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2018

Underworld
Radcliffe G. Edmonds III
Bryn Mawr College, [email protected]

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Citation
Edmonds, Radcliffe G., III. 2019. "Underworld." In Oxford Classical Dictionary. New York/Oxford: Oxford
University Press.

This paper is posted at Scholarship, Research, and Creative Work at Bryn Mawr College.
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For more information, please contact [email protected].

 Underworld

Radcliffe G. Edmonds III

In Oxford Classical Dictionary, in Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Classics. (Oxford

University Press. April 2019). http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780199381135.013.8062

Summary

Depictions of the underworld, in ancient Greek and Roman textual and visual sources, differ
significantly from source to source, but they all draw on a common pool of traditional mythic
motifs. These motifs, such as the realm of Hades and its denizens, the rivers of the underworld,
the paradise of the blessed dead, and the places of punishment for the wicked, are developed
and transformed through all their uses throughout the ages, depending upon the aims of the
author or artist depicting the underworld. Some sources explore the relation of the world of the
living to that of the dead through descriptions of the location of the underworld and the
difficulties of entering it. By contrast, discussions of the regions within the underworld and
existence therein often relate to ideas of afterlife as a continuation of or compensation for life in
the world above. All of these depictions made use of the same basic set of elements, adapting
them in their own ways to describe the location of, the entering into, and the regions within the
underworld.

Keywords
underworld, Hades, afterlife, Tartarus, Charon, Elysium, Isles of the Blessed

The world of the dead is self-evidently not in the world of the living, for the dead are, by
definition, no longer among the living. If those who have died are imagined to continue to exist,
they must exist in some other place. Since the bodies of the dead are often placed under the earth,
the realm of the dead is often imagined to be under the earth as well, in some underworld realm,
but the land of the dead may also be imagined far off in other directions, beyond the encircling
oceans, west of the sunset, or even up in the heavens. Although scholars have tried to trace an
evolution of ideas of the place of the dead, from a uniformly dismal underworld as depicted in
Homer to a polarised split between a dark, fiery underground hell full of torments and a bright,
delightful heaven in the celestial realms, such a teleological scheme leading up to the Christian
vision articulated most famously by Dante seems unwarranted by the evidence surviving from
Classical antiquity. Rohde, for example, imagined an invasion of foreign Dionysiac religion into
Greece that produced a revolution away from Homeric ideas of death and afterlife, while
Cumont likewise attributed the spread of more positive ideas of the world of the dead from
oriental influences, a light from the east that illuminated the bleak, dark underworld concepts of
the Roman empire (see death, attitudes to, Greek). Although their historical premises have been
discredited, and their more simplistic models of cultural transmission superseded, the
developmental model persists even in recent scholarship. Such a linear narrative, however,
threatens to obscure the variety that existed in the ways the underworld was imagined in every
period of the Greek and Roman cultures.
 The depictions of the underworld, in textual and visual sources, differ significantly from
source to source. While the material remains from funerary practices obviously provide some
information about the way that the relation of the living and the dead was imagined, they furnish
little clear evidence of how the underworld itself was imagined, in the ways that iconographic or
textual representations of the underworld do. The differences in emphasis or detail in these
descriptions depend upon the aims of the author or artist depicting the underworld, but they all
draw on a common pool of mythic motifs, developed and transformed through all their uses
throughout the ages. Comic writers used the motifs for humorous purposes, just as epic, lyric, or
tragic poets used them for their own devices, and philosophic authors shaped them to suit their
own arguments. Later authors and artists drew upon the earlier uses, especially in Homer, as they
made their changes; Roman authors drew on the earlier Greek tradition, even while they adapted
the images with Roman names and other elements of Roman culture. Some sources explore the
relation of the world of the living to that of the dead through descriptions of the location of the
underworld and the difficulties of entering it. By contrast, discussions of the regions within the
underworld and existence therein often relate to ideas of afterlife as a continuation of or
compensation for life in the world above. All of these depictions make use of the same basic set
of elements, adapting them in their own ways to describe the location of, the entering into, and
the regions within the underworld.

