Odyssey And The Aeneid Analysis

Erin Von Dollen
Suzanne Barnett
LLRN
Fall 2015
A Lot Changes with Time Ancient Greeks had a poor and dark view on what happened to them once they died. They did not have a place where they their souls went to rest in peace. Instead, they went to where they were tortured for the rest of their immortal lives. This is shown in both epics, The Odyssey by Homer and The Aeneid by Virgil. In the Odyssey Odysseus into the underworld and you get his count on the awfulness of Hades, and too Aeneas goes to the underworld and you see the different parts and find out the meaning of each section. Both texts have similarities and differences on the interpretations of the after lives of greeks. Throughout time Greeks have changed their understandings of
what happened to their souls after they die.
In the Odyssey, Odysseus is sent down into the underworld to get a prophecy from Tiresias and ask him the way he should get home after a long journey home from Troy.
Getting to the underworld was not a problem he just had to perform certain tasks to get Tiresias to come out and give him his prophecy. He had to dig a trench and pour his libations in it for the dead souls. Once he completed all of his tasks that is when everyone started to appear. The first ghost he recognized was his soldier Elpenor. When Odysseus saw him he was shocked, he could not believe that he was dead. Elpenor groaned and told Odysseus about his death and now he did not get a proper burial. This is essential to ancient greeks because that is the only way a soul can be at ease in their afterlife. Every single ghost Odysseus came in contact with was miserable, angry, and bitter. They all asked about their family (mainly sons) and had nothing positive about themselves. As said by Achilles he “rather be a slave on earth for another man- some dirt poor tenant farmer who scrapes to keep alive- than rule down here over all the breathless bodies”(Homer, Odyssey 265). For a male to say this shows how bad the underworld is; Ancient Greeks were all about their pride and manhood therefore if he rather be a slave to another man take away all of his pride. Also, when Odysseus was leaving the underworld all the spirits kept surrounding him “thousands raising unearth cries, and blanching terror gripped me” (Homer,
Odyssey 270). The description of the cries tells how much sorrow they have for being in the underworld, their is nothing pleasant about it. In addition, Homers interpretation of the underworld is very vast and has nothing to it, all it is a huge dark place where the best people on earth are put with the worse, there's no reward for the good. The bad are punished but are still put in the same place as the good.
In the Aeneid, Aeneas goes to the underworld to get a prophecy on Rome's future. There he met many people (Queen Dido, Trojan war veterans, his father.) While he is down into the underworld he is talking to his fathers and asking him many questions about the underworld. In this depiction hell has different sections. There is a section of souls whose bodies were not buried properly. There is an area for souls who have recently passed away, they are waiting to be placed into the section in which they belong. There is an area for those who died due to love, that is where he sees Dido. There is a war hero section where he sees many Trojan war soldiers. Then, there is a section placed in a huge for-trace, the people who are placed in here are the biggest sinners, these people have performed matricide, betrayed their families, they are consider to be very bad people. They are given punishments for their action on earth. Lastly, there is the section for the good people. “Blessed grove” that is where he finds his father. The different sections of the underworld makes dying more justifiable to Greeks opposed to being thrown into one place where the good and bad mix. (Virgil, Aeneid)
The two versions are similar by the way they both got to the underworld.
They both had to make a sacrifice before they went down. They both were escorted by a nymph. Also,they also both could not stay for long. On the other hand, The two depictions of the underworld are extremely different to the one another. In The Odyssey there are no sections at all; the sinners are placed with the good and everyone is miserable. Also the dead souls do not know who they are and seem deranged. In The Aeneid, all different types of people are separated into different categories based on how they lives their mortal lives. Their are people who are being punished for being bad people, and others are being rewarded. The two versions differ too because Odysseus could not wait to go back and get out of the underworld; “I rushed back to my ship, commanded all hands to take the decks and cast off ables quickly” (Odyssey, 207). On the other hand, Aeneas did not understand why anyone would want to go back; “What dreadful longing sends them towards the light?”(Aeneid, 138) This is when the spirits are lined up to be sent back onto rather in another body. The difference in the two books are clear and it shows what interpretations is the better one. This reflects on how greeks view their after life then versus
now.
The way the ancient greeks interpreted the after world changed drastically from 8th century BC (when the odyssey was written) and 19th century BC (when the Aeneid was written).Through these two texts you can see the ideas of Greeks lives have changed; they changed the ideas of the underworld and after lives on themselves. Throughout time you can also see the changes in Greek religion. Not only did the idea of the afterlife change, the loyalty to the gods lessened. Yes, they still worshiped the gods and believed in them but in time they lost the fear of the gods and punishments Another, text that supports this is 441 BC Antigone. In this play Antigone and her sister are ordered by their uncle that they can not give their brother a proper burial because he disrespected their community. Antigone was appalled by those ordered because according to the Gods everyone should get a proper burial. She took matters into her own hands and planned to bury him on her own. She asked her sister if she would like to help and her sister refused to go against the orders of their uncle because she feared what the community would think of her. (Sophocles, Antigone)In the beginning greek religion no one would dare to go against the Gods demands because they feared getting punished for the rest of their lives, in the underworld. This shows how Greek culture changed in time. Nowadays, greeks look up to their gods to put a reason on why things in nature happen. As provided from Ancient Greek Religion; “It will be noticed that this religion makes it easier to understand why the world is as it is than does…” (Ancient Greek Religion, 406). This differs from ancient greek values because greeks do not fear the Gods they just have them to pray to for aspects such as weather, agriculture and love.
Throughout time the views on the Gods changed, just like any other religion, ideas were added, things were more enforced and ideas were also dropped. Modern day Greek religion is a lot different than ancient greek religion in which they have different views on where they go after they have lived their lives on earth. Through texts one can see the https://www.grammarly.com/?q=writing&utm_source=placement&utm_medium=cpc&utm_content=46860B.png&utm_term=paperraterdifferences in views and the changes in greek religion.