{"title":"Parmenides and the Tradition of Katabasis Narratives","authors":"Nicolò Benzi","doi":"10.3828/liverpool/9781789621495.003.0005","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3828/liverpool/9781789621495.003.0005","url":null,"abstract":"Chapter five focuses on one of the core motifs of Greek thought concerning death and the afterlife: the katabasis, or descent into the underworld. Benzi examines the deployment of this motif by the early Greek philosopher, Parmenides. Benzi sheds light on the famously obscure proem by reading it as a katabatic tale, a form of narrative which he argues is a traditional means of establishing authority. However, Benzi argues that Parmenides’ deployment of a katabasis subverts this traditional function, and represents a means by which Parmenides demonstrates the logical vacuum of the poetic tradition.","PeriodicalId":380968,"journal":{"name":"Aspects of Death and the Afterlife in Greek Literature","volume":"2 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"128799211","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Renovating the House of Hades","authors":"A. Hooper","doi":"10.3828/liverpool/9781789621495.003.0009","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3828/liverpool/9781789621495.003.0009","url":null,"abstract":"Chapter nine utilises the metaphor of extension-building to examine the different ways in which important religious and philosophical thinkers appropriated and adapted poetic visions of the Underworld. Hooper argues that the Homeric vision of the House of Hades represented an attractive and flexible vision of the Underworld, which later thinkers could draw on in order to conceptualise and communicate their novel thinking concerning post-mortem fate. Hooper contrasts the extension-building undertaken in representations of Eleusinian eschatological thought with the more radical procedure of Plato’s Socrates. Taking the Myth of Er of the Republic as a case study, Hooper argues that Socrates deploys traditional material to ensure that his audience never feels ‘quite at home’ in this Underworld journey in order to provoke reflection on the key philosophical issues raised in this passage.","PeriodicalId":380968,"journal":{"name":"Aspects of Death and the Afterlife in Greek Literature","volume":"51 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"115232621","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"A Path Neither Simple Nor Single","authors":"Radcliffe G. Edmonds","doi":"10.3828/liverpool/9781789621495.003.0001","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3828/liverpool/9781789621495.003.0001","url":null,"abstract":"This chapter suggests that the afterlife is a very prominent concept for the ancient Greeks, and surveys a wide variety of evidence to demonstrate the myriad ways in which the Greeks conceived of the afterlife, and the ends to which such visions were deployed. This evidence covers treatments of the afterlife created over millennia throughout the Greek world, including the treatment it receives in poetry, painting, philosophy, and funerary rites. Edmonds organises these accounts through appealing to three categories: 1) visions of continuation, in which post-mortem existence is imagined as analogous to that enjoyed in life; 2) visions of compensation, in which the afterlife is seen as a correction of living existence; and 3) cosmological visions, where thinkers situate the afterlife within a wider account of the nature and function of the world. The key insight of Edmonds’ paper is that, to see Hades as a monolithic theological concept is to miss out on the particularly versatile nature of Greek beliefs, which in turn runs the danger of relegating equally valid conceptions of the afterlife to strictly cultic or minority-based divergences from the norm.","PeriodicalId":380968,"journal":{"name":"Aspects of Death and the Afterlife in Greek Literature","volume":"118 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"125137379","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"What is your Lot?","authors":"George Alexander Gazis","doi":"10.3828/liverpool/9781789621495.003.0004","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3828/liverpool/9781789621495.003.0004","url":null,"abstract":"A novel interpretation of the underworld narrative of Pindar’s Olympian 2, which moves away from the established approach that seeks to separate and define specific religious/cultic beliefs, and looking instead at the mythic tradition which Pindar exploits in order to paint an image of the afterlife which is as diverse as it is familiar. Gazis argues specifically, that the afterlife is visualised as a three levelled construct. This model, if superimposed upon the Homeric division of the cosmos would reflect precisely the geographical elements of the underworld, the earth and heaven, with the last level, representing a plain of existence in the sky. Gazis argues, however, that the description which Pindar presents has very little to do with any concrete doctrine. Whether this is done intentionally or as a result of genuine ignorance is a question that has to, inevitably, remain open. What can however be proved, is that Pindar’s approach to the concept of distinct afterlives remains, within its peculiarity, as traditional as ever.","PeriodicalId":380968,"journal":{"name":"Aspects of Death and the Afterlife in Greek Literature","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"128916484","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Somatics of the Greek Dead","authors":"V. Liapis","doi":"10.2307/j.ctv1qp9gc9.5","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv1qp9gc9.5","url":null,"abstract":"This chapter asks to what extent were the dead imagined to retain their corporeality by the ancient Greeks? The overview begins with Homer, with particular attention given to the Nekyia, and an excursus on the nature of psyche. The next section on ‘embodied ghosts’ brings together hero-revenants along with the ‘ordinary dead’. Liapis argues that the Homeric account of the dead as disembodied eidola is far from the norm, and clarifies seemingly inconsistencies within Homer’s own representation of the dead concerning this matter. Liapis then considers a range of sources to argue that the Greek imaginings of the dead oscillated between the spectral and corporeal, a situation which poses challenges for contemporary thinking concerning the corporeality of human beings.","PeriodicalId":380968,"journal":{"name":"Aspects of Death and the Afterlife in Greek Literature","volume":"9 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-06-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"124517803","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"In Quest for Authority:","authors":"Nicolò Benzi","doi":"10.2307/j.ctv1qp9gc9.8","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv1qp9gc9.8","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":380968,"journal":{"name":"Aspects of Death and the Afterlife in Greek Literature","volume":"60 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-06-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"134404134","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Life and Death of the Greek Heroine in Odyssey 11 and the Hesiodic Catalogue of Women","authors":"I. Ziogas","doi":"10.2307/j.ctv1qp9gc9.6","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv1qp9gc9.6","url":null,"abstract":"Examines the phenomenon of ‘thanatography’, a form of biography which is exceptional for taking as its subject a ghost, rather than a living person. Ziogas investigates the deployment of this phenomenon in archaic literature, particularly in Odyssey 11 and the Hesiodic Catalogue of Women, and focuses on the thanatographies of heroines. In contrast to the stories of dead men, which focus primarily on the manner of their death, Ziogas argues that the thanatographies of women rarely make mention of their death. Indeed, in archaic literature heroines are noteworthy for surviving their suffering into old age, especially in avoiding the pressing perils of childbirth, and outliving their sons. In prioritising the remarkability of their lives, rather than the manner of their deaths, the heroines of the archaic age are remembered in their prime, as young, desirable, and, most importantly, alive.","PeriodicalId":380968,"journal":{"name":"Aspects of Death and the Afterlife in Greek Literature","volume":"47 12 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-06-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"123331403","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Renovating the House of Hades:","authors":"A. Hooper","doi":"10.2307/j.ctv1qp9gc9.12","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv1qp9gc9.12","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":380968,"journal":{"name":"Aspects of Death and the Afterlife in Greek Literature","volume":"29 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-06-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"125128659","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Death as Dehumanisation in Sophocles’ Philoctetes","authors":"Chiara Blanco","doi":"10.2307/j.ctv1qp9gc9.9","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv1qp9gc9.9","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":380968,"journal":{"name":"Aspects of Death and the Afterlife in Greek Literature","volume":"16 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-06-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"125901112","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"A Path Neither Simple Nor Single:","authors":"Radcliffe G. Edmonds","doi":"10.2307/j.ctv1qp9gc9.4","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv1qp9gc9.4","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":380968,"journal":{"name":"Aspects of Death and the Afterlife in Greek Literature","volume":"15 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-06-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"132501966","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}