Classical Mythology, 7th Edition - obinfonet: dia logou

VIEWS OF THE AFTERLIFE: THE REALM OF HADES 333
And also I saw Sisyphus enduring hard sufferings as he pushed a huge
stone; exerting all his weight with both his hands and feet he kept shoving it up
to the top of the hill. But just when he was about to thrust it over the crest then
its own weight forced it back, and once again the pitiless stone rolled down to
the plain. Yet again he put forth his strength and pushed it up; sweat poured
from his limbs and dust rose up high about his head. 8
Odysseus next sees the phantom of Heracles—the real Heracles is with his
wife, Hebe, among the immortal gods. Heracles tells how he too was ill-fated
while he lived, performing labors for an inferior master.
Homer's Book of the Dead ends when hordes of the shrieking dead swarm
up and Odysseus in fright makes for his ship to resume his journey.
Countless difficulties beset any interpretation of the Homeric view of the afterlife,
many of them linked to the nature of the composition of the Odyssey as
a whole and of this book in particular. Discrepancies are apparent, and explanations
must finally hinge upon one's views on the much wider problems of the
Homeric question. Does the Book of the Dead reflect different attitudes and concepts
put together by one man or by several, at one time or over a period of
years—even centuries? Basic to the account, perhaps, is a cult of the dead—seen
in the sacrificial ceremonies performed at the trench and in the serious note of
moral compulsion to provide burial for one who has died. But as the description
proceeds, there is much that is puzzling. Odysseus apparently remains at
his post while the souls come up; if so, how does he witness the torments of the
sinners and the activities of the heroes described? Are they visions from the pit
of blood, or is this episode an awkward addition from a different treatment that
had Odysseus actually tour the realm of Hades? Certainly the section listing the
women who come up in a group conveys strongly the feelings of an insertion,
written in the style of the Boeotian epic of Hesiod. As the book begins, the stream
of Oceanus seems to be the only barrier, but later Anticlea speaks of other rivers
to be crossed.
Thus the geography of the Homeric Underworld is vague, and similarly the
classification of those who inhabit it is obscurely defined, particularly in terms
of the precision that is evident in subsequent literature. Elpenor, among those
who first swarm up, may belong to a special group in a special area, but we cannot
be sure. Heroes like Agamemnon and Achilles are together, but they do not
clearly occupy a separate paradise; the meadow of asphodel they inhabit seems
to refer to the whole realm, not to an Elysium such as we find described by
Vergil. One senses, rather, that all mortals end up together pretty much in the
same place, without distinction. Since Odysseus thinks that Achilles has power
among the shades as great as that which he had among the living, perhaps some
prerogatives are assigned or taken for granted. A special hell for sinners may be
implied (at least they are listed in a group), but it is noteworthy that these sinners
are extraordinary indeed, great figures of mythological antiquity who dared
great crimes against the gods. Apparently ordinary mortals do not suffer so for
their sins. Homer does not seem to present an afterlife of judgment and reward