24. THE DESCENT: “ETERNAL SLEEP”

Underworld: Hades

Ancient Greeks anticipated that an individual goes to the Underworld after death. The realm is governed by god Hades and often referred to as such. The Greek Underworld shares similarities and differences with Christian Heaven/Hell:

(1) Location: 

According to Homer, the Underworld lies at the far western end of the world, beyond the earth-encircling Ocean (as we call the Underworld "Hades," "Ocean" gets this name from the Titan god Oceanus). Therefore, the journey to the Greek Underworld isn't a strict "descend" as in the Christian sense, and GOSPEL is blending the two concepts.

"But something invisible and strange

Caught him up—or down--

Into a space unseen."

Antigone, OEDIPUS AT COLONUS  

(2) Good/Evil Division:

Every ancient Greek (mortals, heroes, or demi-Gods) would enter the Underworld after death. But an expectation that good would be rewarded (in heaven) and evil punished (in hell) was not central to their beliefs - only a few mythical figures (like Sisyphus) would suffer eternally. 

But the Underworld also has its division: the glorious area known as the Elysian Fields, which is similar to Heaven. The torturous area is known as Tartarus, corresponding with Hell. Note that OEDIPUS condemned POLYNEICES to the "hated underworld," and we now pray that OEDIPUS himself rest somewhere else in Hades' realm. 

(3) Darkness/Sleep:

In ancient Greek mythology, the northwest is a generally ominous coordinate. Homer wrote in ODESSEY that Cimmerii is a land at the edge of the earth covered in mist and cloud, where the sun never shines. Ovid describes it as a land of perpetual darkness and silence, lying "beyond the north wind." Their land is home to the god of sleep Somnus. 

"light is reconfigured not as a spectacle of which Oedipus has been deprived, but rather as a source of warmth which he has grasped.”