For the ancient Greeks death was not the end but the start of a pale, silent existence beneath the earth, in the realm of Hades, which took its ruler's name. Beside him reigned Persephone, daughter of Demeter.
The soul's journey
At death the soul (psyche) left the body like a breath and was led by the god Hermes to the banks of the infernal river. There waited Charon, the grim old ferryman, who asked for an obol, a small coin: that is why relatives placed one in the mouth of the dead. Those left unburied who could not pay wandered the bank for a hundred years. At the entrance stood Cerberus, the three-headed dog who let everyone in and no one out.
The rivers
| River | Meaning of the name | Role |
|---|---|---|
| Styx | Hatred | The gods swore by its waters; the oath could not be broken |
| Acheron | Woe | The river Charon crosses in many versions |
| Lethe | Forgetfulness | Whoever drank it forgot their past life |
| Cocytus | Lamentation | River of the cries of the dead |
| Phlegethon | Fiery | River of fire surrounding Tartarus |
Judgement and the three regions
Three judges, Minos, Rhadamanthus and Aeacus, all sons of Zeus and just kings in life, decided the fate of souls.
- Hades, the underworld
- Asphodel Meadows: most souls, without joy or pain
- Elysian Fields: heroes and the righteous, in eternal spring
- Tartarus: a deep abyss where the Titans and great sinners are punished
The great sinners
In Tartarus those who had offended the gods suffered eternal punishment:
- Tantalus, who served the gods the flesh of his son, stands in water beneath trees heavy with fruit: when he bends to drink the water recedes, when he reaches out the branches rise. Hence the English verb to tantalize.
- Sisyphus, who cheated death, must push a boulder up a hill; just before the top it rolls back down.
- The Danaids, who killed their husbands on their wedding night, must fill a leaking jar with water.
- Ixion is bound to a fiery wheel that turns for ever.
Those who went down and came back
Few of the living entered Hades and came out again: Heracles, who brought Cerberus to the surface; Theseus, held prisoner until Heracles freed him; Orpheus, who came for Eurydice; and Odysseus, who called up the souls at the edge of the world. Legend placed one entrance to Hades at Cape Tainaron in the Peloponnese, and an oracle of the dead, the Necromanteion, stood on the Acheron in Epirus, where its ruins can still be visited.