Module 13 - The Underworld in Classical Mythology

• Gods connected with fertility and the world of the dead:
  • Demeter
  • Persephone
  • Hermes
• Heroes on the Isle of the Blessed
  • 5 generations of semi-divine mortals

Places

Acheron

A lake which Aeneas must cross to enter Hades.

Elysium

Part of the underworld, equivalent to heaven. It's where all the nice people go. Opposite of Tartarus (hell)

Hades

• Brother of Zeus
• Abducted Persephone
• More commonly "Hades" is a name for the underworld (at least the bad parts).
• Those who are not buried are not actually allowed to cross into the realm of the dead, but must wait in between two worlds until they are buried.

Tartarus

Prison for humans that have committed sins against the gods of have generally lived evil lives. Opposite of Elysium

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People

Aeneas

Son of Anchises and Aphrodite, who after the sack of Troy takes his companions and travels to Italy, where his ancestors later found Rome.

Descends into the underworld to see his dad. He needs

• golden bough which is sacred to Persephone
• bury his comrade Misenus

Achilles

That hero guy with the ankle.

• Doesn't like being dead

Anchises

Mortal lover of Aphrodite

Circe

A goddess of magic (or sometimes a nymph, witch, enchantress or sorceress). By most accounts, Circe was the daughter of Helios, the god of the sun, and Perse, an Oceanid. Her brothers were Aeetes, the keeper of the Golden Fleece, and Perses. Her sister was Pasiphaë, the wife of King Minos and mother of the Minotaur. Other accounts make her the daughter of Hecate, the goddess of witchcraft herself.

A witch that shows Odysseus to the underworld. Turns his men into pigs. Odysseus has to get in bed with her?

Instructs Odysseus to go to the underworld to consult Theban seer Tiresias.

Elpenor

Friend of Odysseus who died on Circe's island after getting drunk and falling.

Er

In Plato's myths, A mortal man that dies and comes back from underworld. The myth has detailed description of cosmos, underworld, and circle of birth/death/reincarnation

Psyche == soul

Eurylochus

In Greek mythology, Eurylochus, or Eurýlokhos (Εὐρύλοχος) appears in Homer's Odyssey as second-in-command of Odysseus' ship during the return to Ithaca after the Trojan War. He was also a relative of Odysseus through marriage. He is portrayed as an unpleasant cowardly individual who undermines Odysseus and stirs up trouble.

Hecate

Goddess of witchcraft.

Leto

The daughter of a Titan, mother (by Zeus) of Artemis and Apollo. Roman name Latona.

Odysseus

Odysseus was a legendary Greek king of Ithaca and a hero of Homer's epic poem the Odyssey. Odysseus also plays a key role in Homer's Iliad and other works in that same Epic Cycle.

Circe tells him to go to the underworld to see Tiresias.

In the underworld, Odysseus encounters

• His friend Elpenor
• Achilles
• Mother
• other friends from Troy

Pelops

Killed and cooked by his father Tantalus, served to the gods. Demeter eats his shoulder :(

Gods later bring him back to life with a new marble shoulder.

Sisyphus

Imprisoned death. In Tartarus, he must for eternity push a great boulder up a hill, only to have it fall down once over and over.

He was said to have angered Zeus by telling the river-god Asopus that he had carried off his daughter Aegina, and Zeus sent Death (Thanatos) to get him. However, Sisyphus trapped Death in chains, during which time no humans died.

Ares, the god of war, freed death and he took his revenge on Sisyphus. He sinned against Zeus, and is therefore punished in the underworld

Tantalus

Stuck in the underworld (Tartarus?). Eternally tantalized by water to drink and food to eat, only for this to recede when he attempts to get it.

This is because he cooked his son Pelops and tried to serve him to the gods.

Thanatos

Personification of death. He was a minor figure in Greek mythology, often referred to but rarely appearing in person.

Angel of death.

Tiresias

Odysseus goes to see him in the underworld. Circe tells Odysseus to go see him.

He was turned into a girl by Hera after attacking some snakes (???).

Tityus

A prisoner in Tartarus. His body is stretched across nine acres as a bird eats away his liver (like Prometheus?).

Tityus is punished in this way for having assaulted Leto.