Did the inhabitants of Ancient Greece believe in hell?

Etymologically, the word hell comes from the Latin inferus which, in turn, is related to the Indo-European root that means “below” or “below.”. That is to say, what we know as a space of eternal torment has a meaning closer to an “underground place,” located at some indeterminate point below the world.

This was how the inhabitants of Ancient Greece saw hell. Originally, the underworld (a word that, on the other hand, means the same thing, “under the world”) was simply the place where The souls of the deceased were destined for it, but, at least until Plato, it lacked the punishing connotation that the Christianity.

If you are interested in this topic, keep reading. Throughout the article, you will discover how the ancient Greeks viewed the afterlife and what they believed happened to their dead after leaving life on earth.

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A place of wandering souls

In all cultures there has existed and there is a certain idea of ​​what happens to the deceased after crossing the threshold of death.

. In all religions we find a mythology referring to postmortem existence, which varies depending on the characteristics of the society that creates it.

So it is clear that the ancient Greeks also had their own myths about the afterlife. However, and answering the question in the title, no, at first they did not believe in “hell” as we put it. We explain ourselves below.

With Plato (s. Goes. C.), the approach to a possible trial of souls after death begins. Specifically, it is in the work of Gorgias that the philosopher proposes Tartarus, one of the elements of which traditionally made up the Greek underworld, as the place where people's souls end up evil This is only possible, of course, thanks to a prior trial which, in the Greek case, is carried out by three people: Minos, king of Crete, his brother, Rhadamantis, and Aeacus, king of Aegina.. We will talk about this judgment and the “classification” of souls later.

However, in the archaic era and before the era of Pericles, we do not find references to the underworld as a place of punishment. In fact, in Homeric poetry the deceased are spoken of, in general, as beings without strength or common sense. In other words, shadows incapable of discernment, who wander eternally through Hades and constantly evoke, between lamentations, his previous life on earth.

For the same reason, the deceased had no power to interfere with the living. At most, they could become “irritated” if someone disrespected them or violated their graves (the shadows of the dead). had a reputation for being irascible), but they did not possess any power to persecute their detractors and materialize their revenge. In short, the underworld of the Homeric era (s. VIII a. C.) is an indeterminate and vague place, where souls wander bewildered for all eternity.

Where was the world of the dead?

In this sense, Hades, which is what the world of the dead was called, was simply that, the “home” of the deceased. These did not receive any type of distinction nor did their postmortem fate depend on what they had been in life, with the exception, perhaps, of the most outstanding heroes, who had a reserved space whose location and characteristics vary according to the time and the authors.

Because the place where Hades was located was not specified. Etymologically, we have already seen that both the word hell and underworld mean “for below”, but, however, the Greeks never used these words to refer to the world of the dead. In general, the home of the deceased was identified with its ruler, the god Hades, brother of Zeus to whom such a sad fate had fallen, so, When talking about the underworld, the Greeks used to say “the house of Hades” or, simply, “Hades.”.

The location of Hades' domains is confusing and variable. One of the myths tells how the three gods who defeated the ancient titans, the brothers Zeus, Poseidon and Hades divided the world and awarded themselves the sky, the sea and the world of the dead, respectively. However, it is not specified where exactly the kingdom of Hades was located.

In some ancient sources they place it beyond the Ocean, which was the "river" that surrounded the earth, so, in this case, it would not be an “underworld” place, but a kind of island, misty and gloomy Later, with the discovery of other lands, it was found that there was no such place behind the waters, so they began to talk about a space beneath the earth, whose entrance doors were distributed throughout the world. In any case, The descriptions coincide in characterizing Hades as a dark kingdom where light never penetrated and where the dead wandered sadly for all eternity..

A hellish geography

The entrances to this gloomy kingdom were varied. The ancient Greeks believed that many rivers led to Hades when their waters disappeared under rocks or underground; This is the case of the Acheron River, which was believed to be a direct entrance to the kingdom of the dead.

Hades had its own geography configured, which, despite finding variations depending on the author, we can draw in a fairly homogeneous way.. We have already commented that Acheron was one of his entrance doors. When the deceased finally crossed the threshold, he met Charon, the boatman, who was the one who had to take him across the river to the lordship of Hades.

The dead person had to pay for the boatman's work, so it was common to place a coin in the eyes or mouth of the deceased. If the family members forgot this detail, they ran the risk of the boatman denying the entry to his deceased and that he was forced to wander the edges of the underworld in a indefinite.

Once the river had been crossed, the soul had to face Cerberus, the three-headed dog who jealously guarded the entrance to the kingdom of his lord. The dog's mission was that no living person would enter Hades, as well as that no dead person would leave it. However, Greek mythology includes the name of three living people who managed to enter: Heracles, Theseus and Orpheus. The three used various skills to outwit the guardian; For example, Orpheus put him to sleep with the music of his lyre.

In the kingdom of Hades there were several rivers. We have already spoken of Acheron, the “river of affliction,” an apt name if we take into account that the dead deeply regretted having to abandon their previous existence. One of its tributaries was the Cocytus, the “river of lamentations,” spoken of in the Odyssey.

Another was Lethe, the “river of oblivion,” which watered the fountain of the same name and where the deceased forgot their past by drinking. The fourth and last was the Phlegethon, a terrifying “river of fire” that, according to Plato, led to Tartarus, a place of punishment. It is inevitable to relate, by the way, the Platonic idea of ​​fire as a punishing element and Christian mythology in this regard..

Finally, there was a river or lagoon that surrounded Hades and whose entrance was said to be in Arcadia, where a fountain whose waters were toxic was located. However, these waters also had magical qualities, since it was there, according to mythology, where the nymph Thetis bathed her son Achilles. This lagoon was called Styx, and is probably the best known in the kingdom of the dead.

From the “home of the dead” to the classification of souls

We have already commented on what it is like starting with Plato, related to his theories of Good and Evil, when He begins to see Hades as a place where the deceased are judged based on acts committed in life. In this sense, the philosopher establishes Tartarus as the place of horrible punishment for the truly evil.

For those who were “in the middle”, that is, for those who were neither evil nor virtuous, the Asphodel Fields were assigned. It was a meadow covered with flowers of the asphodel species, which was what the deceased who lived there fed on.. It was a peaceful place where “normal” souls, not distinguished by any evil or heroism, spent their postmortem existence.

Finally, heroes or eminently virtuous characters entered the Elysian Fields, also known as the Isles of the Blessed. In general, the sources admit that, in this place, the chosen ones enjoyed a placid existence and surrounded by pastimes and delights.

This idea of ​​“classification” of souls according to their earthly life brings the concept of Hades from the late Greek era closer to other cultures; not only with the Christian, whose similarity is evident, but also with the Egyptian, who in turn had a trial, the famous “weighing of the heart.”. However, in the case of the country of the Nile, the wicked were not condemned for all eternity. The fate that was reserved for them was even more terrifying for an Egyptian (whose greatest fear was seeing his identity annihilated): Ammyt, the Great Devourer, engulfed them and forever ended their existence, both mortal and immortal.