Death – Part 2

Hades

In the Greek mythology, Hades is the god of the Underworld, which is where all the dead are taken. Hades is greedy, as he wants to increase the population of his world and that is what causes deaths.

The Underworld has an interesting geography. Underworld is a place which is hidden in the earth and is surrounded with many rivers. They are the River of Woes, the River of Lament, the River of Fire, the River of Forgetfulness and the River of Oath. The Adamantine Gate forms the entrance to the Underworld, which is guarded by Cereberus, the three-headed dragon-tailed dog, who allows entry, but never an exit from the Underworld. The dead are ferried by an aged boatman named Charon who takes the souls across the River of Woe. The dead are buried with a coin in their lips; this is to pay for the fare for the ferry ride. Those without the coin are eternally trapped between the two worlds.

The souls which manage to enter the Underworld, have to appear before three judges, Rhadamanthus, Minos and Aeacus, who pass a judgement based on ones deeds on earth. The wicked and the evil are sent for an everlasting torment, while the good are sent to the Elysian Fields, a place of blessedness.

The Underworld is not a very pleasant place; rather it is painted as a miserable place where no sunlight or hope can enter. It is a vague, shadowy place where there is nothing. It seems like the highly descriptive Greek poets have not indulged in the dull gloomy aspect of death beyond this!

As we see, the Greeks too believe in life after death like the Hindus, but there is no mention of the cycle of birth, death and birth. There are many stories associated with Hades, the most famous being the kidnapping of Persephone      (http://utkarshspeak.blogspot.in/2011/03/demeter-persephone.html  ).

Anubis

The Egyptians had a very firm belief in life after death. According to the Egyptian mythology, Anubis and Osiris were the gods of the Underworld. After a person died, his soul was taken to the hall of the judgement in Duat by Anubis, who was the god of mummification. Here goddess Maat acts as the judge of morality. She would weigh the soul of the dead against her ostrich feather in a scale, and if the soul balances against the feather, then the soul reaches paradise. If it weighed heavier than the feather, a sign that it was a soul which harboured evil deeds, then it would be given to the crocodile headed goddess Ammut (some say she was lioness-headed), who would devour it and would be relegated to the underworld. This way the Egyptians believed that there would be balance, and just as the good would get rewarded, the evil would get punished.

Maat

According to the ancient Egytians, the soul was made up of three parts – Ka, Ba and Ahk and it was important to ensure the safeguard of all the three parts. The elaborate burial rituals were for the preservation of the body and the soul. The ancient Egyptians followed an elaborate process of mummification, as they strongly believed in the afterlife of the body and soul. The embalming and the preservation of the body were to preserve the individual’s identity during his afterlife. As a part of the embalming process, most of the body organs were removed before the burial, except the heart as the Egyptians believed that the heart was the home of the soul. The concept of afterlife was so important that many Egyptians prepared for the afterlife during their lifetime itself.

Like the Greeks and Hindus, the Egyptians too believed in trial after death, but unlike the Hindus, there is no cycle of death and life and the concept of salvation. Death is an end of the journey of the soul of an individual.

Death, be it in philosophy or mythology is definitely gloomy and sad. The last few articles on death have not been very uplifting, but have definitely been a cathartic for me. Writing about it has probably enabled me to somehow reduce the sense of loss that the recent death has left behind. I can appreciate Oscar Wilde much better now when he says – “One can survive everything nowadays, except death.” So true and so practical, I guess.

Demeter & Persephone

According to the Greek Mythology, Demeter was the goddess of vegetation and fruitfulness, especially of corn. She represented the products of soils and seasons and the generative forces that directed their abundance. Demeter was the goddess of the harvest and she taught man how to grow crops. Traditionally, the first loaf of bread of the season is sacrificed to her.

Demeter lived in the mountains and was known as the protector of the fields. She was known as the fair haired earth goddess who blesses all phases of the harvest. She walks the furrowed fields dressed in green.

Demeter had a very close bond with her daughter Persephone. Persephone was the goddess of the underworld, spring and harvest. She also represented all the elements of the earth.

Persephone was very beautiful. Once the God of the underworld, Hades saw Persephone and fell deeply in love with her. He trapped Persephone and abducted her to the underworld.

After the disappearance of Persephone, Demeter began to look high and low for her daughter. Demeter was so distraught, that she wandered the earth for nine days, denying herself of all forms of food, drink and comfort. She renounced her divine functions as a goddess of vegetation and fruitfulness, in search of Persephone.

Seeing this Zeus decided to intervene. He sent his messenger to speak to Hades to release Persephone from the underworld. But as luck would have it, Persephone who had revolted all these days by not having anything to eat or drink and had just tasted a few seeds of Pomegranate and had thus become one of the underworlds, as per the rules of the underworld.

So a compromise had to be struck, that Persephone would spend two-thirds of the year with her mother, Demeter, and one-third as the queen of the underworld.

From that day onwards, while Persephone lives with Hades, the days are short and dark and cold. Demeter, who could not forgive Hades, allows the earth to go barren during the months when Persephone resides with him. But her return to earth is marked by the spring season when there is the warm, bright light of summer, and the flowers start to bloom, the leaves to bud and the birds to sing in the sky.

Herein lies the secret of seasons, explained so painfully through the love of a mother and daughter!