Locating the Underworld

In many accounts, the dead are within the realm of Hades (Ἅιδης), whose name is often
connected with the un-seen (ἀιδής), as the dead in his realm are beyond the sight of the living,
and this unseen realm is imagined in many different ways. The king of the underworld is always
Hades, brother of Zeus, often called Plouton (Pluto, Orcus, or Dis for the Romans). Homer refers
to the division of the cosmos among the sons of Kronos (Il. 15.187–193), recounting that the
earth is shared by all, while Poseidon receives the seas, Zeus the air, and Hades the realm
beneath the earth. Accordingly, when mortals die, they are often said to go down under the earth,
and the realm of Hades is as far below the earth as the earth itself is below Olympus where the
gods dwell (Od. 10.560, 11.65; Il. 8.13–17). Hesiod claims that an anvil, falling from Olympus
for nine days, would reach the earth on the tenth, and it could continue to fall another nine days
into the underworld, only reaching the bottom of the gulf of Tartarus on the tenth (Th. 720–725).
Persephone (Roman Proserpina), whom Hades carried off from her mother, Demeter (Ceres), is
the Queen of the Underworld, and her position in the underworld often appears even more
important than that of Hades himself. Sources name various entrances to the subterranean realm
from the upper world, but among the most famous are Taenarum and Avernus, the entrances
used by Heracles and Aeneas in their descents (Pind. Pyth. 4.43–44, Aristoph. Ran. 187; Sen.
Herc. Fur. 662–678; Verg. Aen. 3.442, 6.126; Ov. Met. 14.101–119).
In other cosmological models, the unseen underworld appears not below the ground but
rather up above, where the airy souls rise into the celestial realms, as in the 5th century BCE
epigram for the Athenian war dead at Potideia (IG I3 1179.6). Such visions keep many of the
same geographical markers, but transpose all the locations into the realms of the moon and sun
and stars (e.g., Plut. de facie 942d–945d, de sera 563f–568a, de genio 590b–592e). Plato’s
Timaeus claims that souls return after death to their own stars, and the Milky Way becomes the
path the souls tread (Tim. 41d–42b; Heraclides Ponticus fr. 96 = Philoponus, In Arist. Meteor,
117; Cicero de Rep. 6.16 [http://www.thelatinlibrary.com/cicero/repub6.shtml]).
Other descriptions place the realm of the dead far away beyond the waters of Ocean that
encircle the earth, usually in the uttermost west beyond the setting sun. Circe provides Odysseus
with careful instructions and a divine wind to sail beyond the waters of Ocean, and Hermes leads
the souls of the slain suitors beyond the Ocean to the western gates of the sun (Od. 10.508–515,
24.11–12). The final boundaries of the world of the living are marked by the flows of the rivers
of the underworld: Acheron, fiery Pyriphlegethon, Cocytus, and Styx (Od. 10. 513–514). Hesiod
too puts the entrance to the underworld beyond the gates of Night and Day at the ends of the
earth (Th. 731, 748–750),while Aristophanes locates the underworld on the other side of a vast
voyage across the watery abyss, which comically turns out to be a small frog-infested pond (Ran.
137–139 ). The distance from the ordinary world to the realm of the dead may be marked by the
other lands through which the traveller must pass. Odysseus journeys beyond the Ocean and the
ever-shadowed land of the Cimmerians, whereas Hermes leads the suitors past the Land of
Dreams (Od. 11.13–19, 24.1112). Sleep is always the nearest thing to death, and Aeneas exits
from the underworld through the gates of dreams (Vergil Aen. 6. 893–899; cf. Od. 19.562–563 ).
Aeneas has his Sibyl to guide him into this unfamiliar realm, while Hermes, who appears as
the psychopomp or guide of souls in many sources, both textual and visual, leads the souls of the
recently deceased to the underworld (Od. 24. 1–13, cf. LIMC s.v. Hermes). At times, however,
the dead are brought to the underworld by the fates of Death, the Keres, or by Death personified,
Thanatos (Il. 2.302, Od. 14. 207). The journey of the newly dead to the underworld often seems
automatic and almost instantaneous, in contrast to the elaborate descriptions of shades being led
by Hermes. Aeschylus’ Telephus claims that the path to Hades is simple, and poor Elpenor
arrives at Hades more swiftly by falling to his death off Circe’s roof than Odysseus and the rest
of the crew do by sailing there across the Ocean, even aided by a divine wind (Plato, Phaedo
108a ; Od. 11. 57–58. Aristophanes characteristically takes this concept further, so when
Dionysus asks the quickest way to Hades, his Heracles provides a whole list of ways to commit
suicide (Ran. 117–135).
Plato’s Socrates, however, rejects Telephus’ claim that the path to Hades is simple, citing
the need for daimonic guides attested in the rites and myths, who direct the soul among the
multiple paths and turnings (Phaedo 108a). Such daimonic guides appear in other evidence as
well (Menander fr. 551 Kock = Plut. de tranq. 474b, Lysias Epitaphios 78, Heraclitus fr. 119),
and some of the so-called “Orphic” gold tablets direct the deceased not to take the path to the
spring by the white cypress but to proceed further along to the Lake of Memory (B1, B2, B10 in
Edmonds, 2011). Aeneas’ Sibyl warns that, although the path into the underworld is easy, he will
need good guidance to make his way out again (Vergil Aen. 6.125–148).

