Hades is the god's name, and also the name of the underworld realm where
most of the dead stay
the dead are just shades--ghosts--with no substance
they cannot get to the underworld unless their body is properly buried
Priam, king of Troy, risks death to retrieve Hector's body from
Achilles (Homer, Iliad)
Antigone defies an edict to bury her brother, Polyneices (Sophocles,
Antigone)
they cannot get there, across the river, usually the Styx (means 'Hateful'),
unless they pay Charon, the ferryman
Greeks bury their dead with coins in their hand or mouth
blood is the essence of life, and the shades crave it to drink
Odysseus makes a blood sacrifice among others when he visits Hades;
the dead who drink the blood can talk with him briefly
It is a bleak and gloomy place, without sunlight (of course!)--the sun is
associated with the world of the living
see the quotation from the poet Anacreon in H&P p. 293
Heroes dread going there--they will lose their looks, their strength, of
course their life
Homeric heroes are afraid their name will also disappear, so they try
to achieve 'undying fame'
Achilles' shade says he would rather be the slave
of a slave among the living, than a king in Hades
The living are cut off from the dead--another deprivation for the dead,
but also for the living
cases like Orpheus, Odysseus and Heracles going down and returning alive
are extraordinary
the Orpheus tale--he can't really rescue his wife Euridice--highlights
normal loss
Homer, esp. Odyssey book 11
geography unclear
surrounded by Ocean; other rivers referred to
most shades in the same place, whether rich or poor,
good or bad
brief reference to Elysium, where an elite few have
a happier afterlife
Menelaus, because he's married to Zeus's daughter
Helen
only a few major sinners singled out for punishment--in
post-Homeric literature they are said to be in Tartarus, below Hades ("an
amorphous cosmic cellar," H&P p. 298)
Tityus--tried to rape Leto (mother of Apollo and
Artemis)
punishment: vultures tear at his liver (cf. Prometheus,
Loki)
Tantalus--various sins alleged (see Agamemnon's family
handout)
punishment: tempted with food and drink which
he can never reach
Sisyphus--chained death; forbid his wife to make
proper sacrifices to Hades
punishment: must push a rock uphill; it always
rolls back from near the top
Ixion--murdered father-in-law; then tried to rape
Hera, as if to usurp Zeus's place
punishment: bound to a fiery wheel, rolling through
the 'air' of the underworld
Plato's Myth of Er in the Republic
doctrine of purification, reincarnation influenced by Orphism, and the beliefs
of Pythagoras, 6 cy. BCE (H&P p. 308)
souls judged and sent to the sky, if just, or the
underworld, if unjust
punishments/rewards tenfold for every sin/virtue, for
1000 years
after 1000 years, souls observe layout of universe,
and draw new lives
order of drawing is by lot, but souls choose from available new lives
by drinking the water of the river Lethe (means
'Forgetting') they forget former life
major sinners never come to the end of punishment; they
are in Tartarus, the region below Hades
Vergil, Aeneid Book 6--combines Homer and
Plato
geography more specific than Homer's, but confusing
the river Acheron (means 'Woeful') seems to encircle
Hades/Tartarus (the same?). Charon ferries the souls of the dead across
once they are buried. But then it seems he ferries them across the Styx
instead.
Tartarus for punishing sinners
various intermediate areas
happy places--Elysium/the Elysian fields
souls are judged (by Minos and a jury), classified, and
sent to various places like the Fields of Mourning
all who sin must atone in Tartarus; categories of
sinner mentioned
famous sinners mentioned as in Homer
once having atoned for sins, soul goes to Elysium
after 1000 years, soul drinks water of Lethe and embarks
on a new life
