The Underworld of Ancient Greece: A Guided Tour

To celebrate spooky month, we're going on a tour of the Underworld of Greek mythology! Ancient Greece had a fascinating relationship with the afterlife and the myths about death and Hades are iconic. Today we're going to go on a guided tour of the Underworld and find out, what is the ancient Greek Underworld? Where do souls go? What is the afterlife really like in ancient greek myths? What is Asphodel, Tartarus and Elysium?

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References:
Mystery Cults of the Ancient World
Theoi
The Afterlife of Ancient Greece
The Odyssey and the Iliad- Emily Wilson translations
And of course a bit of ye olde wikipedia!
Pixaby for sound effects

Transcript

Hello and welcome to series 3 of Greek and Geeks, the podcast where I take us on a persnickity but fun journey deep diving into the lore behind our favourite stories. We’re first airing this in the month of October and so, to celebrate spooky month, series 3 will be focused entirely on The Underworld of Ancient Greece. We’ll be taking a deep dive into topics such as the many adaptations of the Hades and Persephone myth, a long-requested look at the Hades video game and at last I’ll get to…shall we say…err…passionately discuss my feelings regarding the first Percy Jackson movie.

But for this episode, let’s discuss the Underworld itself. We’re going to go through ancient Greek attitudes to the afterlife, some of the mystery cults surrounding it, the gods that live and rule there, and try to imagine what the underworld is like to the best of our ability! Please bear in mind that for this episode, we’ll be discussing the concept of death, spirits and the afterlife though. There will be references to burials but as always, as a Teacher to young children, I try to keep this podcast as PG as possible. But I thought I should let you know in case any of these topics might be upsetting to you.

After the war with the titans, the three brother, Hades, Zeus and Poseidon, drew lots to decide who would rule over which domain. Zeus got the sky/earth, Poseidon the oceans and seas, and Hades got the underworld. We’re familiar with Olympus and the twelve Greek Gods and Goddesses who reside there. But today we’ll be focusing on the Underworld. I’ve already mentioned in previous episodes that there are Olympic gods and Chthonic gods- Chthonic meaning those who live in the underworld or for whom the underworld is mainly their domain. Who are these gods? These were Hades- the king of the underworld, Persephone- the queen, Hecate- goddess of witchcraft, ghosts, magic and all that amazing spooky season stuff which makes her one of my fave goddesses easy, Hypnos- the god of sleep and Thanatos his twin brother- the god of peaceful death and Nyx, who was a primordial goddess- older than any of the Olympians or Titans, she is the goddess of night. We also have some Olympians pop up because hey, why not keep yourself extra busy as an immortal right? Both Hermes and Demeter are Olympic and Chthonic gods respectively. 

We could do a whole episode on all the colour-void characters of the Underworld. I know it would make my former emo heart sing, but I thought it would be best to start introducing what the underworld even is exactly, because it’s a lot different from a pretty palace in the mountains! 

In book 11 of The Odyssey, the ghost of Odysseus’ mother Anticlea, says “This is the rule for mortals when we die. Our muscles cease to hold the flesh and skeleton together; as soon as life departs from our white bones, the force of blazing fire destroys the corpse. The spirit flies away and soon is gone.” And where does it go? It goes to the Underworld

Although it has a few names, for example in many Greek texts it’s referred to as “Hades” named after the God who rules it, for the sake of this series, we’re going to refer to it as the underworld. So we know from its name that the place where spirits go when they die must be underground. That means it must be terrible, a hellish place right full of fire and brimstone and suffering right? Well no, not really. Christianity has done quite the number on interpretations of the Underworld and Hades (and we’ll get to THAT in the Percy Jackson episode) but it’s a little more complex than that.

The concept of an underworld and what it entails exactly is not a 100% fixed state either, but the details about the underworld become more developed over the centuries, especially once the philosophers such as Plato get involved in the 4th century BCE. Homer and Hesiod, both writers in around the 8th century BCE, described the majority of existence in the underworld to be pretty grey and miserable. It was a place where “numb, dead people live. The shades of poor, exhausted mortals.” As Achilles says in the Odyssey.

There are several famous aspects of the underworld and in order to understand them, I want us to take a journey now. Let’s imagine we are Greek Heroes, following the path of a spirit into the underworld.