Entering the Underworld

The way to enter the underworld depends on where the underworld is located and how its border
is marked. Patroclus complains to Achilles that, until he is buried, the shades of the dead will not
let him cross the river and enter the gates of Hades (Il. 23. 71–76), and both water barriers and
gated walls appear as obstacles throughout the tradition of depictions of the underworld.
If the watery boundary of the underworld is a river (Styx or, in other sources, Acheron), then
a simple ferry, rather than an ocean-going vessel like Odysseus,’ is needed. Athena personally
helps Heracles cross the Styx (Il. 8.362–369), but Pindar mentions an Acherusian ferry (fr. 143 =
Plut. de superst. 167f). Although his first appearance in extant literature is in the parody version
of Aristophanes (Ran. 181), the ferryman Charon appears earlier in vase paintings and in the lost
epic Minyas, which probably described the descent to the underworld of Heracles or Theseus and
Perithous (Minyas fr. 1 = Paus. 10.28.2 ; cf., LIMC s.v. Charon). Charon and his ferry become a
standard part of underworld geography in later descriptions, whether heroic epics like Vergil or
comic parodies, like those of Lucian, who spins endless jokes involving the curmudgeonly old
ferryman (Vergil, Aen. 6. 298–304; Lucian dMort, Charon).
The wide gates of Hades appear as a proverb for death, since all mortals must pass through
them (Il. 5.646, 23.71–76, and so the underworld is surrounded by walls that force all comers to
pass through the gates. Hesiod describes the gates of bronze that close the triple layered bronze
walls that surround the underworld as a prison of the rebellious Titans, and the high walls of
Hades mark the separation of the living from the dead (Th. 726–733, cf. Vergil Aen. 6. 548–554).
The gates are watched, in many sources, by some kind of gatekeeper or guardian, either a
terrifying monster or a less horrific functionary.
The hero Aeacus, son of Zeus, is the most frequent doorkeeper; according to some sources,
he was granted this role for his exceptional virtue, and he appears as a semi-divine figure who
receives cult as κλειδοῦχος, keeper of the keys (Isocrates 9.14–15 ; Apollodorus 3.12.6,
Herodotus 5.89.3, CIG iii.6298, Epig. Gr. 646, PMG IV.1264). In comic sources, this revered
figure appears as a door-keeping slave, with all the foibles associated with that role (Lucian
dMort. 13.3, 20.1, 6, 22.3, deLuct. 4, Philops. 25; probably already in Aristophanes Ran. 605–
673), but in other traditions he appears as one of the judges of the underworld (Plato, Apol. 41a,
Gorgias 524a; Horace Carm. 2.13.22; Ovid Met. 13.25–26; Seneca Apoc. 14.1–4). The goddess
Hecate is also called the keeper of the keys to the gates of Hades (e.g. PGM IV.2292), perhaps in
conjunction with her role as guardian of thresholds. In the “Orphic” gold tablets, guardians
appear to challenge the deceased on her journey into the underworld and ask her identity, but
these guardians have neither names nor descriptions, simply embodying the sentry’s “halt, who
goes there?” (B1, B2, B10 mention guardians, while B3–9 and 12, just have the question).
More daunting are some of the monstrous figures who lurk at the gates of Hades, notably the
hellhound Cerberus, a ferocious beast endowed with three (or fifty or even a hundred) heads (Od.
11.623–626; 3 heads –; Verg. Aen. 6.417–423; Sen. Herc. f. 782–806; 50—Hesiod, Th. 310–312;
100—Pind. Dith. 2, fr. 249b). Hesiod describes his cruel trick of fawning like a friendly dog at
those entering, only to savagely devour anyone who tries to come out (Th. 769–773), but other
monsters simply stay terrifying, like the Gorgon, whose petrifying countenance Odysseus fears
will rise out of the underworld (Od. 11.633–5). While the function of horrific creatures like
Eurynomus, Empousa, Echidna, Hydra, and others seems mostly to add terror to the scene, some
of these monsters, like the Erinyes or the Poinai, also act as punishers beneath the earth (Paus.
10.28.7; Aristophanes Ran. 289–304, 465–478; Il. 3.276–80; 19.259–60; [Plato] Axiochus 372a,
Vergil Aen. 6.570–627).

