Greek Underworld

Enter the Abode of the Dead

Acheron

• The river of woe, sadness or affliction

Charon the boatman• Ferried souls across Acheron. If they didn’t have

payments the soul would wander on the banks of Acheron forever.

Shades

• To the Greeks, the soul was a pale reflection of its former personality, a shade of its former self.

Hades: Erebus, Tartarus and the Elysium Fields

• Erebus – all the dead had to pass here – perhaps a limbo. Judgment came later.

The judges

• Aeacus – Europeans

• Rhadamanthus – Asiatics

• Minos – difficult cases

Shades were sent to either Tartarus or Elysium

Cocytus – river of lamentation or wailing

The Fates

The ones who spun, measured and cut the thread of life.

Nemesis - the spirit of divine retribution against those who succumb to hubris, vengeful fate personified as a remorseless goddess. Also – just rewards.

The FuriesWith serpents for hair and blood dripping from their eyes,

they pursued sinners on earth but lived in the

underworld.

Hecate

Queen of the dead and goddess of magic charms and enchantments. You may remember her from Macbeth.

The River StyxHad nine loops and surrounded the underworld. If a god

swore by her, the oath was irrevocable. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UzEF9UOs_ug

Cerberus

The watchdog at the gates of Tartarus.

TartarusWhere sinners endured punishment

The Abode of the Dead

• Tanatos/Mors – death• Hypnos/Somnus –

Sleep, brother of death

• Morpheus – son of sleep and god of dreams

Lethe

The river of forgetfulness

Elysium Fields

Eternal bliss

Hades and Persephone