The Ancient Greeks' view of the Afterlife

The Greek concept of the afterlife revolved around several key components. First, there was the concept of where the dead resided. Second, there was how individuals had lived their lives on Earth. Finally, there was how the dead were remembered. All three components had different aspects that changed over time.

The Greeks believed that when a person died, he or she would go to the underworld, where all the souls of the departed went unless the individual was declared a god. Called Hades after its ruler, Hades, brother of Zeus, it stood in opposition to the land of the living and brightness seen at Mount Olympus.

This dreariness is seen in Homer’s epic poem the Odyssey, where Odysseus travels to the underworld and meets the spirit of Achilles, the great warrior who had died at Troy. Although Achilles was great, even in the underworld, he would wish he was nothing but a slave in the land of the living.

Relief of the mourning Athena

Hades was served by several rivers that flowed from various regions. The boundary between the living and dead was the River Styx, named for the goddess Styx. The river began near Feneos, in the northern Peloponnese, and flowed into the underworld and converged with other rivers in the great marsh.

The River Acheron, the river of woe, originating in northwestern Greece in Epirus, was the one across which the ferryman Charon carried the newly departed to Hades. The River Lethe, named after the spirit of forgetfulness, flowed through the cave of Hypnos, god of sleep, and the dead would drink its waters to forget their previous lives.

The River Phlegethon, said to be a stream of fire, flowed into the recesses of Tartarus, running parallel with the river Styx. The River Cocytus flowed into the River Acheron, across from the underworld, and was referred to as the “river of wailing.” In Greek mythology, the dead were carried across Acheron by Charon, and they would normally have a coin in their mouth to pay him.

Some individuals were refused transport, such as those who did not have a proper burial, as portrayed in Sophocles’s Antigone, where the main character buries one of her brothers in defiance of the king, Creon, lest he not be permitted to cross over. Once at the gates of Hades, the three-headed dog Cerberus guarded its entrance. A crucial part of the afterlife was where one lived in Hades.

Over time, the Greeks changed their views on this point. Originally, as seen in Homer, the underworld was seemingly static. All the dead lived there regardless of their past lives among the living. Although even at this time Elysium and Tartarus, two diametrically opposed sunny and dark realms, were known to exist, they were not fully developed.

By the time of Plato (The Phaedo), it was believed that the afterlife had various levels. Socrates here argued that the soul of one who was virtuous in the present enjoyed a better reward in the afterlife, with a more pleasant experience, than someone who had lived a life of pleasure and excess. During the Archaic and PreClassical periods, the Greeks had begun to develop the idea of values in the present world leading to the same experience in the afterlife.

The worst place that one could be cast into was Tartarus, the deep bowels of the underworld, where the wicked were relegated for punishment after being judged unworthy. The judges for the underworld were Rhadamanthus, judge of Asia; Aeacus, judge of Europe; and Minos, judge of Greek souls. Above this region were the Asphodel Meadows, where most people went. They had not committed any great crimes, but they did not achieve anything of note either.

This region was usually devoid of soldiers, who had protected their homeland and who might be distinguished and so were rewarded with Elysium, ruled over by Rhadamanthus. Here, souls did not have any work and were characterized as being righteous, which could include military glory, or moral and ethical good. One normally was either a demigod or hero, such as Peleus and Achilles. Once an individual soul arrived at Elysium, it could either stay there or be reborn.

The Greeks even had a concept that if an individual was reborn and then, after dying two more times, it arrived at Elysium, the soul could be sent to the Isles of the Blessed, a place of eternal paradise. These islands were said to lie far to the west, in the Atlantic Ocean.

Here, souls seemingly just existed, without strength or purpose. In addition, they could not influence the world of the living. As seen in goods meant to accompany the dead, the living believed that the dead merely existed, passing their time doing simple things such as playing dice.

One of the crucial components in the afterlife was how the dead were remembered. If they were not remembered, their souls would wander and be forgotten and could not achieve entry into Elysium. To ensure that this would not happen, it fell upon the living to commemorate the life of the departed. This often was done through a sacrifice at a gravesite or some kind of remembrance and celebration of the dead person. Failure to do this was seen as being impious. If they were forgotten, then the dead had no hope of attaining eternal happiness.

The annual celebrations may have even been more important than the actual funeral and burial. In antiquity, having family members remember to commemorate the dead was crucial. In fact, it was part of the son’s duty to offer celebrations, perhaps even leading some families without sons to adopt a son not to just keep the family name going, but also to offer remembrances to all of their dead. There were various festivals for commemorating the dead. Many of the festivals are only known by name since most ancient authors do not describe them.

But one, the Genesia, is mentioned by Herodotus, and the Issedones performed this to commemorate their deceased fathers. Herodotus gives it as a matter of fact, without any details, which indicates that those who read his work would have known its importance. Later authors indicated it was on the fifth of Boeromion. The term came from gene (the plural of genos, meaning “clan” or “family”), and was usually confined to the aristocratic families; it must have had a connection with the powerful clans, and although it lost it political and military origins, it kept its significance as a celebration of the deceased.

The genos was still important for religious and social issues such as family adoption, burials, and annual celebrations of the dead. It appears that the annual celebrations varied with time, and of course one’s economic means as well. A simple celebration might be the leaving of flowers and a simple meal (such as a cake) for the dead.

In addition to graveside celebrations, there were family traditions in the home. Plato, for example, indicates that the nomos governed the setting up of ancestral objects which commemorated the dead, although he did not give a description of them. The nomos was the idea that law or convention determined the order of things according to reason.

These parts of the annual celebrations were probably different for each family and were handed down through the family, generation after generation. Their importance lay in treasured family objects given by the gods, the hiera patroa and the theoi patrioi, which lay in commemorating the past deeds of the family and were kept by the family to celebrate them. A final aspect of remembering the dead had to deal with the monuments or gravesite remembrances.

While these may have been as simple as a mound of dirt or as expressive as a great tholos, it was important for the family to have some kind of physical place to remember their departed. The most common were the stele, where gravestones represented the departed, even if in an idealized way. Some stelai were mere slabs with a name, while others were intricate and artistic.

The rise of the Mystery Religions, especially those that worshipped Demeter and Persephone, changed how many Greeks viewed the afterlife. While the traditional religions had the status of the individual determining their position in the underworld, the Mystery Religions offered others a chance to reach Elysium.

By knowing the revelations of the gods through their mysteries, an individual could reach a higher level. These revelations were open only to those who went through initiation rites. While the Mysteries of Eleusis were known and celebrated by all of Athens, the select Mystery Religions, especially in the late Classical Age, were open only to a small group, typically those who could afford the initiation fees.

The concept of the afterlife changed throughout Greece’s history from a bleak, undesirable place where all individuals would end up, to a place filled with happiness that was attainable to only a few. At the same time, the idea of what individuals did for their city and society was crucial. Great people (i.e., those who helped the city) were celebrated and given eternal rewards. Finally, how individual families celebrated their departed ancestors was seen as a crucial part of the afterlife.

While the body may no longer be present, the memories continued. One would continue “living” in a sense, so long as their descendants continued to celebrate them. This celebration occurred not only at the gravesite, where a gravestone might be erected to indicate who the deceased was and what he or she did, but also at the home, where the family held their own celebrations and memories in private.