The House of Hades
Studies in Ancient Greek Eschatology
A part of the series Studies in Religion (2) , and the subject area Religion
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About the book
The author asks, tantalizingly, what happens when we die? If we are looking for answers in the field of religion, he says, we may find that death is rarely, if ever, represented as a complete end of individual existence. But, he wonders, what does individual existence really mean? For this, he looks into the meanings of life and death in ancient Greece and in so doing has sought to get behind postulated stereotypes of religious belief as he looks into the discourses of Homeric, Orphic and Eleusinian tradition
Table of contents
IntroductionPart One. Homeric discourse:
I. The Homeric tradition
II. The funeral rites of Patroclus
III. The concept of psyche
IV. The state of being a hero
V. The underworld
VI. Sleep and death
Part Two. Orphic discourse:
VII. The Orphic tradition
VIII. Continuity of being
IX. The lake and the meadow
X. Imitatio Mortis
Part Three. The mystery:
XI. Representing tradition
XII. The Eleusinian myth
XIII. The Eleusinian cult
XIV. Between discourses
Conclusion
Technicalities
Text editions
Bibliography
Index Locorum
Plates
