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The Greek View on Death
Posted By: Kaz!, on host 198.161.119.4
Date: Tuesday, March 14, 2000, at 13:52:36

I've been busy with a lot of things this last week, one of which is a presentation that myself and a few others have to do. The topic is "Explain the Greek View on Death". I've tried searching on some search engines and consulted a few books, but none gave me a really good indication of the greek veiw on death. What I can infer from these sources and what I picked up from some rather interesting discussions a few years ago are as follows (although some may be wrong):

-Death is thought of as a transition, not the end of existance. It is believed that fate chooses when a person dies and that fate is determined by the Gods.

-If a person is not burried correctly with 2 coins, then that person must spend an eternity wandering the earth. If the person is buried correctly, then the person may pay the 2 coins to the oarsman of the river Styx, Charon, in order to pass to the underworld. The underworld is gaurded by a 3 headed dog who will let any spirit enter but allow none to leave.

-In the underworld, a person is judged by the gods and is either sent to the Elythien Feilds (not sure on spelling) or to Tartarus. Tartarus is the equivelent to the lower regions of Hell and the Elythien Feilds are like Heaven. If deemed acceptable, a person my also choose to drink from the river Lethe (river of forgetfulness) in order to be reborn into the mortal realm.

I would be grateful if anyone could post any more information on the greek veiw of death and/or the details of the underworld or knows of any site(s) that can further my understanding on this subject, as what I've got isn't all that much to make a creative project on (I'm thinking of making a play or something like that). And, after all, if the search engines fail to provide results, the Rinkforum will provide!

Thanks!

-Ka"Between this topic in English an about 3 others that are all due for Friday, I'm swamped!"z!

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