The Underworld

Annabel Orchard

Ixion in the Underworld, red figure amphora c. 330 BCE. hp://www.apcon.gr/pelion/images/ mythology/centaurs/ixion.jpg

The Underworld

Some literary sources

Greek: Homer, Odyssey 11 Homer, Iliad 20, 23 Plato, Republic: ‘Myth of Er’

Roman: Virgil, Aeneid 6 Virgil, Georgics 4

Annabel Orchard The Homeric Underworld

Hades (Ais, Aides, Aidoneus): • brother of Zeus • Division of spheres: Zeus, Poseidon, Hades • Lord of Underworld, Host of the Dead Persephone – consort of Hades

“House of Hades”, “Hades’ (place)” = the Underworld, the geographical location

Annabel Orchard The Homeric Underworld geographical location:

Homer, Iliad 20. 61-5: below earth

Homer, Odyssey 10, 11: across Ocean

Annabel Orchard The Homeric Afterlife

Odyssey 11: • Final destination for (almost) all, no differential treatment

Exceptions in Odyssey (not in Iliad): • Castor and Polydeuces • Herakles • Menelaus: Elysium, Odyssey 4. 561ff

Annabel Orchard The Homeric Afterlife

Homer, Iliad

• Psyche – “breath”? (Death of Hektor, 22. 361ff) • Eidolon – “image”? • Importance of proper burial Hypnos, Thanatos, Hermes and the body of (Ghost of Patroklos, Sarpedon. Ac Red Figure calyx krater, signed by Euphronios, ca 515 BCE, 23. 65ff) Metropolitan Museum, New York, USA , Cat. No.: New York 1972.11.10 Annabel Orchard hp://www.theoi.com/Gallery/N12.1.html The Homeric Afterlife

Odyssey 11: • Bleak view of afterlife • The dead are senseless, gibbering, insubstantial

Elpenor, Odysseus and Hermes. Athenian red-figure clay vase about 475-425 BC. Boston (MA) Museum of Fine Arts 34.79 William Amory Gardner Fund. Beazley Archive, Oxford, Photo E3302: hps://www.beazley.ox.ac.uk/diconary/Dict/ASP/diconarybody.asp?name=Elpenor

Annabel Orchard Notorious criminals Odyssey 11 • Tityos • Tantalos • Sisyphos

Other sources: vase paintings, Virgil, Georgics, Aeneid Ixion in the Underworld, red figure amphora c. 330 BCE. • Danaids hp://www.apcon.gr/pelion/ • Ixion images/mythology/centaurs/ ixion.jpg

Annabel Orchard Virgil, Aeneid 6

• Much more complex topography

• Tartarus: for ordinary mortal sinners • Elysium: a special zone for the enlightened

Annabel Orchard Virgil, Aeneid 6

• Moral differentation, reward • Transmigration of souls

Influenced by ideas of Pythagoras, the Orphic writings, Plato: eg Republic, “Myth of Er”

Annabel Orchard The hero’s quest to the Underworld • Ultimate heroic feat • Rite of passage aspect: death and rebirth

Annabel Orchard Heroic quests to the Underworld

Heracles

Apollodorus, Library 2.4.12ff Homer,

Odyssey Heracles and Cerberus at the gates of the Underworld. Ac Amphora aributed to the Andokides Painter and 11. 717ff Lysippides Painter, ca 520 - 510 BCE: Musée du Louvre, Paris, France, Cat.Nuo.: Louvre F204 hp://www.theoi.com/Gallery/M12.2.html Annabel Orchard Heroic quests to the Underworld

Theseus

Apollodorus, Epitome 1.24

Virgil, Aeneid

6. 393ff. Heracles (right) rescues Theseus from the Underworld. Ac Annabel Orchard red figure lekythos: hp://www.uncg.edu/cla/slides/heraktheseus.jpg Heroic quests to the Underworld

Orpheus

Virgil, Georgics 4 Ovid, Metamorphoses 10

Hermes, Eurydice and Orpheus, Roman copy in Pentelic marble of a c. 420 BCE Greek original, Musee de Louvre: hp://www.mam.gov.mo/2008041201/ photos/large/2008041201093.jpg Annabel Orchard Typical Underworld features

Rivers, water • Pyriphlegethon (flaming fire) • Styx (Hate) • Cocytus (Wailing) • Acheron (Woe) • Lethe (Oblivion) Charon and Hermes. Ac white-ground lekythos by Charon the ferryman the Sabouroff painter, date unknown, Naonal Museum, Athens: hp://www.uark.edu/campus-resources/dlevine/Charon.jpg Annabel Orchard Typical Underworld features

Thrones of Hades and Persephone

Judges:

• Minos • Rhadymanthus • Aeacus

Annabel Orchard Typical Underworld features Cerberus: guard dog Aeneid 6. 417ff

Heracles and Cerberus at the gates of the Underworld. Ac Amphora aributed to the Andokides Painter and Lysippides Painter, ca 520 - 510 BCE: Musée du Louvre, Paris, France, Cat.Nuo.: Louvre F204 hp://www.theoi.com/Gallery/M12.2.html

Annabel Orchard Orpheus and the Underworld

hp://wingedsandals.com/arts/wingedsandals/storyme/orpheus.htm Odysseus’ Underworld journey

• The significance of storytelling • Oral tradion- a world without wring and with few images • Storytellers in the epic so far- Phemios, Demodokus, Nestor, Menelaos, Helen • Odysseus tells his own story in his own words: 1st person singular • Who is the audience? Us, Phaiakians • Is there an agenda to Odysseus’ storytelling?

Annabel Orchard Women in the Underworld

• Antiklea tells of life on Ithaka • Persephone sends women to talk to Odysseus: Alkmene, Epikaste, Leda, Ariadne et al: Odysseus’ agenda

Odyssey 11. 387ff • Odysseus pauses: Arete speaks • Alkinoos requests an encore

Annabel Orchard Agamemnon on women and homecoming Agamemnon’s story: 11.395ff • infidelity and treachery in the home • Aigisthos • Klytaimnestra

Agamamnon: “Land your ship… gone forever.”

Homer, Odyssey 11.533-5 (Fitzgerald, tr., NY, 1998)

Annabel Orchard Achilleus on death and glory

Achilleus: “Let me hear … exhausted dead”.

Homer, Odyssey 11.577-81 (Fitzgerald, tr., NY, 1998)

Annabel Orchard Aias’ anger

• the compeon for the armour • No forgiveness: • Odysseus to Aias: “My lord…your pride”.

Homer, Odyssey 11.669-70 (Fitzgerald, tr., NY, 1998)

Annabel Orchard Herakles’ salute

• Herakles : the hero who transcends all limitaons • Odysseus sees ‘a phantom’, but he himself is with the gods (11.717-21)

“The eyes … the sunny world?” Homer, Odyssey 11.732-7 (Fitzgerald, tr., NY, 1998)

Annabel Orchard Next lecture

Trojan War and Nostos: Odysseus