Every culture and religion has their own type of death practices.

In the Greek culture,

mainly ancient Greece. They believed that the souls of the dead would go down to the

Underworld, also known as Hades, that is ruled by Hades and Persephone. There is a story of

how Persephone became the Queen of the Underworld. It’s called the Rape of Persephone.

Basically, Zeus says that Hades can marry Persephone, Zeus’ daughter. Hades opens up a portal

under her, she falls into the Underworld and is forced to live down there. Demeter does not know

that happened so she freaks out and runs around trying to find her. She asks Helios and she finds

out. She then says that she will make everyday winter, kill off the vegetation and the humans will

starve. Zeus thought she was only joking around until she actually does it, and finally they make

a deal that six months she will live in the underworld and six months in the upperworld1. This

myth shows the death practices in a way that you sort of have to read between the lines. This

myth is a representation of life and death. Looking at this story from a medical point of view, we

can see that Persephone dies and then she is “revived” multiple times. It is a life and rebirth

situation.

The route of the Underworld is complex in a way because there is so many features and

places to go. With the Underworld having many sites running through it, it can be an example of

the human body, where the body has many systems inside. The Underworld did not have to be a

pleasant place , it was rather depicted as a place of punishment and purification2. The person will

die, the soul will separate from the corpse and start its journey through the Underworld. It’ll

arrive at the gate of Hades and see an elm tree, whose branches have empty dreams that mess

with humans. Once the soul gets through the gates, they travel down the River of Styx (there

were other rivers down there but this was the main and most important one). The soul must catch
1
Gorton, Luke. “Mystery Cults”. Lecture, UNM, Magic In Ancient Religion, Albuquerque, February 18, 2020.
2
Cyrino, Monica, and Luke Gorton. A Journey Through Greek Mythology. Dubuque: Kenday, 2008.
a ride with the Charon who is a mean old man that charges a fee for the ride. Once they cross that

river, they see Cerberus, the Underworld’s guard dog and Hades’ pet. To get through the cave,

they must throw the dog a treat (i.e honey cakes). There are different parts in the cave: The

Fields of Mourning, which is where souls waited to be admitted into Hades but the only ones

who ever got to see this part were the ones who died too soon such as babies, suicides, or murder

victims. The other place was called Tartaros, which is a place of punishment for the ones who

committed a murder, the trouble makers, traitors and people who have done the absolute worse.

Another path leads to The Elysian Fields, which is a place of paradise where the heroes, poets,

teachers and the ones who always did good, go3. Whatever that soul did all depends where they

will end up.

There are many different myths that revolve around death practices. Another being the

myth of Orpheus, a talented musician, and Eurydice. Orpheus falls in love with Eurydice and he

makes her fall in love with him through his music. On the day of their wedding, she got bit by a

snake and dies. He is very upset and goes to the Underworld. He woes the Fates with his

beautiful music and they let him into the Underworld. Orpheus goes to Persephone and tells her

that his wife’s life was cut too short and she let her go but there was a catch: he could not look

back while going to the Upperworld or else she would die again. As they are going to the

Upperworld, he does not hear her footsteps and looks back. Looking back can signify the

curiosity of the brain. She dies again and he is forced to stay in the Upperworld. He becomes

depressed and his heart grows cold, his mind is lost and he does not have a care in the world

about life. Orpheus comes across followers of Dionysus and they want him to party with them

but he declines so they beat him to death. His lifeless body lies on the ground and there is

nothing anyone could do, not even a nurse could help him. He is united with his love at last and
3
Cyrino, Monica, and Luke Gorton. A Journey Through Greek Mythology. Dubuque: Kenday, 2008.
he does not suffer from any pain. This myth shows how any God can go to the Underworld when

they have certain permission. He of course had to follow the path through the Underworld.

The Greeks were very serious about their burials of the dead. If the deceased body was not

buried that means their soul could not go to the Underworld. They believed once the dead let out

their last breath, their soul finally left their body. Typically, the women of the dead one would

perform the burial rituals, which was broken down into three parts. One being the prothesis,

which was laying out the body, second being the ekphora, which was the funeral process and

lastly was the interment of the body/cremated remains of the body4. They would then dress the

body and put them on a bed in their household or put into vases. If the body was not cremated,

they would bury them with objects that they cherished. Then people would mourn.