Let’s start at the beginning. The person we are following has just passed away, you can imagine whoever you like. I’m going to imagine a sweet older lady, let’s call her Kalliope. She’s had a long life full of joy, sorrow, anger, fear and ecstasy in equal measure. She’s come to the end of her life satisfied with how her story has played out and ready for the next adventure. She passes away, contentedly, in her sleep.

But whilst her family and friends are mourning and conducting funerary rites, what’s happening with Kalliope’s spirit? Since she’s had a peaceful death, she is not confronted with the terrifying, monstrous Keres, the winged goddesses who personify violent death and who haunt battlefields. Instead, she is greeted by the beautiful Thanatos. Thanatos is the personification of death, literally the god of death, which often confuses people because they often think that Hades is the god of death, since he is the ruler of the Underworld. But think of Hades as the King of the souls where Thanatos is like a general, making sure the souls get taken from the mortal life to the afterlife.

Now sometimes Thanatos is depicted as hateful and unyielding. However, the Thanatos who greets Kalliope is calm, firm yet neutral. He is death and he has come for her. There’s no sense in arguing or fighting, not that Kalliope wants to argue. She’s ready for this. She follows him willingly.

At the entrance to the underworld, Hermes is there to greet Kalliope. In one of his many roles, he helps souls navigate the underworld. In some interpretations Hermes takes over right at the start, with Thanatos being the god who is there at the time of death only. In other interpretations, Hermes collects the wayward souls and ghosts that haunt the world. Here, lets imagine a handover situation. Thanatos has taken Kalliope to the edge of the mortal world, an indiscriminate cave. Hermes, with a cheeky smile which reassures a now slightly nervous Kalliope, leads her into the mouth of the cave, the door to the underworld.

Down, down, down they go, through the darkness, deep into the earth until they reach the shores of a mighty river. The River Styx.  There are other rivers too, ones which lead to Tartarus, ones which make you forget your life if you drink from them, but Kalliope stands by the Styx. Other souls are standing there waiting for the ferryman. Hermes disappears, his job done for now and Kalliope joins the crowd of departed souls. Some are crying, some are angry, some are afraid. Then there are others, like her, that have accepted it was their time.

And suddenly Charon, the ferryman, appears as he navigates towards the shore in his rust-coloured boat. He is an ugly man, clad in filthy rags, his chin swallowed up by a wild beard which, as Virgil states, has never once been trimmed. Kalliope should be frightened by this mad-looking figure, but instinct drives her and the other souls forward. It’s chaos and every soul fights to be allowed on the boat, desperate to cross. But not everyone will be able to board Charon’s boat.

Right as Charon pulls in to shore, Kalliope feels something in her mouth. She opens it and out pops an obol, a small silver coin, and she smiles. Her loved ones have completed the burial rites above. They have seen to it that she has her payment for the ferryman. When it is her turn to board, she gives Charon her obol. He doesn’t say anything, but gives her a deep nod and allows her access. Up close she can see the ancient eyes of a deathless being, the thick muscles from an unfathomable amount of time spent navigating the river.

The boat pulls away, Kalliope safe on board with the other souls who’ve paid their way. But look, see how there are still souls left on the shore? They were the unlucky ones, the ones that didn’t have payment for the ferryman. In penance, they must spend a hundred years at the shore, waiting for their turn. Kalliope feels sad for them, it wasn’t their fault after all, and some are so young looking. Yet one glance at Charon tells her that nothing she says will change. This is the way things are. This is how they will always be. And Kalliope isn’t a hero. She isn’t a Heracles or an Orpheus, or any of the other heroes who broke the rules. The underworld, and all its moving parts, are so much bigger than her.

Besides, she reassures herself with the knowledge that those souls still lingering could return to the living in the form of dreams or even as ghosts. So perhaps these souls wouldn’t have to wait so long after all. Both in the Iliad and the Odyssey there are real fears around the unburied not being given rights. In the Odyssey we actually have an example of a ghost coming back to the living to demand burial. When Odysseus travels to the edge of the underworld, the ghost of his recently fallen soldier Elpenor, whom Odysseus didn’t even realise had died at this point, begs to be buried properly “or you will make the gods enraged at you” (you being Odysseus here). Odysseus agrees to do it.

