Classics 10: Chapter 12 Myths of Death: Encounters with the UnderworldFirst ExamExam Office HoursI. The Greek View of DeathThe Greek View of DeathGreek DeathII. Odysseus Visits Death’s RealmOdysseus Among the DeadSlide 9Punishment In Homer’s HadesTiresias the Bisexual ProphetSlide 12III. Orpheus and EurydicêOrpheus and EurydicêIV. Plato and Virgil: Teaching from HellPlato’s “Myth of Er”Slide 17Virgil’s AeneidSlide 19Virgil’s UnderworldFamous Elements of Virgil’s UnderworldSummaryClassics 10: Chapter 12Myths of Death:Encounters with the UnderworldI. The Greek View of DeathII. Odysseus Visits Death’s RealmIII. Orpheus and EurydicêIV. Plato and Virgil: Teaching from HellFirst Exam•Results: 9As, 21Bs, 5Cs, 6Ds, 1F; median score: 55/65, 85.3%•2 questions were dropped as too difficult; last question retroactively made into an extra credit question, hence score out of 65•We hand back the exams, but not a key•I welcome comments on the first exam via email: [email protected]–Was the exam fair? Was it as described?–Strengths and weaknesses?Exam Office Hours•If you have questions about your exam, or want to strategize for the next one,•Katie will be holding office hours Wed (TODAY) 12-2pm in Sproul 915 •You may also email her if you have a specific question about a specific exam questions ([email protected])•Or me ([email protected])I. The Greek View of Death•Greeks mostly believed in a life after death, but it was a bleak vision–Happiness to be found in actions of life on earth•Humans are the victims of the forces larger than themselves, whose choices we can only obey–The Fates cut your thread of life when it is time, but it seems even greater powers determine your thread•Death means going to “The House of Hades”; Hades = (“the unseen one”), Lord of the Dead–Pluto (Dis), the “enricher”; great wealth down thereThe Greek View of Death•Soul associated with breath of life, leaves the material body upon death–Gk. psyche, Lat. anima = breath, soul•Our souls live on outside of our bodies; though they look like us, they have no substance•They are unhappy and potentially dangerous•They await proper burial rites so that they can properly enter Hades and then live there•Happiness to be found through the Eleusinian Mysteries?Greek Death•Bodies needed to be ritually buried (inhumation) or burned (cremation)–Cremation: smoke and bones offered to gods, as with any other sacrifice•Some buried/burned with things to aid their ghosts or make them happy•Hermes leads souls to their place of rest (psychopompus); his role as messenger/traveler•One strategy to appease ghosts: give them one night a year to mingle with the living–The Athenian festival of the Anthesteria (in spring)–Our Halloween, the night before All Saints’ DayII. Odysseus Visits Death’s Realm•Book 11 of the Odyssey, our earliest written account of Hades, perhaps reflects actual beliefs•Odysseus is sent there to get advice on how to get home from the dead prophet Tiresias•Sails to the edge of the ring of lands, to the Ocean which encircles the ring–The dead are accessible there, not clear if they always live there or if they live somewhere below•Digs a square pit, pours out honey, milk, wine, barley, most of all blood (of a sacrificed sheep)Odysseus Among the Dead•The spirits of the dead want to drink, esp. the blood, which gives them life enough to talk•His companion Elpenor, unburied and so able to speak (i.e., his ghost is still among the living), asks for burial rites–Hence ghosts do want to go to Hades•The others fear his drawn sword (why?) and so only those whom he lets drink get to talk•Tiresias tells Odysseus of his homecoming•Odysseus then speaks with his mother, who has died of grief over his absence–He tries three times to hug her, but she is shadowOdysseus Among the Dead•He meets Achilles and honors him as most blessed of men, best of the Achaeans•Achilles: “Better to be a nobody on earth than to be the king of the dead”•Souls elsewhere in the Odyssey described as bats squeaking and swooping about–Life of the dead inglorious, boring •A very, very few souls of great heroes get a happier afterlife somewhere at the edge of the earth, called Elysium or the Elysian Fields–The gods will send Menelaus there (but he was the husband of Helen, daughter of Leda and Zeus)Punishment In Homer’s Hades•The only souls punished are those who have committed crimes against the gods (everyone else is bored and still)•Tityus, who tried to rape Leto, mother of Apollo and Artemis–Tied down with vulture eating his liver•Tantalus, who tried to trick the gods into eating his son Pelops (cannibalism as awful then as now)–Stood in water under branches of fruit, both of which would perpetually move away from him [i.e., tantalizing]•Sisyphus, who tattles on Zeus and tricks other gods–Forever pushing a boulder up which would roll back down•These punishments: the hardships of human life (pain, hunger, thirst, labor), which come from dishonoring the godsTiresias the Bisexual Prophet•One reason Tiresias was regarded as the greatest of mortal prophets was because he had lived both as a man and as a woman•When he was young, the (late Roman) story goes, he was changed into a woman because he killed a female snake when she was having sex•Seven years later he killed a male snake when it was having sex, and he was turned back into a man•He is then asked by Zeus and Hera to reveal which gender has more pleasure during sex•He declares that the woman feels 90% of the pleasure (!)Tiresias the Bisexual Prophet•Hera is shocked, fears that this knowledge will promote adultery, and so blinds Tiresias•Zeus is impressed, however, and so awards Tiresias the gift of prophecy and a lifetime lasting seven times that of the average mortal•Greatest prophet of Thebes, appears in the tragedies of Sophocles and Euripides as the figure of divine wisdom (listen to him if you want to know what the gods think!)•In Homer’s Odyssey, he is the wisest of the dead; the only one who can help Odysseus get homeIII. Orpheus and Eurydicê•Orpheus the greatest of singers: could hypnotize animals, plants, stop water•Loses his fiancée Eurydicê at their wedding (bit by a snake while fleeing a potential rapist!)•His mourning so great that he tries to bring her back from the dead•He sings his way past all of Hades’ guards,