AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |
Back to Blog
Kingdom of the dead greek mythology3/22/2023 ![]() In the classical period, the mystic religions and prophets-such as the Orphics and Pythagoreans-, as well as the philosophers, modified the land of the dead to incorporate an Elysian paradise for the good and a Tartarean hell for the wicked. Kharon (Charon), the ferryman of the dead, first appears in the lost epic of the Minyad, ponting souls across the Akherousian Mere in a skiff. In his Works and Days and Catalogues, Hesiod introduces the Islands of the Blessed-a paradise realm reserved for the great heroes of myth. Haides and Tartaros were again quite distinct-Tartaros was the cosmic pit beneath the earth whereas Haides was the land of the dead on the gloomy, outermost edge of the earth. It was a cosmic meeting-place of the ways where the great sky dome descended to rest its edge upon the earth and, from below, the walls of the Tartarean pit rose to enclose the lower, hidden half of the cosmos. The realm lay at the farthest ends of the flat earth, beyond the river Okeanos and the Land of Evening. A judge named Minos received the dead from Hermes Psykhogogos (Guide of Souls) and sentenced the most wicked to eternal torment. The land of the dead was enclosed by the Akherousian Lake and three rivers-the Styx, Kokytos (Cocytus) and Pyriphlegethon. It was located at the ends of the earth, on the far shore of the earth-encircling river Okeanos (Oceanus), beyond the gates of the sun and the land of dreams. In the Odyssey the realm of Haides is described in greater detail. The land of Haides was quite distinct from Tartaros- prison-house of the Titanes-which is described as lying as far beneath Haides as the earth beneath the heavens. The ghosts of the unburied were allowed to return to the realm above to visit the living in the form of dreams and demand a proper burial. The dead crossed a river, passed through gates guarded by the Hound, and presented themselves before the king and queen of the underworld, Haides and Persephone. In the Iliad the realm is a damp and mouldy place hidden inside the hollows of the earth. The Homeric poets knew of no Elysian Fields or Tartarean Hell, rather all shades-heroes and villians alike-came to rest in the gloom of Haides. It was a dark and dismal realm where bodiless ghosts flitted across the grey fields of asphodel. The DOMOS HAIDOU (House of Hades) was the land of the dead-the final resting place for departed souls. Dwellings of Hades Hades and Persephone in the Underworld, Apulian red-figure krater C4th B.C., Staatliche Antikensammlungen
0 Comments
Read More
Leave a Reply. |