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- In ancient Greece the continued existence of the dead depended on their constant remembrance by the living. It was understood that the soul lived on after bodily death in the realm known as Hades; but that land had different regions the soul might fly to depending on the deeds done in life and, also, how the living remembered them.
www.worldhistory.org/article/29/the-after-life-in-ancient-greece/The After-Life In Ancient Greece - World History Encyclopedia
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Jan 18, 2012 · How did one reach the ancient Greek afterlife? One reached the ancient Greek afterlife by passing over the River Styx, rowed in a boat by Charon. Why was remembrance of the dead so important to the ancient Greek afterlife?
- Joshua J. Mark
The Greeks believed that at the moment of death, the psyche, or spirit of the dead, left the body as a little breath or puff of wind. The deceased was then prepared for burial according to the time-honored rituals.
The ancient Greeks believed that death marked the soul’s departure from the physical world and began a journey that led to the mysterious realm of the afterlife. At the moment of death, they believed that the soul, known as the psyche , separated from the body.
- The Prothesis. The first action taken by the next-of-kin of the deceased was to close the eyes and mouth. Initially, this practice may have been done for purely cosmetic reasons but eventually, it took on a spiritual/religious purpose.
- Clothing. In Geometric art, the deceased is often depicted as wearing a long ankle length robe. Later a shroud known as an endyma was wrapped around the corpse and supplemented by a looser covering known as epiblema.
- The Lamentation. The main ceremony of the prothesis in Greek ancient burial practice involved singing and ritualized lamentations, of which there were several types.
- The Ekphora. There are many more artistic representations of the prothesis than there are of the ekphora (the transportation of the body to the place of burial).
The body of the deceased was prepared to lie in state, followed by a procession to the resting place, a single grave or a family tomb. These processions were usually done by family or friends of the deceased. Processions and ritual laments are depicted on burial chests (larnakes) from Tanagra.
When someone died in Ancient Greece, their bodies were washed and anointed and a coin, known as Charon’s obol, was placed in the mouth, with which to pay Charon; the ferryman who rowed the dead across one of the six rivers leading to the Underworld.
When someone died in Ancient Greece, they would be washed. A coin would be placed in their mouth, to pay the ferrymen who took the dead across the rivers in the different parts of the Underworld. When the Greeks conquered Egypt, they adopted the Egyptian tradition of mummification.
