................................... 137 4.6 Conclusion ................................................................................................ 143 Chapter 5 The immortal dead................................................................................. 146 5.1 Introduction .............................................................................................. 146 5.2 Fame and m em ory .................................................................................. 149 5.3 Names and naming ................................................................................. 154 5.4 Sphinxes and graves................................................................................ 156 5.5 Heroes and hero-cults ............................................................................. 160 i. The hero in myth and folktale .................................................... 160 ii. The hero in life and death........................................................... 165 Chapter 6 Afterlifes: Demeter, Persephone, Hermes, Dionysos........................170 6.1 Introduction .............................................................................................. 170 6.2 The Homeric Hymn to Demeter and the Eleusinian Mysteries....................................................................................................171 6.3 Dionysos and Hermes ............................................................................. 176 6.4 Dionysiacs and Orphies........................................................................... 182 i. Texts: gold leaves, bone tablets .................................................... 182 ii. Myth: Dionysos, soot and lightning .......................................... 185 Dionysos....................................................................................185 S oot............................................................................................ 187 Lightning.................................................................................. 189 6.4 Conclusion ................................................................................................ 191 Concluding remarks................................................................................................... 195 Illustrations..................................................................................................................198 Bibliography.................................................................................................................242 List of illustrations 5 List of illustrations Fig. 1 Departing warrior: Athens, NM 1818, Attic white-ground lekythos. c. 440 BC, from Eretria; ARV^ 998.161: Achilles Painter (AHS pll. 186-187). Fig. 2 Departure of Amphiaraos: Once Berlin, Staatl. Mus. F 1655, now lost; Corinthian column krater, c. 560 BC (Schefold 1993: 282 pi. 300). Fig. 3 Departure of Achilleus: Boston, MFA 33.56; Attic red-figure volute krater, c. 450 BC; ARV^ 600.12: Niobid Painter (Simon 1963: 57-59 pi. 11.7). Fig. 4 Departure of Memnon: Mannheim, Reiss-Mus. Cg 59, Attic red- figure stamnos, c. 460 BC, from Petrignano near Castiglione del Lago; ARV^ 493.1: near Hermonax; Add^ 249 (Schefold 1980 pi. 85.5). Fig. 5 Eos takes up the body of Memnon: Paris, Louvre G 115, Attic red- figure cup; c. 485-480 BC, from S. Maria Capua Vetere, ARV^ 434.74: Douris; Para 375;