Time is a funny thing in the underworld. To Kalliope it feels as though Charon’s boat ride is an eternity and yet no time at all. At last she sees the famous Gates of Hades. Taller than any structure Kalliope has ever seen, they seem to stretch forever, up into the darkness. Perhaps they reach right up to the earth itself? She doesn’t think about it too long, as she’s completely distracted by the giant hulking figure of a three headed dog. Cerberus. Now Cerberus is the guardian of the underworld, tasked with making sure nothing is amiss and no souls get out. This is it. Before the gates of Hades, she might have returned to the living as a ghost. Now there really is no turning back. Cerberus would see to that.

Although two out of the three heads seem to be napping currently, one head is staring directly at Charons boat, ever vigilant. Although Kalliope was an animal lover during her lifetime, she is unsure how to feel over such a creature. One thing is for certain though, she would hate to smell him if he decided to take a swim in the Styx. Wet dog was a terrible smell. Wet giant three headed dog? Awful.

They’ve passed through the gates now, passed the loyal Cerberus, and Kalliope feels Charon shift his weight. They’re moving closer to the side now, ready to dock at the bank beside the magnificent palace of Hades. They are really here, in the underworld. The place where Hades and Persephone rule as King and Queen, where Hypnos the god of sleep occasionally resides in a cave near the River Lethe- the river of forgetfulness. Where there is an actual river of fire, the Phlegethon, which leads directly into Tartarus, the pit beyond the underworld, where all of the worst of humanity go.

A shiver goes up Kalliope’s spine as she steps off the boat. The part she was dreading. The time of judgement is upon her. She will enter Hades palace and meet the three judges, Minos, Aeacus and Radamanthus. Yes that Minos from the labyrinth minotaur myth. Aeacus judges spirits from Europe, so Kalliope knows he will judge her, however if Radamanthus (who judges souls from Asia) disagrees, Minos would be the deciding vote. Sometimes, Hades and Persephone themselves were known to judge souls, but she doubted they would today. No she would see Aeacus, and he would decide which realm she would enter.

She’s now in a vast room in Hades palace and the three judges are sat before her. It reminds her of being a small girl, asking for some extra treats from her parents and waiting for their ruling as though it were life or death. She feels small, every bad thing she’d ever done pops into her mind to try and get her to panic. But Kalliope tilts her chin up in defiance of her own fears.

It’s over quickly. Aeacus decides that, like the vast majority of souls, she is to go to the field of Asphodel. She has not been heroic enough for the fields of Elysium and nor has she been wicked enough for Tartarus.

So that is where we will leave Kalliope, in the meadows of Asphodel, meeting up with friends long since passed, catching up and waiting to hear if anyone had decided to drink from the lethe and be reborn- for in some later mythos, especially Roman, this was an option for the spirits of the underworld. In order to be reborn, you needed to forget about your previous life. But Kalliope isn’t ready for that yet, might not be for a long time, if ever. I’ve enjoyed spending time with Kalliope, I’ve actually gotten rather attached to her. But we know she’s going to be ok. Let’s now look at the different parts of the Underworld, the ones which Kalliope didn’t get to see.

(MUSIC)

In general, the Underworld is divided into three main parts. To put it in basic terms, because I enjoy putting things in basic terms, Tartarus is the bad scary part, and is described by Hesiod as being as far underneath earth as the heavens are above earth. It’s the part where the worst of the worst go. Elysium is the good, nice part, reserved for the best of mythological humanity. For the rest normal folk, who lived normal lives doing both good and bad things along the way, they mostly went to the fields of asphodel. This is where our friend Kalliope went.

There’s been a lot of debate as to what the fields of asphodel are like exactly and that all has to do with our good old friend TRANSLATION. If you listened to series 2 of Greeks and Geeks, we talk about how tricky translation is- especially when it comes to ancient into modern languages. It’s so easy to bring our own biases into things, or hide away from more squeamish aspects of ancient life. For example older translations of the Odyssey change slaves to maids. Alternatively, there are words which take on multiple meanings depending on context and that can be hard to navigate too. I mentioned in series 2 that Xenos is a word that can mean stranger, foreigner, friend, guest or ally, or a number of other of different meanings which might all co-exist at the same time in a way which modern folk might struggle to wrap our minds around.

