That the whole picture of the house of Hades and of the condition of the departed therein was not an Homeric invention is, I suppose, indisputable. Its two main features are the gloom of the place and the lack of distinction between the lots of those who dwell there[1]. Of these the first at any rate is frequent enough in later literature, and indeed held so firm a place in the Greek mind that 'to see the light' became synonymous with 'to live in this upper world'; and even down to the present day both ideas live on. The constant epithets which Homer applies to the house of Hades, 'cold' ([Greek: kryeros]) and 'mouldering' ([Greek: eurôeis]), are exactly reproduced in the epithets with which Hades, now a place instead of a person, is described in modern dirges—[Greek: kryopagômenos], 'frozen,' and [Greek: arachniasmenos], 'thick with spiders' webs'[2]; and the same uniform misery of all the departed is likewise a common theme in the many songs that deal with Charon and the lower world. All this could not have been effected by the influence of Homer alone, great though it was, if he had himself invented the whole conception. It is clear that he utilised a conception which was before his time, and still is, a popular conception.
But there is equally good evidence of a totally different presentation of the future state. A fragment of one of Pindar's dirges contradicts the Homeric description of the lower world in every point. 'Upon the righteous the glorious sun sheddeth light below while night is here, and amid meadows red with roses lieth the space before their city's gate, all hazy with frankincense and laden with golden fruits; and some take their joy in horses and feats of prowess, and others at the draught-board, and others in the music of lutes, and among them every fair flower of happiness doth blossom; and o'er that lovely land spreadeth the savour of all manner of spices that be mingled with far-gleaming fire on the gods' altars[3].' So then this under-world is not cold and murky, but is warmed and lighted by the sun; its inhabitants are not frail spirits incapable of joy, but take their pleasure as aforetime
- ↑ The few inconsistencies in the Odyssey, such as the physical punishment of Tityos, Tantalos, and Sisyphos (Od. XI. 576 ff.), or again the mention of the 'asphodel mead' (Od. XI. 539, XXIV. 13), are unimportant. They are, I think, adventitious Pelasgian elements in the Homeric scheme of the future life, and it may be noted that the Iliad is singularly free from them, while in Odyssey, Bk XI., where they chiefly occur, they are obviously incongruous with the general conception of the lower world.
- ↑ See above, p. 99.
- ↑ Pindar, Fr. 129 (95).
