Changing Conceptions of Death in Ancient Greece (Draft) (original) (raw)
2024, ‘Changing Conceptions of Death in Ancient Greece’ in Reflections on the History of Ideas of Death
Responses to death, that most universal of all human experiences, comprise some of the richest, most enduring and varied aspects of ancient Greek myth, art, literature and ideas. From the vastly influential epics of Homer, to the philosophies of Plato and others, to funerary monuments and remains found in tombs, we encounter a diversity of attitudes to death as well as differing notions of what happens to us after we die. This in some ways reflects the fact that for the Greeks of the pre-Christian era, there was no canonical religious text accepted as providing a universal dogma for the faithful to uphold. Their thinking about death can be considered an open system, just as religion in Greece can be understood as a diverse phenomenon embracing a wide range of cult practices and concepts of the divine. But, just as Greek religion had clearly recognisable and consistent elements, such as the overriding importance of the twelve Olympian gods, so, too, in Greek eschatology, prevalent themes emerge that enable us to speak of its major attributes.
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