Within the Underworld

Within the gates, different regions of the underworld provide different experiences, ranging from
the most horrible torments in the foulest conditions to blissful enjoyment of paradise, and the
powers that rule the underworld determine where each person in the underworld belongs. While
some sources dwell on the process of judgment, others elaborate upon the descriptions of the
regions of the underworld. Some sources carefully differentiate the regions of the afterlife, but
others deliberately flatten out the differences to provide a uniform afterlife for all.
The fear of torment inflicted by underworld punishers, monstrous or otherwise, appears in a
number of sources as a cause for the fear of death, as wrongdoers suffer for the crimes they
committed in life (Plato Rep. 330d, cf. [Dem.] 25.52; Democritus 199, 297DK = Stob. III.4.73,
IV.34.62; P. Derv. col. 5. 6–10). At times, a formal process of judgment is imagined, either by
the divine rulers of the underworld themselves or by divine heroes. Aeacus, who in life settled
disputes between the gods (Pindar Isthm. 8.21,is sometimes named, but more often the judge is
Minos or Rhadamanthys. Minos appears in Homer, judging lawsuits brought by one dead person
against another as he had as a king in life, but Plato provides the first reference to him judging
individual souls as they enter the underworld, along with Aeacus and Rhadamanthys (Od.
11.568–575, Plato Gorgias 524a, cf. Apol. 41a,which also names the Eleusinian Triptolemus).
Rhadamanthys also presides over the happy dead in Pindar, but the judge beneath the earth who
sends the fortunate dead to him is unspecified (Olymp. 2. 75; 56–67). In Aeschylus, either Hades
himself or “another Zeus beneath the ground” serves to judge and punish wrongdoers (Aeschylus
Eumenides 273–274;Suppliants 230–231).
The realm of Hades is often described as dark or shadowy, as befits an underground realm,
but beyond the gates and halls of Hades and Persephone, the land often appears as meadows or
other gentle territory. The dead dwell in the meadows of asphodel in Homer, while the great
hunter Orion ranges over hills in continued pursuit of game (Od. 11.539–575, 24.14. A wall
painting in Delphi by the 5th century BCE artist Polygnotus (now lost but described in detail by
Pausanias) includes a number of natural features, such as rocky outcrops and trees, that provide
places for the inhabitants to sit or stand (Paus. 10.28–31).
Polygnotus’ painting, like many images of the underworld that appear on surviving vases,
does not make spatial separation between the dead, who simply continue the mode of existence
that they had while living, and those who are suffering punishments in the underworld in
compensation for their crimes in life. Homer too has his famous wrongdoers, Tantalus, Sisyphus,
and Tityos suffering their punishments right alongside the other dead (Od. 11.576–600).Other
textual sources draw sharper distinctions, however, describing the places of torment as full of
mud and filth (cf. Aristophanes Ran. 145–146that are apart from the more pleasant areas
reserved for the blessed dead. In his Phaedo, Plato transforms the rivers of the underworld from
boundaries to the places of punishment themselves; Pyriphlegethon becomes a river of burning
lava that roasts wrongdoers, Cocytus freezes others as they are carried through the circulating
waters of the underworld, while Tartarus buffets the worst endlessly up and down in a perpetual
whirlpool of torment (Phaedo 111c–114c[). The regions of punishment are at times labelled
separately as Erebos or even Tartarus, although Tartarus is reserved in some sources as the
deepest pit where the Titans or other divine prisoners are confined (cf. Il. 8.10–16,14.274–279,
8.478–491, 5.898; Hesiod Th. 713–745, Hom. Hymn Apollo 335–336)_. In addition to Homer’s
trio of Tityus, Tantalus, and Sisyphus, Ixion is often depicted, bound on a flaming wheel, while
others (sometimes specifically labelled the Danaides) try endlessly to fill a leaking jar by