So the fields of asphodel. There are two main schools of thought. Some imagine them to be fields filled with the asphodel flower, a white flower ghostly in appearance (although I think they’re very pretty) and others imagine fields of ash instead of the flowers- due to different takes on translations. Regardless of if it’s ash or ghostly flowers, it sounds like a pretty boring place. When mortals do go there, many ghosts who talk to living often act confused. Why do you come here? They’ll ask. This is often seen as a place of neutrality and as such it isn’t a place of torment or ecstasy. I like to imagine it like the Neutral aliens in Futurama (which is one of my favourite jokes of all time by the way), sort of just beige. Beige is nice, but it’s not going to make you do cartwheels or whatever else you do if you feel extreme joy, or extreme sorrow…not that you’d do cartwheels when you’re feeling sorrow- you know what lets move on to Elysium now.

Homer described Elysium as a place where “snow never falls, the winters are not long and there are no rainstorms” however there’s always a pleasant west wind brought in by Oceanus. It was thought that only the best Greek soldiers would go to Elysium, as a reward for an exceptional life, for example Achilles, Heracles, Orpheus and Odysseus. So it feels like such a club house! Only boys allowed in the Elysium clubhouse? Especially only boy soldiers who died in glorious battle? LAME! Apparently Queen Helen, daughter of Zeus and lady who’s abduction kicked off the Trojan war, got to go there with King Menelaus after they both died. One woman. In all of the history of humanity gets to go to paradise. Yay.

But seriously if you know any stories of women going to Elysium let me know cause it’s bumming me out. Girls just want to have fun isn’t just a life mantra, it should be an afterlife mantra too! Let us have fun in the afterlife dang-nabbit!

Edit: I’ve just learned that possibly Eurydice is with Orpheus in Elysium, so at least two lovers get to reunite. But still TWO. That’s TWO WOMEN and they only got in because of their husbands? Again, please let me know!

Tartarus is the place where, as I mentioned, the worst of the worst go. The most famous inhabitants are ones that offended the gods in some way. For example, Ixion, a mortal man who tried to…erm… well lets say he took a liking to the Goddess Hera, aka the Queen of the Heavens and Zeus’ wife. As punishment for trying to err…romance Hera (heavy air quotes there), Zeus sent him down to Tartarus where he is punished by being chained to a flaming wheel, which constantly spins and never stops. Then there is Sisyphus, who killed guests and thus offended Xenia, the sacred pact of guest-friendship, which is the domain of Zeus. He offended Zeus in other ways but he also tricked and cheated the death god Thanatos. His punishment in Tartarus was to roll a boulder up a hill every day, repeating the back-breaking task for all eternity, do you see the pattern here? Some of the Titans, the generation of Gods from before the Olympians, are also chained there.

So aside from Elysium, the underworld doesn’t sound like a bed of roses does it? In fact, in the Odyssey the ghost of the famous warrior Achilles says that he would rather live a long life as a peasant farmer than be a king in the underworld, which tells us a lot considering Achilles knew that if he fought in the Trojan war that he would die young but be remembered forever. If he’d refused to fight, which he totally could have done, he would have led a long, quiet life in infamy. So Achilles made the choice to go to the Underworld earlier, and here he is regretting it. It’s a shocking moment. But I also want to point out that Achilles was in the best part of the Underworld- the fields of Elysium, which is where honoured soldiers go when they die and is a nice place. So the fact that Achilles, even in the best place, still would rather be alive, says a lot. But I also can’t help but imagine him sulking around the pretty fields of Elysium, ignoring the occasional weeping in the fields of asphodel or the screams wafting up from Tartarus, being all like “woe is meee my afterlife is so harrrrd” but maybe I’m not being fair to Achilles here. It’s giving 1st underworld problems though. Just sayin.

The Greeks took afterlife extremely seriously. Burial rites were considered the utmost importance and a great insult if they weren’t followed properly. We see this in the Iliad where the King of Troy, Priam, himself risks his own life to enter into the Greek camp and successfully beg Achilles for his son Hector’s body, which Achilles has been holding onto in his anger. Priam states “I have endured what no man yet on Earth has done- I pressed my mouth into the hand of him who killed my son.” It was also seen as important for the living to remember and honour the dead and not speak ill of them no matter what they were like in life. Women would often bring offerings to grave sites to remember deceased loved ones, such as small cakes.