The Greeks take a different route when they bury their dead loved ones and the souls take

their own route to find peace. To me the Greeks see their loved ones dead in the Upperworld but

completely alive on the Underworld. The Greek mythologies about life and death show that the

dead can still interact with the Upperworld. When the Greeks would cremate the bodies, they

would be sent to the Underworld. This is similar to the sacrifices that the Greeks would perform

as well. They would sacrifice bodies (mainly animals) to the Gods, to please them. They would

burn the whole body or parts of the body and that would be sent to the Gods as a “gift”. With

sacrifices, they are often very big and very public. The rituals will happen at an altar. Only men

were allowed at the altar and the women would have to stand away from the altar. During the

sacrifice they would parade through the streets with the multiple animals waiting to be sacrificed

and brought to the altar. The center of the altar would consist of the most important people. The

priest would be there and do his priest duties. Nobody would have a weapon except a little girl,
4
Department of Greek and Roman Art. “Death, Burial, and the Afterlife in Ancient Greece”.
https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/dbag/hd_dbag.htm (accessed February 2020).
referred to as the basket bearer. The girl carried a basket full of barley grains and at the bottom

would be a knife. They gave her the weapon because she had that innocent look on her face so

the Gods and animals could be fooled. They used a little girl so that nobody had that guilty

conscious. The little girl would soon forget that that ever happened because she is an adolescent.

The priest would come with a jug of water so everyone could cleanse their hands that way there

were no diseases or bad material on their hands just like a person would do before eating.

Everyone would grab some barley and throw it at the sacrifice. They then pour water on the

sacrifices head to make it bob its head up and down to make it seem like it was giving them

permission to kill them. Next they would cut a piece of fur off of it and burn it in the fire. As its

bobbing its head they would slit the throat without knowing any kind of procedure or medical

knowledge and let it bleed out. No medical attention is needed because they had to let all the

blood drain out of the body. It’s like they are preparing the body to travel through the

Underworld to the Gods. The surrounding audience who were females would weep and cry as

loud as they can to show sympathy and let the Gods know they were truly sad. After That, they

would barbeque it. Nobody knew if the meat was going to harm the body . The non-edible parts

would go to the Gods and the rest is what they would feast on and the priest would always be the

first to pick the meat that he wanted because he was in the front and because he did a lot. In some

cases, they would burn the whole carcass to recover for their sins or make up for their sins5.

There are many different views of the afterlife and death. In the book Sources for the

Study of Greek Religion, it gives different views and examples of the afterlife and death. Plato’s

view of the afterlife/death is that when someone dies their ‘daimon’ meaning a spirit or divinity,

would try to lead them places where it is necessary for them to be brought together and offer

their cases for judgment and then go to Hades with that spirit as a guide that has the job of
5
Gorton, Luke. “Private Religion”. Lecture, UNM, Magic In Ancient Religion, Albuquerque, February 11, 2020.
leading them from here to there6. This is saying that the soul is being guided by their spirit from

place to place. This shows that Pluto has the same kind of concept as the well known

Underworld trails.

If a person was close to dying they would seek medicinal help. Caring for a body does

take a lot of effort but for the ancient Greeks they would go to the temples, mainly the Temple of

Asclepius. This temple revolved around the son of Apollo, who was a medicine God. If they got

sick they would seek medical attention from that temple. They would incubate (sleep) in the

temple. This is like the saying “sleep is good for the soul” but in this case sleep is a good way to

recover. The Greeks thought when they got dreams, it was a message from the Gods. The way I

see it, sleeping is probably the closest thing to death. People would eventually wake up and feel

good. This is an example of the placebo effect. Where a person will think they are getting proper

care from a healing temple but in reality nothing happens. They think there was an effect on

them. The short story of Pluotos was that he was blind and he went to the temple to get healed.

He only got licked by a snake on his eyes. This could be a magic, a lie or maybe he just had a

problem in his eye that was healable.

6
Rice G., David and John E. Stambaugh. Sources for the study of Greek Religion. New York: The Society of Biblical Literature,
2009.