carrying water in sieves. Not just famous individuals, but certain types of wrongdoers are often
depicted suffering compensatory punishments for their wrongdoings in life, and the specific
types described depend not so much on the date or the genre of the source but rather on who the
author of the vision thinks is most deserving of retribution (e.g., Polygnotus in Paus. 10.28.4–5;
[Plato] Axiochus 371e; Vergil Aen. 6.576–627).
 The torments of wrongdoers getting their due are described more often and in more detail
than the rewards of the righteous, but the realm of the dead also includes regions where the good
may dwell in paradise in compensation for the good lives they have lived, whether through
virtuous actions or through their special connections developed with the gods through ritual
performance, in sacrifices, or even in “mystery” rites. Homer’s description of the Elysian Field,
to which Menelaus will go, is similar to Hesiod’s description of the Isles of the Blessed, a land of
endlessly pleasant climate where no work is needed (Od. 4.561–569,Hesiod W&D 169–173).
Pindar provides descriptions of the blessed afterlife as an aristocratic paradise, where the dead
can ride horses, play games, and enjoy feasting in flowery fields under the light of the sun
(Pindar, fr. 129, 130, cf. Olymp. 2. 71–77). The happy dead get to spend the afterlife enjoying the
best times of life, celebrating festivals with dancing and drinking, and the symposium of the
blessed dead is an idea that appears in many contexts, from tomb reliefs to the parody in
Aristophanes (Ran. 316–459,Axiochus 371c). These sunlit fields may be alongside the murky
mud in the underworld (Aristophanes Ran. 326, Polygnotus in Paus. 10.27–31, Vergil Aen.
6.637–642, OF340 B apud Proclus In remp 2.340.14–20) or they may be separated, off along a
different path, or out in the Ocean on the Isles of the Blessed (cf. Plato Gorgias 523b). In the
Phaedo, Plato puts the realms of the blessed dead not in the underworld but in the purer air of the
aither above the earth, and this ethereal destination for the souls of the dead appears in earlier
inscriptions as well (e.g., IG I³ 1179, SEG 38 440; cf. Eur. fr. 971, Suppl. 1140[, 531–536).
A few fortunate individuals are transformed from mortals into gods, but Odysseus sees the
shade of Heracles in Hades, even though his divine portion resides above with the gods on
Olympus (Od. 11.602–604. Other such fortunate individuals as Ino, Kleitos, Tithonus, and
Ganymede do not seem to have any presence in the underworld, but Semele, the mother of
Dionysus, dwells in the underworld until her son descends to bring her up to Olympus (Od.
5.333–335, 15.250–251, 5.1, Il. 20.231–235, 5.265; Pindar Olymp. 2. 25–30). Some of the
“Orphic” gold tablets promise apotheosis for the deceased—“a god you will be instead of a
mortal”—but others of the same type ask Persephone to send the deceased to the seats of the
blessed (A1 and A4; A2 and A3 in Edmonds, 2011).
Homer’s famous vision of pale, gibbering shades that lack any vitality or memory is actually
the exception to the lively afterlife in the underworld that appears in many sources. The pathetic
scenes with Patroclus and Achilles or Odysseus and his mother emphasise the idea that existence
after death is empty, to show the epic idea that the only meaningful kind of immortality is
imperishable fame, the κλέος ἄφθιτον provided by epic song (Il. 23.103–104; Od. 11.218–222).
Elsewhere, the dead either continue in the underworld with same kind of existence they had
while alive or experience rewards or punishments in compensation, depending on the purposes of
the creator of the vision of the underworld. Homer’s influence is strong in the literary tradition,
but the underworld appears in many other kinds of sources in the Greek and Roman cultural
traditions, transformed in different ways over the centuries to make a variety of points about the
relation of life and death.
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