Later on, in the 4th century, we get more philosophical takes on the afterlife. It’s with these philosophers where we hear more emphasis placed on leading good and honest lives though I want to point out that being good= rewarded in the afterlife and bad= punished wasn’t really central to much of Greek belief in the afterlife. This is confusing to hear since we know that Tartarus is a place where bad people go, right? And souls ARE judged. So what gives? Well as we discussed before, it was mainly the ones who angered and offended the gods in mythology that usually went to Tartarus, at least in the mythological sense. Plato is the one that suggests that bad souls in general would go to Tartarus to be either purified or condemned, and they had to rely on their victims or those whom they wronged in life in order to be able to seek that purification. And because it’s the first episode and I simply MUST do this for consistencies sake- I petition for Agamemnon to be sent there personally! For reasons why, check out my roast of Agamemnon episode where I get pretty darn ranty!

So unlike Christianity with clear cut heaven= good place for good souls and hell= bad place for bad souls, we have Tartarus and Elysium for the extremely bad and extremely good. But most people aren’t like that. Most people go through life with a mixture of both. That’s why the vast majority of people go to the fields of Asphodel.

In the 4th century we also hear more details about the concept of souls and rebirth. Plato really did believe in the concept of reincarnation though his ideas about it were err…pretty wonk. As I mentioned before, he believed that men could choose to be reincarnated after drinking from the lethe (the river of forgetfulness) so they wouldn’t remember their previous lives, but he also believed that if you had a guilty soul, you’d be reborn as a woman first I guess for punishment? I wonder if you guys are making the same face I pulled when I read that. Plato confuses me because he says the most wildly sexist stuff but he also allowed women into his school, which was fairly radical for the time.

Although I want to point out reincarnation and rebirth was not as popular a belief, it’s still worth mentioning. It also pops up in later Roman mythology such as in the Anaeid but for once, Romans, this ain’t about you! Get outta hear with your Virgil’s and your processions of heroes in the underworld! We haven’t got time for all that!

But already we have these different attitudes to the afterlife developing. Maybe there are ways to have an enjoyable afterlife, to avoid the dull fields of asphodel? I think it’s time to talk about THE CULTS! Yaaaay!

(music)

As I said previously, most souls go to the fields of asphodel, for an afterlife of meh. But what if you wanted a better afterlife for yourself? Well go get yourself into a mystery cult and they’ll be sure to help guide you. Now I want to point out that you didn’t simply join one of these cults to get a free pass into Elysium. They were so much more than that. I also want to add that cult has a really negative connotation in 21st century life, but really they were like exclusive religious clubs. Their secret nature means that we’ll never truly know what went on exactly. But what we do know, is that some mystery cults gave their members instructions for how to navigate the underworld.

How do we know this? Well from some absolutely incredible finds across several mediterranean countries such as norther Greece, Crete, Sicily and some parts of Italy. Archaeologists have discovered tombs and inside those tombs were something extraordinary. Thin sheets of gold foil with writing on them. They are often called gold leaves as some of these remarkable finds are even in a leaf-like shape. On these gold leaves are specific, highly detailed step-by-step guides on how to get yourself to the fields of Elysium for a nice little afterlife! It’s incredible and it sort of reminds me of Mapquest. I’m showing my age here, but if you know map quest you’ll remember those specific directions it gave you before the days of GPS. One famous example uses such phrases like (and I’m paraphrasing here) “there is a pool on the right. Do not go to that one. Instead go to a different pool which is guarded by soldiers.” It’s fascinating and it goes to show how, despite religion not revolving around the afterlife, how deeply held these beliefs about the underworld stretched.

And that’s it for the first episode of series 3 of Greeks and Geeks! I hope you enjoyed this first foray into the Underworld and I hope you’re enjoying spooky season! New episodes go up on Tuesdays. In the meantime please do rate and review if you enjoyed this as it really helps the podcast grow. You can also follow me on social media, the links are in the description. But for now I’ll say thank you very much for listening. I’ve been your host Sabrina and I’m Geeking Out! See you next time! Bye!