Transcript The Underworld - HonorsMythsandDeities2

The Underworld
Your Time Has Run Out
 After
Clotho had spun your life’s
thread and after Lachesis measured
your life’s span, Atropos cuts your
life’s thread.
 Coins (obol) would be placed over
your eyes as fare for the boatman,
Charon, who would take your soul to
the Underworld via the River Styx,
the river of unbreakable oaths.
The River Styx
 The
River Styx was a river in Greek
mythology which formed the
boundary between Earth and the
Underworld (often called Hades
which is also the name of this
domain's ruler). It circles the
Underworld nine times. Styx is also a
goddess (duality of being); she
helped Zeus fight the Titans. Of her
many children are Nike and Kratos.
Palace of Hades

In the forecourt of the palace of Hades
and Persephone sit the three judges of the
Underworld: Minos, Rhadamanthus, and
Aeacus. This is where the souls are
judged, returned to the Fields of Asphodel
if they are neither virtuous nor evil, sent
by the road to Tartarus if they are
considered foul or evil, or sent to Elysium
(Islands of the Blessed) with the
"blameless" heroes.
Judgment Pavilion
 This
pavilion played the same role as
the forecourt of Hades’ Palace. I had
found two different places on where
the souls were judged. One
suggested that it was in the palace of
Hades himself, while other said that
the three judges resided in the
Judgment Pavilion.
Tartarus
 In
classic mythology, below Heaven,
Earth, and Pontus is Tartarus. It is a
deep, gloomy place, a pit used as a
dungeon of torment and suffering
that resides beneath the underworld.
Plato once said that souls were
judged after death and those who
received punishment were sent to
Tartarus. As a place of punishment,
it can be considered a hell.
The Asphodel Meadows

The Asphodel Meadows is where the souls of
people who lived lives of near equal good and evil
rested. It essentially was a plain of Asphodel
flowers, which were the favorite food of the
Greek dead. It is described as a ghostly place
that is an even less perfect version of life on
earth. Some depictions describe it as a land of
utter neutrality. That is, while the people are
neither good nor evil, so are their lives treated,
as they mechanically perform their daily tasks.
Other depictions have also stated that all
residents drink from the river Lethe, the river of
forgetfulness, before entering the fields, thus
losing their identities and becoming something
similar to a machine.
Island of the Blessed

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
In the Fortunate Isles, also called the Island of
the Blessed, heroes and other favored mortals in
Greek mythology were received by the gods into
a blissful paradise.
Plutarch wrote “where the air was never extreme,
which for rain had a little silver dew, which of
itself and without labor, bore all pleasant fruits to
their happy dwellers, till it seemed to him that
these could be no other than the Fortunate
Islands, the Elysian Fields.”
The Elysian Fields were surrounded by the
river Lethe, the river of forgetfulness,
whose waters, when drunk, caused a soul
to forget.
Other Figures Famously
Associated with the Underworld

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Cerberus-3-headed dog, guardian, pet of Hades
Hecate-Goddess of witchcraft, sorcery
Thanatos-represents death itself
Tantalus-never allowed to drink or eat as his
divine punishment
Tityus-giant who was eaten by vultures
Ixion-spun on a flaming wheel as his punishment
Sisyphus-rolled a rock up a hill continuously, only
to have it roll to the bottom overnight.
The Myth of Er
 Last
part of Plato’s Republic
 Er died in war, but came back to life
to tell what he saw in the Underworld
 Two openings in the sky, two in the
earth
 The righteous went into one opening
in the sky, the unjust into the earth.
 Seems logical, but what about the
remaining two openings?
The Myth of Er Continued
 Out
of the other two openings,
people descended from the sky and
from the earth, a reunion.
 Reward and punishment in cycles of
100 years. “Ten-fold,” meaning 1000
years total.
 Dishonor towards parents, murder
considered great sins. Ardiaeus, e.g.
 Lots cast by Lachesis for choice in
the next life, Clotho ratifies, Atropos
seals their fate, so to speak.
Aeneas’ Experience
 Part
of Virgil’s Aeneid
 First experiences a dark cave called
Avernus
 Then Aeneas travels to a town called
Dis, home to grief, death, fear, evil
 Path leads to Acheron, Charon takes
on across this river in Virgil. Charon
takes souls directly or makes them
wait.
Aeneas’ Experience cont.
 Cerberus
guards, but Minos alone
judges the souls.
 First, a neutral zone by those who
died untimely deaths.
 Close by is a field of mourning for
unrequited lovers and warriors.
 Then, the path splits into the Elysian
Fields or Tartarus
 Souls in the fields drink of Lethe, the
river of forgetfulness, return to live
on earth again.